Chester History: St. John the Baptist Church

St. John's Ruins.
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On the opposite end of town, next to the amphitheatre, is St. John’s Church. The exact origins of the church have been forever lost in time but there are two main speculations as to when it was built; one account reads that it was created in 689 AD and another source states it was built in 906 AD.

The coffin inlaid high into the wall of the church has two different stories on how it came to be; the first is that a Reverend Richardson brought the coffin from a boat in the canal in 1813. The second is that Benjamin Carter discovered the coffin whilst grave-digging. I’ve read a lot of different accounts about the coffin but the latter seems to be the most accepted. One website I visited that was quite astute and full of historical information stated that the author of the site personally chatted with John Carter, a descendent of Benjamin Carter, and that he had been digging a grave in an old part of the church yard when he happened on the coffin. The Rector (Richardson) told Benjamin to place the coffin up in the ruined wall so that it would be out of the way and there it is still today.

"Dust to Dust"
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On a disastorous note, in the late evening of April 14^th 1881, the three-storey high bell tower came crashing to the ground. Nobody was hurt or killed but the vicar had the scare of his lifetime. He described the sound as infantry galloping across an iron road. The tower was never reconstructed as it is a private church and there was not enough money ever to replace it.

There is a story surrounding the church that has sparked the imaginations of some who believe they know the identity of a ghost haunting the cobbled alley beside the church. In 1064 a man by the name of Harold Godwinson had his ship wrecked on the coast of Normandy. William I, the cousin to King Edward the Confessor, captured Harold and gave him a choice: either Harold could swear that Edward named William his successor and should be next in line for the throne, or die. King Edward passed away two years later but not before he named Harold as his successor, not William. As you can imagine, William was quite angry about this and used his army to attack Harold. The battle was very bloody and Harold lost. Now some historical sources say that Harold was killed in battle by an arrow shot through his eye, but the history books were written by those who won the battles and can’t always be completely accurate. The true ending of Harold lies with a monk who wrote about Harold’s life. The monk maintains that Harold was not killed by the arrow, merely blinded. Harold apparently escaped to Denmark where he lived for several years before returning to England. After traveling around the country seeking refuge, he finally settled in Chester. History upholds that Harold’s wife lived in Chester after Harold was defeated in battle so the town would have been a good choice for Harold to live out the rest of his days as a hermit in the hermitage near the church.

Harold's hermitage or, as it's commonly referred to as the Anchorite Cell.
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If Harold’s recovery after the terrible wounding seems incredible, the ghost story that surrounds the church is even more incredible. Local Chester folklore preserves that there is an Anglo-Saxon monk that haunts the grounds of St. John’s Church. In 1941 a Franciscan Friar and a man were walking the grounds of the church when a monk appeared before them. The two men turned in a different direction only to be again confronted by the mysterious monk who was talking to them in a strange language. Both men were interested in languages and so, after some research, they came to the conclusion that the monk was speaking Anglo-Saxon. Another famous encounter with the monk happened in December 1973 when a man was making his way home around midnight. He used the cobbled alley near the church when the monk appeared before him on the footpath. The monk tried speaking to the man but the man did not understand. The monk looked very distressed and held out his hands, as if pleading with the man. The man continued around the monk, but, having a second thought, turned around only to see that the monk had disappeared. The strange thing about this particular story is that the footpath is surrounded on both sides by very high walls—the likelihood of the monk escaping in a matter of seconds is impossible. These are only two stories generated by the ghost of the monk (and/or Harold as most believe) but many more have been told and many more will continue to be told so long as the monk never finds what he is searching for.