Listed Building: PEMBERTONS PARLOUR (1376131)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066NW CITY WALLS 595-1/1/103 Pemberton's Parlour 28/07/55 (Formerly Listed as: City Walls & Towers incl. foundations of SE angle Roman Fortress wall & tower) GV I Also known as: Goblin Tower. Gazebo on site of former medieval drum tower taken down 1702-8 which was twice as high as the present structure, and again largely rebuilt 1894. Red sandstone coursed rockfaced and tooled rubble below wall walk level, ashlar above it. The north, outer, side has 3 cross-loops to the gazebo chamber and a corbelled feebly crenellated parapet; 2 stone water-chutes. The south side to the wall walk has a wider basket archway to the semicircular chamber, 3 chamfered embrasures to the cross-loops, a flat ceiling, stone corbels; cast-iron railing and double gates in archway. Above the archway the Royal arms west and Chester City arms east flank a yellow sandstone panel inscribed ..OF THE GLORIOUS.. WHERE LARGE BREACHES IN THESE WALLS WERE REBUILT AND OTHER DECAYS THEREIN WERE REPAIRED, TWO THOUSAND YARDS OF THE FACE WERE NEW FLAGGED OR PAVED, AND THE WHOLE IMPROVED REGULATED AND ADORNED AT THE EXPENSE OF ONE THOUSAND POUNDS AND UPWARD: THOMAS HAND ESQ MAYOR 1701; THE RIGHT HONBLE WILLIAM EARL OF DERBY MAYOR 1792; 1792 MICHAEL JOHNSON, 1703 MATTHEW ANDERSON; 1704 EDW. PARTINGTON; 1705 EDWARD PULESTON; 1706 PULEST PARTINGTON; 1707 HUMPHREY PAGE; 1708 JAMES MAINWARING, MAYORS: ROBERT COMBERBACH ESQ. RECORDER; WILLIAM WILSON ALDN; PETER BENNETT ALDN AND UPON THE DEATH OF THE SAID WILLIAM WILSON EDW. PARTINGTON JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, MURENGERS. Above the panel a moulded cornice has a crenellated parapet inscribed GOBLIN TOWER: REBUILT 1894 The south face of the wall has a shallow triangular projection, indicating the position of the inner side of the former drum tower which had a through walk, 2 storeys and a fighting platform. HISTORICAL NOTE: the gazebo is named after John Pemberton, mayor of Chester, who stood in it to supervise work at his adjacent rope-walk. (Collins J: Cheshire Sites and Monuments Record: RECORD NO.3007.2/4; Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-: 93-4; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Hubbard E: Cheshire: 1971-: 155). Listing NGR: SJ4015366590