HIGHLIGHTS OF A WALL WALK

A DAY AT THE GEE- GEES

The walls skirt the edge of Chester’s riverside racecourse, the Roodee (a corruption of ‘Rood Eye’, meaning Island of the Cross). It’s the oldest racecourse still in use in England. But before it was a racecourse, it was a field that played host to a notoriously bloody and violent game of football, the Goteddsday Match. The event was banned in 1533, to be replaced by horseracing in 1539, with the support of the city’s mayor Henry Gee – originator of the nickname ‘gee-gees’ for horses. Betting off the racecourse was outlawed, so bookies would stand beneath the walls (but within the racecourse arena), and take bets lowered in nets by punters on the walls above them.