Mystery “Chester Imp” uncovered in Chester Cathedral

Mystery “Chester Imp” uncovered in Chester Cathedral

State-of-the-art drone cameras have been given exclusive access to film parts of Chester Cathedral not seen up-close for Centuries…and they’ve uncovered something of a surprise!

The film crew – commissioned by archaeology experts Big Heritage as part of Chester Unlocked in partnership with CH1ChesterBID – were given one-off access to pilot drone cameras inside the city’s 1,000-year-old Cathedral.

However, it wasn’t until the Big Heritage team reviewed the reams of camera footage that they noticed a mysterious demonic carving, bound in chains, close to a window in the Cathedral nave. Historians are now labelling the mystery carving as “The Chester Imp”!

Dean Paton, Managing Director of Big access to pilot drone cameras inside the city’s 1,000-year-old Cathedral. Heritage, said: “Chester Unlocked is a fantastic new project that we’re delivering in partnership with CH1ChesterBID, which is all about revealing Chester’s hidden history to the world. However, when we commissioned this drone filming and spotted The Chester Imp even we were taken aback! The drone cameras were able to get up close to parts of our beautiful 1,000-year-old Cathedral that haven’t been seen since it was built, and that’s incredibly exciting not only for us and the team at the Cathedral, but, we hope, to the whole of the city.”

According to legend, when overseeing the construction of the nave, a medieval priest was startled to see Satan himself staring at him through one of the windows. The next morning, a stonemason was sent up to carve an image of the devil in chains in an attempt to frighten him from ever returning – this carving, spotted by the drone cameras, is now being dubbed “The Chester Imp”.

Bizarrely, close-up footage of The Chester Imp taken by drone cameras outside of the Cathedral was mysteriously corrupted when the team came to download it. “The mystery continues it seems!” added Dean.

As well as Chester Cathedral, the drone cameras also took to the city skies and captured a range of other unique footage, which will be unveiled by the Chester Unlocked team throughout the year.

“We have some fantastic aerial images of the city that will really wow people!” said Dean. “They will give people a unique perspective on everything that makes our city so special and that’s what Chester Unlocked is all about – opening up our city’s hidden gems, celebrating its rich history and encouraging more people to make the most of everything it has to offer.”

Find out more about Chester Unlocked and look at the video footage of the drone