In September 1645, King Charles I watched his army fight at nearby Rowton Heath from Chester Cathedral’s tower. It was an excellent vantage point until a Roundhead sniper fired, missing the king and killing the captain beside him. Charles lost the battle anyway.

The building began in the 11th century as a Benedictine abbey, becoming a cathedral only after Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. It still holds St Werburgh’s remains, while a memorial and window recall HMS Chester and Jack Cornwell, the 16-year-old gunner awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross at Jutland.

VoiceMap’s self-guided audio tours approach the cathedral from two angles. One follows the city walls past the ghost of that unlucky captain to a Georgian house on Abbey Square that, its owners say, still smells of the monks’ bread and beer. Another draws the cathedral into a First World War murder mystery.