Like many other historic cities in the UK, Chester is renowned for its tour guides. Tourists can frequently be seen wandering past its historic rows whilst listening to stories from a tour guide about its architecture, history and food, for instance. Groups can vary from family ones and friends to corporate and even hen do's. Sometimes the guides will be seen adorning visibly smart attire with perhaps a lanyard or badge. Other guides stand out because they may be dressed as a roman soldier, giving orders to a class of schoolchildren and their teachers in the street. Either way, it makes for a very memorable experience for most visitors to Chester...there's just one problem. 

"Not every visitor has all day and night to explore this beautiful historic city. It's easy for the public to be distracted by the plethora of shops, not to mention specific events that they may be wishing to see on a particular time and date", reveals Live History founder, Tom. 

Coach parties, in particular, tend to follow pre-planned itineraries that are great at packing out day trips however often do not allow their customers the same freedom to wander the city at their own pace. "Some people do not want to meet a particular person at a particular time and place so it's great that this city also has other options."

Audio tours provide a great alternative to traditional tours. Voice Map is one such group that has utilised modern technologies, such as phones, to allow their self-guided tours to use GPS-tracking to trigger prompts at the right locations. This means that people can do tours at their own pace, whenever they want to. Having this freedom allows customers to stop and start when they need to, not having to stick to schedules if they wish to go off for lunch or to continue the tour on another day. Founded in South Africa in 2014, the company now has tours covering over five hundred destinations. 

What's this got to do with Chester? Since 2021, Chester has had its own Voice Map tours, which can be downloaded through the company's official app. These include 'Haunted Chester: A Spooky Stroll Around The Roman-Walled City' by David Atkinson as well as 'A Chester Adventure: The Blessington Dolls Storybook Trail' by the Evelyn Winters Adventure. 

This year, Live History will be introducing its third and final self-guided audio tour to Chester. 

"We first tried our hand at developing one of these tours for Lancaster, back in the autumn of 2023," reveals Tom. "In line with our immersive history mantra, we've tried since then to expand our range of self-guided audio tours that people can do in addition to our face-to-face costumed tours." 

As of January 2025, Chester now has its own Chester War Tour, an immersive exploration of Chester in the year 1914. Styled as a fictional murder mystery, the format allows for customers to view local history as a living thing, by making real historical characters suspects. Live History worked with the Cheshire Image Hub in order to source real, historic photographs to reinforce the historical setting. "It should appeal to those who like murder mysteries but also to people that are fascinated with local history, particularly modern history", says Tom. 

The group also introduced its first children's tour in 2024, pitching at a very different audience. The 'Chester Children's Tour: Romans to Knights' explores the city's ancient past by incorporating atmospheric sounds and music but now the group has revealed that its sequel will be released at some point this year. 

"We've only just finished writing the script so it could take a few months", says Tom. "As with its predecessor, listeners will be time travelling as they are joined by real historical guides (voiced by local actors) in real historical situations, with a few twists and turns along the way. The 'Chester Children's Tour: Leeches to Fashionistas' will begin on Watergate Street with John le Leech (fourteenth century physician to King Edward III) and ends on Northgate Street with Coco Chanel in the 1920s. We hope that people enjoy this and it gives children something different to do over the weekends." 

There is also an upcoming competition in which one lucky winner will have the opportunity to voice a character within the new tour. Any young people between the ages of seven and fifteen can enter, with the permission of a parent/guardian. All they have to is to like and share this post before sending a message to one of Live History's social media channels (Facebook, Instagram or TikTok), telling them who they would like to meet from the past and why if they had a time travel machine. Third place will win a copy of 'Chester Children's Tour II: Leeches to Fashionistas'; second place, will win this and its predecessor 'Chester Children's Tour: Romans to Knights'; first place will win both of these as well as the 'Chester War Tour', in addition to getting their voice on the new audio tour, as a historical character. To be in with a chance to win, follow the Live History Virtual Tours page on Facebook and consult the company's website: www.livehistory.co.uk.