| Administrative History | The Barber Surgeons Company, which combined the crafts of medicine, hair trimming and candle making, is one of the twenty three Chester City companies which still exist. The Company is known to have been in existence by 1475 (see Mayor's book, 1475-89, Ref. MB/6 f.30) and the text of charters granted to it by Chester Corporation in 1540 and 1550, are copied into the Company books.
Company meetings were held at the Phoenix Tower, also known as the Golden Phoenix; and in numerous local inns, including the Feathers Inn, the Black Dog, the Phoenix Tavern, and the Union Arms in Bridge Street, the Golden Lion in Foregate Street, the Commercial Tavern in St Peter's Churchyard, the Kings Arms in Eastgate Street, and the Bull and Stirrup in Upper Northgate Street.
For an account of the Barber Surgeons Company, with extensive extracts from the records, see F Simpson, `The City Gilds or Companies of Chester, with special reference to that of the Barber Surgeons', Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, vol. 18, 1911, pp. 98-203. |