Chester Castle is an area around the castle

Chester Castle

Chester Castle is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It is sited at the southwest extremity of the area bounded by the city walls . The castle stands on an eminence overlooking the River Dee. In the castle complex are the remaining parts of the medieval castle together with the...

 in Chester

Chester

Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...

. It was historically an extra-parochial area

Extra-parochial area

In the United Kingdom, an extra-parochial area or extra-parochial place was an area considered to be outside any parish. They were therefore exempt from payment of any poor or church rate and usually tithe...

 and today remains a civil parish,
although with no inhabitants.

The parish is bounded by Castle Drive to the south, Grosvenor Street (the A483) to the west, and Castle Street and St Mary's Hill to the east. Apart from the castle/prison, the parish also includes the Crown Court

Crown Court

The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...

s, County Hall, and the Cheshire Military Museum. In April-May 1966, the infamous Moors murders

Moors murders

The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least...

 case was tried at Cheshire Crown Court.

It was part of the Chester Rural District

Chester Rural District

Chester was a rural district of Cheshire, England, from 1894 to 1974. It was based around the city and county borough of Chester but did not include it. The district saw various boundary changes throughout its life...

, despite being in the middle of the city, and did not form part of Chester County Borough. This meant that County Hall was actually in the administrative county

Administrative counties of England

Administrative counties were a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888 as the areas for which county councils were elected. Some large counties were divided into several administrative...

 of Cheshire which it administered. The Local Government Act 1972

Local Government Act 1972

The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....

 saw it become part of Chester District

Chester (district)

Chester was a non-metropolitan local government district of Cheshire, England, with the status of a city and a borough.Apart from Chester itself, which was the principal settlement, the district covered a large rural area...

, along with the rest of Chester Rural District. Since April 2009 County Hall has been the headquarters of the Cheshire West and Chester

Cheshire West and Chester

Cheshire West and Chester is a unitary authority area with borough status, in the ceremonial county of Cheshire. It was established in April 2009 as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England, by virtue of an order under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health...

 Council.

In 1891 it had a population of 249, which had declined to 8 by 1971.
According to the 2001 Census

United Kingdom Census 2001

A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....

it had no inhabitants at all.