The city where the dream of a united England was forged, Winchester has been a site of historic significance since the Iron Age
Tucked in the basin of the Itchen Valley at the western end of Hampshire’s South Downs sits an ancient city which was once the most important in England. For 2,000 years Winchester has stood between high chalk ridges to the east and low rolling downs to the west. In spring, its flint and limestone buildings are encircled by hillsides of fresh grass and bluebell-carpeted ancient woodland. Between the streets, the River Itchen gives life to damselflies and wildflowers while gardens are coloured with daffodils and cherry blossom.
Winchester first saw life as a Roman town, Venta Belgarum. This was established in AD70 on the site of an Iron Age settlement chosen because it was a good place to cross the River Itchen. Abandoned by the Romans when they left Britain in the 5th century, it went on to become the capital of the kings of Wessex. Named from Wintan-ceastre, the Old English for Fort Venta, it was the most significant settlement in England at this time.
Over the centuries, it has retained an intimate atmosphere. From the top of the sole remaining gate of the outer city walls at Westgate, it is possible to look down the length of the High Street to the eastern edge of the city. This is only 1,000yd (900m) away.
The Roman origins of the High Street are now long buried, but the River Itchen still runs the course set by the Romans. An idiosyncratic collection of buildings and monuments line the street, an architectural jumble of flint, stone and red brick. Each represents a slice of time out of Winchester’s long history.
Staring back from that eastern end is the statue of Winchester’s most famous son, Alfred the Great. “King Alfred made Winchester a part of England’s national story,” says Robin Iles, the venues and learning manager for Winchester’s Westgate and City Museums. From 871 to 899, Alfred ruled the kingdom of Wessex. This extended across present day Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset, later covering the whole south of the country. His defeat of the Vikings at the battle of Edington in Wiltshire in 878 helped pave the way for the unification of England.
“To consolidate his position in the south of the country, Alfred built a series of well-defended settlements called burhs. Winchester was the largest of these,” says Robin. “There is little left standing from those days. Only the outline of his church, the Old Minster, is visible. However, the streets you walk around today are still largely on the layout he planned. The names for these streets, such as Gold Street, Fleshmonger Street and Tanner Street, are clues to the crafts and trades of those who settled here during that time. Winchester was the principal royal city of Wessex and later of the whole of Anglo-Saxon England.”
The Great Hall
In the Middle Ages, one building would have towered over Winchester, from its site on the hill next to Westgate. This was the castle built by William the Conqueror in 1067, the year after he defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings.
“The City of Winchester submitted peacefully to William’s rule in 1066. This was important because the Royal Treasury was based here,” says Robin. “He wanted the castle built at the top of the slope where everyone could see it.”
The majority of the castle was destroyed by the Parliamentarians in 1649 during the English Civil War. Only the Great Hall was left standing and was then used for assemblies and the County Assizes. Measuring 111ft (33.8m) long and 54ft (16.5m) wide, it is the largest surviving medieval hall in Britain. It was originally built by Henry III between 1222 and 1235 in the Gothic style, with tall Purbeck marble columns and pointed arches. The plate tracery windows were carved from a single slab of stone.
The stone and flint walls were once decorated with coats of arms, a map of the world and a wheel of fortune. The latter was an allegorical illustration about the fragility of power, often depicting the monarch and a personification of Fortune turning the wheel of chance. During restoration work in 1874, Sir Melville Portal, the Chairman of Magistrates, decorated the east wall with the names of all local Parliamentary representatives since Edward I. These still adorn the walls today. In the 1980s, decorative wrought iron
gates were installed to commemorate the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
The knights’ table
The centrepiece of the hall is a Round Table which hangs on the west wall. Weighing 1.2 tonnes with a diameter of 18ft (5.5m), it is made from 121 separate pieces of English oak. It was claimed to be the original table at which King Arthur and his knights sat. However, carbon dating in 1976 showed the wood was from the late 13th or early 14th centuries.
“It was probably made around 1290 to celebrate the betrothal of Edward I’s daughter,” says Robin. “Arthur was perceived as a man of romance and legend, the ideal king. Edward may have re-enacted the meeting of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table to show he was a man of chivalry.”
Another king who used the legend of Arthur to promote himself was Henry VIII. “In the early years of his reign, he entertained the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, in the Great Hall. It is thought Henry had himself painted onto the Round Table in the place of King Arthur, with a Tudor rose at the table’s centre. He was making a claim that he was descended from the legendary king.” A painted image of Arthur, bearing a likeness to the young Henry VIII, can still be seen clearly on the table today.
A historic street
A short walk up the High Street from the Great Hall passes a brick and half-timber building, named God Begot House. This dates back to the 11th century, when the original building formed part of the Manor of Goudbeyete from which it gets its name. The present building dates mainly from the mid 16th century, and it is now used as a restaurant.
Immediately opposite is the old Guildhall and Town Clock, both erected in 1713. Built of stone and red brick in the Georgian baroque style, the building is of modest proportions and is now occupied by a bank. The Guildhall itself relocated to a new and far bigger building towards the end of the 19th century. Inside the belfry of the old building hangs Winchester’s curfew bell, which is still rung at 8pm every evening. The curfew was introduced following a severe fire in 1141, which destroyed much of the city. It was
designed to remind people to cover their fires until the morning.
Halfway along the High Street stands
a 15th century market cross known as the Buttercross. Beneath it farmers would sell their produce to the townsfolk. There are 12 figures on the cross, one large one on each side and two smaller ones. These include St Peter, St Swithun and St Thomas. A scheduled ancient monument, the Buttercross was restored in 1865 by
Sir George Gilbert Scott.
The passageway next to the Buttercross leads through to The Square where the City Museum is located in a purpose-built building constructed in 1903. Here visitors can step inside a replica Victorian apothecary’s shop. There is also a display of intricate Anglo-Saxon art and jewellery dug up from Winchester’s streets during the 1960s and ’80s. “When King Alfred made Winchester his capital, the city became a centre of craft and trade,” says Robin. “The best jewellers and crafts people came here because they knew courtiers and bishops were wealthy enough to buy their goods.”
When the City Corporation outgrew the old Guildhall, the new Guildhall was built at the far eastern end of the High Street. Opened in 1873, it stands on the site of St Mary’s Abbey, demolished during the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Built of Bath stone in a striking Middle Gothic style, the Victorian Guildhall stands taller than the surrounding buildings. It remains an imposing sight in Winchester’s city centre.
It is, however, the 11th century cathedral that is the city’s real jewel. Sitting in Cathedral Close behind the museum, it does not actually stand out in the town. “When you get into the Close, it is there waiting for you,” says Jo Bartholomew, the Cathedral’s curator and librarian.
The northern segment of the Close, known as Outer Close, lies between the cathedral and town. It is entered via
a grand avenue of lime trees off Great Minster Street, out of which the cathedral emerges at the far end. Constructed inPurbeck stone the colour of light sand, Winchester Cathedral does not have a spire. The unity of Norman, medieval and Gothic architecture, however, is a magnificent sight. “When it was first built in 1079, its nave was the longest in Europe,” says Jo. “It would have looked quite a spectacle at a time when most of the town was still living in humble huts.”
Outer Close is an intimate and tranquil green space, blooming with daffodils in the spring. The first place of worship to be built here is known as the Old Minster. The outline of its foundations is marked in red brick on the north side of the present cathedral. Dating back to the 7th century, it was the first Christian church in Winchester. A second building, the New Minster, soon joined it. This was built by King Alfred’s son, Edward the Elder, according to his father’s wishes. The bricks from both these early churches would eventually be used to build the present cathedral.
To reach the Inner Close on the south side of the cathedral, pedestrians would originally have walked through the cathedral. But in 1632, Bishop Curle built a walkway through a buttress on the south side of the building. Known as Curle’s Passage, the narrow archway forms a grand entrance to an enclosed courtyard, encircled with historic buildings.
Four Norman arches on the east side would have once formed part of St Swithun’s Priory’s chapter house. Today they stand alone as the building’s sole survivors from the 16th century Dissolution. Also on the east side is the 13th-century vaulted porch of the Deanery, whose old Prior’s Hall boasts
a 550-year-old timber roof.
Remembering a gardener
A more modern addition is the Dean Garnier Garden. Created in 1995, it
covers the length of the monks’ former dormitory. A surviving flint wall can still be seen on the north side. The eponymous Thomas Garnier was Dean of Winchester from 1840 to 1872. He is best remembered as a horticulturist who planted many of the mature trees surrounding the cathedral and had a rose garden here. Today, the garden is laid out in three rooms, which mirror the shape of the cathedral.
In the south-east corner of the Inner Close is the 14th century Pilgrim’s Hall, which has a magnificent hammer beam roof. This was erected in 1310 as a guesthouse for pilgrims to St Swithun’s Priory. It is now attached to The Pilgrim’s School, one of the UK’s biggest choir schools. The Hall is used for school assemblies, concerts and plays.
Home to Bishops
Pilgrims entered the Close by Priory Gate, which is coloured lilac and green with wisteria from April to June. This gate is attached to the magnificent Cheyney Court, a beautiful Elizabethan timber-framed house, with towering gables and leaded windows. Once the secular seat of power for the Bishop of Winchester, it dates from the 15th century and is now
a private residence.
Cheyney Court has survived the centuries, unlike the former residence of the Bishops of Winchester, Wolvesey Castle. This now lies in ruins outside the walls of the Inner Close. Built by the powerful Bishop Henry of Blois in the 12th century, it was little changed for over 500 years. Then in 1680, a new palace was built next to it, and the castle was abandoned. The new building itself fell into disuse in the late 18th century and was largely demolished in 1786. Its surviving west wing still serves as offices for the Bishop of Winchester. Its baroque architecture forms a marked contrast to the crumbling stone of its predecessor.
College Street runs along the south side of Cathedral Close. Opposite the ancient King’s Gate, P&G Wells Booksellers have been trading from the same premises for 250 years. “The buildings of Winchester all look old and venerable, but inside they are full of life,” says the shop’s owner and director, Crispin Drummond. “There is no sense of complacency here, we don’t just sit around and talk about the good old days.”
P&G Wells works closely with Winchester College whose old flint walls line the south side of the street. The students often call by the shop on their way to town at lunchtime. “We lie between the boys’ classrooms and their lunch,” says Crispin. Founded in 1382 by Bishop William of Wykeham, the College is thought to be the oldest continuously running public school in the country.
Spring brings great beauty. “College Street is unmissable in April. When the magnolia flowers, this is one of the loveliest streets in England,” says Crispin.
His words echo those of the poet John Keats, who stayed in Winchester for seven weeks in 1819. He regularly walked down College Street to the River Itchen and the ancient almshouse of the Hospital of St Cross. “It is the Pleasantest town I ever was in,” he wrote to his sister. It remains a beautiful walk today.
Centuries of charity
The Hospital of St Cross is believed
to have been founded between 1132
and 1136 by Bishop Henry of Blois. He was so moved by the plight of a young, impoverished girl he encountered by
the river that he decided to found a community to help the poor. Today
St Cross is one of England’s oldest charitable institutions.
“We’re the only place in the country that still gives out bread and water to those who ask for it,” says Catherine Secker, the on-site porter. She runs the Porter’s Lodge Shop and looks after the security of the almshouse. The original objective of the institution was to support 13 poor men and feed a further 100 every day. The
13 men became known as the Brothers
of St Cross. Wearing black robes they were known as the Black Brothers. In 1445 they were joined by red-robed members of the Order of Nobel Poverty, the Red Brothers. The Hospital still houses and supports 25 Brothers to this day.
“Our oldest building is the church,” says Catriona Morley, the Hospital’s Clerk to the Trustees. “Building on it started in the early 1100s. It is a Norman church which resembles a small cathedral.”
The church forms one corner of a quadrangle, the rest of which is completed by the almshouses themselves. “They were built around 1450,” she says. “Inside, there is a central wooden staircase leading to a flat on either side. Some of them have very old features, such as ancient beams and fireplaces, but they have been modernised.
“The toilets are still located at the back of the flats, but now with modern plumbing. They are positioned over a water channel which at one time ran straight to a fish pool. The fish were at least moved to another pond before they were served
up for supper!”
The grounds of St Cross are open to visitors throughout the year. “It’s a beautiful place, untouched by time,” says Catriona. “The Master’s Garden has herbaceous borders, several mature trees and a pond with fountains. In spring, there’s a wonderful display of snowdrops, daffodils, flowering cherries, cyclamen and winter aconites. We even see kingfishers dive into the pond in the early morning.”
The River Itchen
Keats wrote that in Winchester, “there are the most beautiful streams about I ever saw – full of Trout”. It is fitting then that the father of angling, Sir Izaak Walton, spent his late years in Winchester. His book The Compleat Angler (1653) is the most frequently reprinted publication in English after the Bible. Walton lived by the banks of the River Itchen for over
20 years. Above his grave in Winchester Cathedral is a stained glass window depicting him reading by the river with
his fishing rod by his side.
Upstream from the Hospital is the oldest working watermill in the country. Known simply as the City Mill, it lies near the King Alfred statue close to where the old East Gate would have been. There is evidence that a mill was operating on the same site as far back as Saxon times. By 1086 the Domesday Book records it as one of the most profitable mills in the country. The mill seen today was rebuilt in the 18th century but timbers from the 14th and 15th centuries remain intact.
To travel the short distance from Winchester’s Westgate to the river is to take a journey through 2,000 years of history. The mix of silvery stone, flint, brick and timbers has built a city that is both rich in culture and heritage. In spring, the colours of the buildings are enhancedby the vibrancy of foliage and flowers bursting forth. It remains, as the poet Keats described it in 1819, “an exceeding pleasant Town, enriched with a beautiful Cathedrall [sic] and surrounded by a fresh-looking country.”
Words: Rachel Broomhead Photography: Jeremy Walker