Running rabiohead Wolvesey castle: Wolvesey has been an important residence of the wealthy and powerful bishops of Winchester since Anglo-Saxon times. Standing close to Winchester Cathedral, the extensive surviving ruins of the palace date largely from the 12th century work of Bishop Henry of Blois. The last great occasion here was on 25 July 1554, when Queen Mary and Philip of Spain held their wedding breakfast in the East Hall. See the Royal Blood leaflet to find out more.
another reminder of Bishop Henry’s legacy. The Hospital of St Cross
London – to follow the story of the city from prehistoric and Roman
(see bottom right) is a medieval almshouse that has provided sheltered
times to the present day (see page 17). Alternatively, book yourself on
accommodation for elderly gentlemen since its foundation in 1136.
a tour with a qualified tourist guide (see page 11 for more details). You
Request the Wayfarer’s Dole – a morsel of bread and beaker of ale – at
can also check out the range of historical guides stocked by the tourist
the Porter’s Lodge and you will be taking part in a 900-year-old tradition.
information centre, or take a look at the history and heritage pages of
Souvenir bottled ale is now available!
visitwinchester.co.uk. 6
Winchester College
Founded in 1382, Winchester College longest unbroken has the history of any English school. Whilst WWI claimed the lives of over Wykehamists, 500 old a further 275 died in World War II. Officially opened in 1924, the War was designed Cloister by Sir Herbert Baker to commemorate those who Notable Old Wykehamists had lost their lives. with a military who were all awarded career the Victoria Cross include Dennis George Wyldbore Hewitt (18971917); Charles Daniel Burges Doughty-Wylie (1873-1946); (1868-1915); Arthur Forbes Chief Marshal Gordon Kilby (1885-1915); Hugh Dowding (1882-1970). and Air Please see www.winches tercollege.org guided tours around /guided-tours for details of regular the College, and for tours of War Cloister.
Did you know?
Winchester city centre is spectacularly transformed by Homecoming Parades that assemble at The Guildhall for a reception by the Mayor of Winchester.
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Winchester Castle
Colour key 1 - 8
Iron and Bronze Age, Roman Middle Ages, Tudors & Civil War
in date order
Boer War 8 horse trough
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Erected in 1905, located near the junction of Jewry Street and St George’s Street in Winchester, this landmark commemorate s the 450,000 horses killed in the South African War of 1899-1902.
W inchester’s M ilitary M useums
Winchester Cathedral
HorsePower (Museum of The Royal Hampshire The King’s Royal Hussars) Regiment Museum The Royal Green Jackets The Gurkha Museum (Rifles) Museum The Adjutant General’s Corps
Museum FOR SO MUCH TO ALL THE FAMILY SEE –
TOO GOOD TO Visitors’ Centre and refreshments at the Café Peninsula. For more information: (01962) 877 826 Email: info@winchester’smilit / 843 659 arymuseums.co.uk ilitarymuseums.c o.uk
Modern History
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The Westgate
Information Centre
Guildhall Winchester, High Street, Winchester, SO23 9GH Tel: 01962 840 500 Email: tourism@winche Web: www.visitwinche ster.gov.uk ster.co.uk OPEN Monday to Saturday 10am Closed between to 5pm Christmas and New Year Follow King Alf on Twitter: www.twitter.c Like King Alf on Facebook: www.faceboo om/King_Alf k.com/KingAlf Winchester
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Just months after 1066 Winchester’s surrender, and William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a castle within the city walls. Winchester Castle became one of the great fortresses of medieval England. It was maintained and enhanced until 1645 when it was besieged, captured by Cromwell, and eventually demolished. The Great Hall, built between 1222 and 1235, is the only substantial
surviving part of the medieval castle. A drawing of Winchester made by Willem Schellinks in 1662 shows the slighted castle as a still imposing ruin overlooking the city. On-site interpretation panels and displays tell the story of the castle.
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If you see an there is something to see on the site today. If there is no there is limited access or no visible remains so a visit is inadvisable.
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MILITARY
Winchester’s Roman walls
Trace Winchest er's military past from the Iron Age to the Nuclear Age
7a Peninsula Barracks
www.winchesterm
Vikings and Anglo Saxons
Did you know?
Hampshire Record Office offers help to people looking to trace their ancestry via army records. Go to www3.hants .gov.uk/ archives/hals -collections/a rmyrecords.htm to find out more.
MISS
‘The King’s House’
Winchester Cathedral enshrines a long history of military service and sacrifice. It contains major memorials (including the Rifle Brigade Centenary Window), monuments to illustrious military leaders, and many inscriptions recording the deaths of individual soldiers in both famous and lesserknown campaigns. It houses the laid up colours of several local regiments, and also Books of Remembrance for units The Royal Hampshire including Regiment, The Rifle Brigade and the Merchant Navy. The cathedral itself is no stranger to conflict – the West Window testifies to a violent incursion by Parliamentary troops during the Civil War and Bishop Peter Mews, a Royalist spy identified by the number 757, was Winchester’s equivalent of James Bond. Special military-themed tours can be booked through the website. www.winchest er-cathedral.or g.uk
Now a museum, the Westgate was built to be one of the defensible gateways in Winchester’s city walls, first established by the Romans in the first century AD. The line of the walls remained unaltered throughout later times and, though the Westgate’s present structure is medieval and dates mainly from the 12th to 14th centuries, it is thought to stand on the site of the earlier Roman gate. The west wall was entirely rebuilt in the 14th century when a whole series of defences was added new in view of a possible invasion from France. The works included a portcullis, machicolations , gun ports and possibly a drawbridge. The two inverted keyhole gunports, intended for primitive hand cannons, are amongst the earliest pieces of architectural evidence for the use of artillery in this country. The Westgate is open weekends in the afternoon between February and October.
Did you know?
15 Victoria Cross medals are currently on display in Winchester Military Museums. Further medals of Wintonians who have been awarded this honour are also on display in the Imperial War Museum.
Venta Belgarum was founded around AD70 with earth and timber defences. In the late 2nd century the defences were rebuilt with a new earthen bank and ditch that, for the first time, fully enclosed the urban area. The ramparts were strengthened in the early 3rd century with a masonry wall about 3m thick. The succession of defences can be seen in the model in the City Museum . The same line of the walls continued
The city offered the site of the castle to Charles II who paid his first known visit in 1682. A scheme was to be developed for a park and a ‘noble followed Palace, sufficient like Windsor, for up to the a summer residence for the whole 18th Court’. Construction of the palace, century Designed by Sir Christopher Wren when and influenced by Versailles, began great in 1683 but ended on the death of lengths of Charles in 1685. ‘The King’s House’, the walls little more than a carcass of a house, were served as a prison for 5,000 French demolished. The soldiers during short lengths the Seven Years’ survive War from 1757 to are mainly post-Roman that 1764 and from 1778 though the fragment to 1785 during behind the grill the American War of in the weirs is Independence. part of the core From 1792 to of the 1796 it Roman wall. was home to refugee clergy from Revolutionary France before 7b Peninsula becoming an army Located directly barrack in same Barracks in WWII opposite Normandy, year. The King’s Hampshire was House was the springboard eventually destroyed for ‘Operation Overlord’, by the code name night of 19th December fire on the for the Allied Invasion 1894. Some of Europe in parts of Wren’s World War II. The county palace were reused became a vast in the replacement armed camp full building which of allied troops was ready for encamped in towns, the army by 1904 villages and and later renamed woods. Winchester’s Peninsula Barracks, newly-built bysee 7b The army camp for British pass became remained in and American troops. Even Peninsula a giant tank park and occupation up taken over by to 1983. the Ninth US Infantry Barracks in the city was Division see 12 on their stay. It overleaf for more was here that American troops information Eisenhower. (See were reviewed 13 and 14 overleaf by Churchill and for more details)
You can also view an accompanying film on youtube.com/VisitWinchester. www.vi sitwinc
regimental history outside London, in the form of five military museums
Palace)
An important residence of the wealthy and powerful Bishops of Winchester since Anglo-Saxon times, the surviving ruins date largely from the 12th century work of Bishop Henry of Blois (1129–71). In September 1141, during the Civil War between King Stephen Matilda, the besieged and the Empress defenders of Wolvesey set fire to and destroyed most of Winchester whilst holding off Matilda’s force.
Pick up a free copy of the Military Trail, or download it from www.visitwinchester.co.uk Winchester Tourist
Barracks are now home to one of the most sizeable collections of
(Old Bishop’s
“O Trinity of love and power!; Our brethren shield danger's hour; in From rock Protect them wheresoe'e and tempest, fire and foe, r they go;” Words from ‘The
Navy Hymn’ written
as a poem in 1860 by William Whiting of Winchester
Winchester has a rich and varied Iron Age forts, military history. to Civil War sites, From to the completion through two World a Nuclear bunker Wars district’s military sited at Twyford stories span centuries - the of history. If you are interested in finding out military history more about the of Winchester, ancient and modern, follow these two informative trails then and one taking you further afield. – one based in the city
Museums
Back in the city centre, the elegant red-brick buildings of Peninsula
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Winchester
One of King Alfred’s defensive ‘burhs’, Winchester was established as refuge and strong point to resist the Danish invaders. A raiding army destroyed the had settlement in 860AD but the old Roman town walls were refurbished and a new street system was laid out inside the walls. These intramural streets (such as North Walls) were laid the intention of with rushing troops to threatened the walls. The parts of town’s walls were largely dismantled by the end of the th 18 century.
© Imperial War
Military Might
City centre guide to Winchester’s military past
Vibrant. Ancien
t. Cultured.
(see page 19). Call in to the Little Kitchen café for an introduction to the site, the one-time location of Winchester Castle and Charles II’s extravagant palace. This construction, designed by Wren, was to be a copy of Versailles – its grand façade facing the west front of the cathedral. The king died before its completion. Budding military historians shouldn’t miss the Royal Armouries at Fort Nelson, Fareham (see page 67), for a state-of-the-art array of cannon artillery, stories of people and daily firings of the big guns at 1pm. You can even experience a gun-firing personally by arranging a gift voucher! Close by (and viewable only by pre-arrangement) is Southwick Park, General Eisenhower’s operational headquarters during the Second World War – it still houses the preserved D-Day map. Also on site are the Royal Military Police and the Royal Navy Regulators museums. If your exploration of Winchester’s past leaves you hungry for more, why not drop into the awardwinning City Museum – the UK’s first purpose-built museum outside
THE HOSPITAL OF ST CROSS ‘The best kept secret in Winchester’
History and hospitality in a serene and picturesque setting by the water meadows. The Hospital of St Cross is a beautiful group of Grade 1 Listed buildings dating from 1132, and is home to 25 Brothers. Visitors can admire the medieval architecture, absorb the quiet calm in the fine transitional Norman church, explore the beautiful flower gardens and receive the Wayfarer’s Dole, which is a small cup of beer and a morsel of bread. The gift shop opens throughout the year, selling a selection of high quality goods from the Porter’s Lodge. Tea rooms in the medieval Hundred Men’s Hall provide refreshments during the summer. St Cross is an easy walk along the river, 20 minutes from the City centre. Opens: April to October 9.30am – 5pm Monday – Saturday and from 1pm Sunday. November to March 10.30am – 3.30pm Monday – Saturday. Charges: £4.50 adult; £4.00 senior/student; £2.50 child. Tel: 01962 851375 Fax: 01962 878221 Email: porter@hospitalofstcross.co.uk www.hospitalofstcross.co.uk
City Area Map D10
visitwinchester.co.uk
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