Winchester Hampshire
Winchester was the capital of Wessex. It is of huge historical significance
and has as a cathedral one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in the country.
Here lies the grave of Jane Austen, who died nearby in 1817 and it was here that,
in the Middle Ages, royal court functions were held. It holds the
tombs of the bishops and the bones of Saxon kings and bishops. Winchester Cathedral
is built on the site of an older Saxon church,
which itself was an important early Christian centre in Britain. Cynegils, a west Saxon king, was
baptised here in 635, and King Alfred was buried on the site in 899.
In the old chapel of Winchester Castle, now the County Hall, is Arthur's Round Table.
It hangs on the wall at the Eastern end of the Hall and is
described as consisting of stout oaken planks, measuring eighteen feet in diameter: in several places
it is perforated by bullets, Cromwell's men probably finding it useful as a target.
Winchester & Me
I was born in Winchester. When I look at the tourist photographs on the Internet they bring back memories
of walking through the streets and sitting outside the Cathedral to have my lunch (there was no charge back then to go in but we all preferred to be on the lawns outside).
I went to school at St Swithuns (when I was 4), Weeke Primary and later at the girls'
County High Grammar School. I hated all three schools but that is no reflection on them - I just hated school, authority and the sense
of being in an institution.
I didn't spend long at any of them because
my parents dragged us abroad for 6 years of my childhood and we also
lived in Cheltenham for a couple of years.
I haven't lived in Winchester since I left when I was 23 years old - quite a while ago! - but
something inside me is still intrinsically linked to the place.
Let's face it, Winchester is full of people who are somehow able to afford the cost of housing there,
which is completely over-priced, and the city has an associated snobbery that
is nauseating.
I used to walk past the old city gates without realising their significance and I frequently sat
on one of the old Sarsen stones, on the Corner of St. Cross Road and Canon Street after visiting my grandmother,
without giving it a passing thought... apart from perhaps 'what a convenient lump of rock'.
Having spent years loving the novels of Jane Austen, the historic significance of Hampshire and the mythical tales
of Merlin and Arthur it is strange that I have only recently begun to regret not taking
notice of my surroundings when I was a teenager in Winchester. Perhaps there are many teenage
girls there now, far too entangled with their own day to day lives (mine was mainly escaping to Southampton
for the night life) to notice that when they walk past Winchester College and the Cathedral
they are surrounded by a history that many will travel all the way from the USA just to glimpse.
I read the other day a 'blog' of an Austen fanatic who paid to fly to England and visit Winchester.
I didn't read it all because she kept praising the lord and her fascination with Jane Austen touched
on the weird - but even so, it struck me that I could one day go back and look with new eyes at
everything Winchester has to offer .. and I probably will. It is all so familiar and yet I need to see it again.
At least I still live in Hampshire which means that it will be so much easier for me than it is for the
Americans who want so much to drench themselves in ancient history.
The Capital of Wessex
The Romans founded Winchester as Venta Belgarum, and it became their fifth largest city in Britain.
It was the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Wessex from 590 and in 827 King Alfred the Great kept Winchester as the capital
of the newly unified England, which it remained until after the Norman conquest,
two and a half centuries later.
William the Conqueror was crowned both in London and in Winchester and it was the monks of Winchester
that William I commissioned in 1086 to write his Domesday Book, a survey listing the owners of all
lands and properties in England.
Winchester was ravaged by fire in 1141 and it then fell behind London in importance.
|
Solent Sites Hampshire Business Directory & Hampshire Information
