Winchester

Cathedral city and administrative headquarters of Hampshire, England, on the River Itchen, 19 km/12 mi northeast of Southampton; population (2001) 41,400. Tourism is important, and there is also light industry. Originally a Roman town, Winchester was capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and later of England. Winchester Cathedral (1079-93) is the longest medieval church in Europe and was remodelled from Norman-Romanesque to Perpendicular Gothic under the patronage of William of Wykeham (founder of Winchester College in 1382), who is buried there, as are Saxon kings, St Swithun, and the writers Izaac Walton and Jane Austen.

Winchester was a tribal centre of the Britons under the name Caer Gwent. On St Catherine's Hill can be seen the rampart and ditch made for defence by an Iron Age settlement in the 3rd century BC. Winchester was later one of the largest Roman settlements in Britain; as Venta Belgarum the town become capital of Wessex in 519, and under Alfred the Great and Canute it was the seat of government. In 827 Egbert was crowned first king of all England here. Under William the Conqueror, Winchester was declared dual capital of England with London. A medieval ‘reconstruction’ of Arthur's Round Table is preserved in the 13th-century hall (all that survives) of the castle.

Roman Winchester During the Roman occupation of Britain, Winchester, called Venta Belgarum, was a route-centre and the commercial and administrative capital of a district. Many Roman finds from the city are in the city museum, and remains of Roman buildings were discovered during excavations from 1953 to 1963. The forum was found north of the cathedral in 1961 and 1963.

The cathedral The Saxon kings of Wessex are said to have been crowned in the old cathedral, which has now been fully excavated. Among kings of England crowned or recrowned at Winchester were William the Conqueror, and Richard I after his return from captivity. Here also Queen Mary was married to Philip of Spain. Not far from the cathedral lie the 12th-century ruins of the episcopal castle of Wolvesey, and adjoining them is the present official residence of the bishop, a building of the late-17th century. During the Saxon period the Winchester illuminators became famous. The most notable work produced was the Benedictional of St Aethelwold (created probably 975-80), formerly at Chatsworth and since 1957 in the British Museum. Another outstanding book is the 12th-century Winchester Bible, still in the cathedral library.

Places of historical interest North of the city was Hyde Abbey, in which King Alfred was buried. Of Winchester Castle, the only part remaining above ground is the hall, the finest 13th-century hall in England, in which is the famous King Arthur's Round Table, made in the Middle Ages. The Westgate, one of the two remaining gates of the city, is now a museum, in which there is the finest civic collection of old weights and measures in England; the other gate is the Kingsgate, surmounted by St Swithun's church. St Cross Hospital was founded in 1136 by Bishop Henry de Blois; Cardinal Beaufort endowed it in 1446 for the Brethren of Noble Poverty. The church of the Hospital is a fine example of transitional Norman work. Winchester College was founded by William of Wykeham in 1394, and St Swithun's School for girls in 1884. The most interesting parish church in Winchester is St John's, which contains medieval woodwork (screens and pulpit). The old city mill, which for hundreds of years has spanned the Itchen above the City Bridge, has been preserved by the National Trust.