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Nowadays a tranquil, handsome market town, set amid docile hay-meadows and watercress beds, WINCHESTER was once one of the mightiest settlements in England. Under the Romans it was Venta Belgarum, the fifth largest town in Britain, but it was Alfred the Great who really put Winchester on the map when he made it the capital of his Wessex kingdom in the ninth century. For the next couple of centuries Winchester ranked alongside London, its status affirmed by William the Conqueror's coronation in both cities and by his commissioning of the local monks to prepare the Domesday Book . It wasn't until after the Battle of Naseby in 1645, when Cromwell took the city, that Winchester began its decline into provinciality.
Hampshire's county town now has a scholarly and slightly anachronistic air, embodied by the ancient almshouses that still provide shelter for senior citizens of "noble poverty" - the pensioners can be seen wandering round the town in medieval black or mulberry-coloured gowns with silver badges. A trip to this secluded old city is a must - not only for the magnificent cathedral , chief relic of Winchester's medieval glory, but for the all-round well-preserved ambience of England's one-time capital.
The first minster to be built in Winchester was raised by Cenwalh, the Saxon king of Wessex in the mid-seventh century and traces of this building have been unearthed near the present Cathedral (daily 7.30am-6.30pm; £3.50 donation requested), which was begun in 1079 and completed some three hundred years later, producing a church whose elements range from early Norman to Perpendicular styles. The exterior is not its best feature - squat and massive, the cathedral crouches stumpily over the tidy lawns of the Cathedral Close. The interior is rich and complex, however, and its 556-foot nave makes this Europe's longest medieval church. Outstanding features include its carved Norman font of black Tournai marble, the fourteenth-century misericords (the choir stalls are the oldest complete set in the country) and some amazing monuments - William of Wykeham's Chantry , halfway down the nave on the right, is one of the best. Jane Austen, who died in Winchester, is commemorated close to the font by a memorial brass and slab beneath which she's interred, though she's recorded simply as the daughter of a local clergyman. Above the high altar lie the mortuary chests of pre-Conquest kings, including Canute; William Rufus, killed while hunting in the New Forest in 1100, lies in the presbytery. Beyond the impressive Victorian screen at the end of the presbytery, look out for the memorial shrine to St Swithun: originally buried outside in the churchyard, his remains were later interred inside the cathedral where the "rain of heaven" could no longer fall on him, whereupon he took revenge and the heavens opened for forty days - hence the legend that if it rains on St Swithun's Day (July 15) it will continue for another forty. His exact burial place is unknown. Accessible from the north transept, the Norman crypt is only rarely open, since it's flooded for much of the time - the cathedral's original foundations were dug in marshy ground, and at the beginning of the twentieth century a steadfast diver, William Walker, spent five years replacing the rotten timber foundations with concrete (Deep Sea Adventure in Weymouth gives the full story). If it's open, you'll see two fourteenth-century statues of William of Wykeham as well as Antony Gormley's standing figure, "Sound II", one of the country's most adventurous ecclesiastical commissions in recent years.
Outside the cathedral, the City Museum , a basic local history display, sits on the Square (April-Sept Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; Oct-March closed Mon; free). Walk west along the High Street from here to reach the Great Hall on Castle Street (April-Oct daily 10am-5pm; Nov-March Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm; free), the vestigial remains of a thirteenth-century castle destroyed by Cromwell. Sir Walter Raleigh heard his death sentence here in 1603, though he wasn't finally dispatched until 1618, and Judge Jeffreys held one of his Bloody Assizes in the castle after Monmouth's rebellion in 1685. The main interest now, however, is a large, brightly painted disc slung on one wall like some curious antique dartboard. This is alleged to be King Arthur's Round Table, but the woodwork is probably fourteenth-century, later repainted as a PR exercise for the Tudor dynasty - the portrait of Arthur at the top of the table bears an uncanny resemblance to Henry VIII.
Heading east along the High Street, you'll pass the Guildhall and the august bronze statue of King Alfred on the Broadway on your way to the River Itchen and the City Mill (March Sat & Sun 11am-4.45pm; April-June, Sept & Oct Wed-Sun 11am-4.45pm; July & Aug daily 11am-4.45pm; £2; NT), where you can see restored mill machinery; the building is now part-occupied by a youth hostel. Turning right before the bridge you pass what remains of the Saxon walls, which bracket the ruins of the twelfth-century Wolvesey Castle (April-Sept daily 10am-6pm; Oct daily 10am-5pm; £1.90; EH) and the Bishop's Palace, built by Christopher Wren. Immediately to the west up College Street stand the buildings of Winchester College , the oldest public school in England - established in 1382 by William of Wykeham for "poor scholars", it now educates few but the wealthy and privileged. The cloisters and chantry are open during term time and the chapel is open all year. Jane Austen moved to the house at 8 College St from Chawton in 1817, when she was already ill with Addison's Disease, dying there later the same year. The thirteenth-century Kings Gate , at the top of College Street, is one of the city's original medieval gateways, housing the tiny St Swithun's Church.
About a mile south of College Walk, reached by a pleasant stroll across the watermeadows of the Itchen, lies St Cross Hospital (Easter-Sept Mon-Sat 9.30am-5pm; Oct-Easter 10.30am-3.30pm; £2). Founded in 1136 as a hostel for poor brethren, it boasts a fine church, begun in that year and completed a century or so later. Needy wayfarers may still apply for the "dole" at the Porter's Lodge - a tiny portion of bread and beer.
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