Wet in Winchester

Today a coach had been organised to take some 30 odd of us to the Christmas Market at Winchester. It’s held in the Cathedral grounds, so a tour of the cathedral seemed like a good thing to do.

And for me, the tour was the highlight of the day. We had two very knowledgeable guides, who knew the place inside out, and were full of anecdotal stories. Here are just some of the many things I didn’t know about Winchester cathedral:

Jane Austen is buried there
it’s history goes back to 648AD but the basis for the current building was started in 1079 by William the Conqueror
mortuary chests contain mixed up bones of early kings and queens including Canute
pilgrims used to flock there to visit the bones of St Swithun, the patron saint of the Cathedral
there is a stained glass window made of the shattered glass from the Civil war damage and its beautiful

The visit to the Christmas market was not quite so successful. A lot of rain fell during the afternoon and most of us gave up shopping and dried off in restaurants or pubs! A pragmatic approach.

Thanks to Derek for the very comfy coach and the coffee and biscuits!

The view of the high altar from the nave

The West Window destroyed by parliamentary troops during the English civil war and rebuilt using shattered glass from around the Cathedral

12th century Tournai marble font depicting scenes from the life of St Nicholas

Jane Austen’s grave, in a very prominent position due to her clerical connections

She has her own eulogy and window now, as by 1900 she was famous

The north transept retains the more original Norman style, as opposed to the ‘modernisation’ that took place around the nave in the 14th century

The Holy Sepulchre Chapel contains 12th and 13th century wall paintings

The High Altar

The Choir stalls. The blue area with gold stars contained religious drawings which were destroyed by parliamentary troops but the rest of the stalls remained intact as the carvings were not religious.

The impressive walkways had poor foundations so were underpinned by the efforts of a lone diver in 1906-1911, named William Walker. We went to his pub!

The shopping is over. Enough is enough. A pub, hot chocolate, warm radiator. We dry off before the trip home.

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