Visit Winchester by Mouse
Winchester (Web site), in Hampshire on the river Itchen, is 68 miles southwest of London and 13 miles northeast of Southampton.
This historic city--It still has a remnant of the Roman wall that once encircled it-- is where King Alfred, a British hero,
was educated before joining with his father King Ethelred, to defeat Viking invaders in 871 AD. Ethelred perished in the
battle and Alfred became King. A regal statue of Alfred stands on a pedestal on the main street.
Winchester
has two castles, Wolvesey, which dates from 1110, now a ruin, which we investigated, and the 12th century Winchester, which we did
not get to see. Wolvesey was the Norman bishop's residence. Queen Mary Tudor and her husband had their wedding
breakfast there. Winchester castle has a celebrated great room in which hangs a table purporting to be King Arthur' Round Table
but it dates from the 12th century, after Arthur's supposed time. Winchester College is very old, dating from 1382 and
still teaching.
Winchester Cathedral (web site), is something of a miracle in itself. This cathedral is one
of the largest in England, with the longest nave. It was built beginning in 1079 on a bog, on top of a raft of criss-crossed
logs. So of course it could not last long--only about 800 or 900 years--before it started to fall apart. In the early
1900's, a massive effort was launched to save the cathedral by reinforcing its foundation. Ultimately this job fell on
the strong, intrepid shoulders of one William Walker, who worked six hours a day for six years in total darkness as a diver
in a diving suit in the water under the cathedral , placing 25,000 bags of concrete, 115,000 concrete blocks and 900,000
bricks to serve as a new underpinning. That did indeed save it. A statue of Mr Walker stands deservedly in the cathedral.
We did not know all this when we were there. We had decided not to pay the entrance fee of five Pounds each, or almost
$20 for the two of us. We did walk around. By the time we got to it we had been walking for most of the day and were pretty
tired. Nevertheless, now that we know all this we should have made the effort.
The 19th century novelist, Jane Austen,
fell ill and died in a house near Winchester Cathedral and she was buried in the cathedral. Winchester and the Cathedral
are the setting of several of Anthony Trollope's novels, for example, the six in the Barcetshire series, including "The Warden" and "The
Barchester Towers", which was the basis of the BBC mini series, titled The Barchester Chronicles, which we enjoyed. Another
reason why we should have entered the cathedral.
A walk down the high street, the main shopping street is very pleasant. You
pass the huge, imposing Guildhall, built in 1871 and the Mayor's home. In the stream that runs in front of it we spotted
swimming trout. The town also has a very pleasant river walk alongside the Itchen. And we can recommend the City Museum for
the variety and quality of the exhibits that include archeological finds from the area, and two reconstructed shops from
ones that were on the high street during an earlier period in the town's history, a tobacconist and a chemist shop. There
are other interesting sounding museums (that we did not visit) listed on the City's web site on the link above.
