Winchester

Today I accompanied my Mum to Winchester for the first of her expeditions for her new hobby. She has decided to visit all the English cathedrals (C of E predominantly). The day was gorgeous - beautiful winter sunshine - and we had a lovely train journey there. We meandered into the city centre and poked around a few shops and the concourse near the Great Hall before heading to the cathedral refectory for lunch. Oh my! I had slow cooked belly pork on mashed potato with cabbage and wholegrain mustard gravy and every single morsel was scrumptious. Mum had chicken pie, mashed potato and vegetables which was also scrumptious.

We then headed into the cathedral and were greeted by a friendly volunteer who let us know that there would be a guided tour shortly, so we hung around until it started. The guide showed us round and gave us the architectural history of the building - most of what we see is not the original Norman building, but the 14th century redesign. At the East end of the building is a portion that is in the original state, rather solid and with rounded arches piled on top of each other rather than tall pointed arches. He pointed out the font, made of a relatively soft black limestone with fascinating scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas. Some of them were a bit gruesome but still interesting. We saw Jane Austin's tombstone (of course) which doesn't mention her writing, and then onto the 'Holey Hole' where medieval pilgrims crawled to get close to the relics of Saint Swithun. There was lots of medieval tiling on the floor here as well as some more modern replicas. We also saw a chapel that had pre-reformation paintings on the walls that had been plastered over before the reign of Henry VIII. Rather lovely. Lastly we went to the flooded crypt and admired the Anthony Gormley statue that is down there,. The tour ended there, as part of the cathedral was closed for cleaning. Afterwards we popped into a small exhibition showing the Winchester Bible - a handwritten, illuminated edition in four volumes which was absolutely beautiful.

The interior of the cathedral is lovely, with elaborate chantries for long dead bishops, a magnificent stone altar screen, intricately carved woodwork, swooping arches and vaulted ceilings, decorative floor tiles in the older part, a wide variety of memorial plaques to local notables, gentry and military figures, and lovely side chapels some with stunning stained glass windows. The huge window at the west end of the cathedral is worth a look; it is a patchwork of stained glass. This is because Winchester was pro-royalist in the civil war and the rest of the county wasn't, so the original window got smashed to bits. Once Charles II was on the throne as many bits of stained glass as could be found were collected up and put back into the window any old how with clear glass to fill the gaps. Really rather a good effect!

We left late afternoon and visited the gift shop and then had tea and cake in the refectory, explored the outside of the cathedral and found a second hand bookshop that raises money for the choristers, then headed back inside for choral evensong. This was very calm and lovely, with a visiting choir, the Cheriton Singers. Talented bunch. We then headed back to the railway station and home. Pleasant day.



Statue in crypt



detail of carving




Cathedral entrance

Cathedral from the Close