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Winchester Cathedral - Winchester

In 635AD, Cynegils, King of the West Saxons, was baptised by St. Birinus, who was spreading the Christian message to parts of Britain which had not been reached by St. Augustine's first mission. Cynegil's son, Cenwalh, built a minster church in the centre of his kingdom, at Wintanceaster around 643. By 670, the modern day Winchester had become the royal and ecclesiastical centre of Wessex, remaining a city of prime importance at least until the Norman invasion. 

Many of the subsequent kings of Wessex and later of all England, were buried here, including the energetic unifier, Alfred the Great in 899. Their bones were later moved to the new Minster and then into the present cathedral after the invasion. The layout of the Old Minster has been excavated and now the ground plan, with its apsidal east end can be traced immediately to the north. Inside the Norman cathedral, the old kings' remains were placed in mortuary chests in the 1520s, some of which were destroyed by Cromwell's vandals.

In addition to the original Anglo-Saxon Minsters, a convent was also founded by Alfred's widow, Ealhswith. In the 960's, the Old Minster was reformed and became the Priory of St. Swithun, which survived until Henry VIII's Dissolution. A hundred years later, however, the Saxon Bishop Stigand was replaced by the Norman Walkelin and here, as elsewhere, the Normans' energy and desire to dominate the native culture, led to a new stone cathedral in the Romanesque style, elements of which survive later alterations, chiefly the atmospheric crypt, with its modern statue by Antony Gormley (of Angel of the North fame) and the North and South Transepts.

The light coloured stone which gives Winchester its characteristic bright air, was brought from the nearby Isle of Wight and the new cathedral was consecrated in 1093. St. Swithun's relics were brought into the new church on his feast day, the 15th of July and the old Saxon Minster's demolition commenced the very next day. At the time, Winchester was the longest cathedral in the world, at 535ft. The West front was originally 40ft further out.

Perhaps partly due to the haste with which it was constructed, but rumoured at the time to be because of the burial inside of the uncivilised King William II, the Norman building experienced early problems, with the central tower collapsing in 1107.  By the middle of the twelfth century, with rebuilding underway, Bishop Henry of Blois, brother to the troubled King Stephen, altered the east end around the relics of St. Swithun, including the 'Holy Hole' where pilgrims could crawl underneath the relics to gain better access to their miraculous nature. Although later remodelled in the 1470's, the shrine remained at the centre of the church until Henry's destruction of such sites in the 1538.  Other treasures dating from the twelfth century include the carved Baptismal font with its gorgeously  bold narrative carvings of the life of St. Nicholas and also the delightful and rare wall paintings in the Holy Sepulchre Chapel to the north of the Choir. The surviving fragments depict in colourful detail the Deposition from the Cross, the Entombment and Christ in Majesty.

The whole of the east end was extended and remodelled in the thirteenth century and is a fine example of the Early English style, with delicate Gothic arches and the most amazing carpet of terracotta tiles. Several ruined abbeys, such as Byland, have small remains of their tiled floors, but the scale and decoration of those here at Winchester is by far the best we have seen. 

 Underneath the central tower, the choir still has the original wooden choirstalls of about 1308. This area is now screened from the Nave by a Victorian choir screen designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The Nave itself was the next area to be re-modelled in the late fourteenth century. Under William Wynford, the Nave was transformed from heavy solidity to an astonishing area of light and space in the Perpendicular style, which as its name suggests, focuses of the vertical, with columns and vaulting thrusting upwards towards the heavens. The original Norman stonework was re-cut and re-faced during the alterations.

Around the cathedral are chantry chapels and various effigies of the Bishops who worked here, including some which show the deceased as a decaying cadaver, reminding us all of the transitory nature of worldly power and riches. Among the effigies is that of Stephen Gardner, the last Catholic Bishop here, who married Queen Mary Tudor to King Philip of Spain in the cathedral. The burial place of Jane Austin is sited along the north aisle of the Nave and in the south aisle of the Retrochoir (the area east of the choir) is the tomb of Cardinal Beaufort, brother of Henry VII.

In 1486, Prince Arthur was baptised in Winchester and the Lady Chapel was rebuilt by his mother, Elizabeth of York. On the walls are delicate paintings of the time, now protected by copies which lie over them. Despite the connection, Winchester was not protected from her second son Henry VIII's forces of destruction during the Dissolution and the later iconoclasm of the Civil war Roundheads, who entered Winchester cathedral on horseback in 1642 and wrecked havoc, destroying the stained glass, decapitating statues and burning books and the communion rail. The mortuary chests were divested of their contents; the bones of the ancient Kings used as missiles.

Happily, the cathedral today has recovered from such assaults and provides a warm and friendly greeting to both tourists and worshipers. Around the church, the tradition of devotional and decorative art has been maintained, with several stunning pieces from the twentieth century providing a counterpoint and a continuation of  the more ancient treasures of this wonderful building.

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