Tournai Font Winchester Cathedral

Tournai Font Winchester

The Tournai font Winchester Cathedral Hampshire, is still the only font in the Cathedral and used for baptisms. Carved with the story of St Nicholas, it has on one side a ship carrying travellers.

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Abbey House Winchester

Abbey House gates Winchester

Abbey House, built upon land once a gift to Queen Mary Tudor and now the residence of the Mayor of Winchester The site of Abbey House was once occupied by the Abbey of St Mary and St Edburga, formerly the Saxon Nunnaminster. When the abbey was dissolved in 1539, most of the buildings were destroyed.…

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Nunnaminster Winchester

Ruins of Nunnaminster Winchester

Nunnaminster in Winchester was the Saxon abbey founded in 903AD by King Alfred and his wife Ealhswith. It was a wooden structure re-built in stone and then enlarged by the Normans.

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Dame Alice Lisle

Dame Alice Lisle executed in Winchester

Damo Alice Lisle was the first to be tried by Judge Jeffreys during the court trials in Winchester that became known as the Bloody Assizes

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John Young Dean of Winchester 1616

What connection can be made between Winchester Cathedral and Exton, a small village in the Meon Valley? Can you solve the chronogram found on the memorial to Dean Young and how does it all connect with the village of Soberton. More intriguing Hampshire history.

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Mystery of King Alfred’s Final Resting Place

The mystery of King Alfred’s final resting place may be closer to being resolved as St Bartholemew’s church at Hyde prepares to ask for permission to exhume and identify the bones in an unmarked grave at the church.

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King Alfred and The Vikings

King Alfred’s life was dominated by the incessant attacks by the Vikings but how did Alfred succeed in defeating them when so many other kings had failed and did that defeat then propel him to become King of all England.

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Winchester Bible

It is thought Henry de Blois commissioned the stunning Winchester Illuminated Bible. From the text to the illuminations, it is quite possibly the most beautiful piece of C12th artwork in Europe

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Cenwalh Anglo Saxon King

Winchester became the heart of the kingdom of Wessex thanks to the dynasty of the early Saxon king Cerdic but it was Cenwwalh, who, on converting to Christianity, established Winchester as an ecclesiastical centre whose force was felt throughout northern Europe.

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Winchester Jewish Community

Winchester Jews

Winchester had shown a tolerance to its Jewish community in the C12th, even as other English towns were rising against them but the rise in anti -semitism in the C13th saw a change in attitude and brought about a decline in the city itself

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Bishop Woodlock’s Ring

The ring of Bishop Woodlock was found in his grave in Winchester Cathedral and is considered to be the finest Gothic Episcopal ring in Europe

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Old Minster Winchester

The Footprint of Old Minster Winchester

The Old Minster Winchester was one of the most important religious houses and places of pilgrimage in the late Anglo Saxon period. It was the initial resting place of King Alfred the Great and the place where King Canute and Edward the Confessor were crowned.

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Hampshire Domesday

The history of C11th Hampshire is contained within Domesday, which gives a rich picture of life in the county nearly a thousand years ago

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The Round Table Winchester

The Round Table hanging in the Great Hall at Winchester Castle still manages to inspire mystery, even after hanging on it’s walls for over five hundred years.

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Hyde Abbey

The final burial place of King Alfred the Great, Hyde Abbey in Winchester is as simple as Alfred’s life was great. Little is left of the once great Abbey and its buildings now quietly nestling in a residential area

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Earl Godwin of Wessex

Earl Godwine of Wessex was one of the most powerful men in England before the Norman Conquest, the father of 5 Earls, father to the Queen of England and father-in-law to the King. Father to King Harold II. Quite an achievement for a man who died before he was sixty years old

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Wolvesey Palace 1130 – 1140

Henry de Blois, probably the most outstanding bishop England ever had, built for himself one of the most outstanding palaces in England, Wolvesey Palace in Winchester.

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