Winchester Cathedral

Winchester is one of my favourite places to take foreign visitors. It’s easily accessible and makes a perfect day out from London in summer.

It’s a historic place: it was the capital of Wessex and subsequently England until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Not surprising then, that a large cathedral was built here around 648 AD. All that remains of this is its foundations, clearly marked next to the present building.

And what a building that is. At 556ft (170m) the longest mediaeval cathedral in Europe, it illustrates perfectly the developments in mediaeval architecture from the Norman Romanesque of its initial building in 1079, through Early English and Decorated (High) Gothic to the Perpendicular of the rebuilt west front and nave of 1400. There are several impressive chantry chapels and a beautiful 13th century retro choir. Richard I was crowned here in 1194, and Henry IV (1401) and Queen Mary (1554) were both married here.

But it is also full of other points of interest: the graves of Jane Austen, William II, and the Saxon kings Egbert, Ethelwulf and the Danish Canute; mediaeval stained glass and frescoes; pre-Raphaelite glass from Burne-Jones; and in the ancient library, the Winchester Bible, one of the pre-eminent mediaeval illuminated books in Europe.

The area around the cathedral is also delightful for a walk, and the award-winning refectory is a good place to eat. My favourite iwalk is along the lovely River Itchen to the church of Saint Cross (see separate blog). On a high summer’s day, it’s a perfect way to spend an afternoon.

The Close, Winchester, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 9LS www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk

St Cross Church and Almshouses, Winchester

A lovely twenty minute walk along the water meadows by the River Itchen, going south from the centre of Winchester, brings you to the Almshouse and church of Saint Cross.

The Almshouse, founded in 1132, is the oldest and best preserved example of its kind in Britain, and is England's oldest charitable institution. Founded to take care of thirteen frail men and to feed a hundred poor men a day, it was extended in the fifteenth century. To-day it includes twenty five brothers, all pensioners (although they are not actually monks - they're all lay brothers). They wear the mediaeval style of robes of two orders which date to the founding in 1132 or the extension of 1445.

The Almshouse still provides the 'Wayfarer's Dole' to visitors, if you ask for it: a horn of beer and a morsel of bread. The Almshouse also has a lovely garden, open to visitors.

As well as the Almshouse itself, the adjacent church is a magnificent example of late Norman Transitional, on a grand scale, with later Gothic additions. Begun in 1135, it contains both classically Romanesque rounded arches, with all the decorative motifs one might expect of Norman work - lozenges, dog-tooth and zig-zag - with gentler Transitional arches with barely a whisper of a point, to more solidly Gothic work. Building continued until the 15th century. The church has good furnishings, including Tudor screens and an Elizabethan altar rail in the Lady Chapel, fragments of wall paintings and a triptych by Jan de Mabuse dating from around 1500, depicting the Nativity, St Barbara and St Catherine, complete with wheel.

Saint Cross Road, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 9SD www.stcross.f2s.com