6 June 2016 - Old Farm, Poulner, near Ringwood, Hampshire

Today was one of those days when a travel itinerary proves to be no more than a has-been-thought-bubble.  As we set out under a bright sunny sky, our plan was to check out Winchester back up the highway, and then slip down into Southampton on the way back. For the tourist on a really tight schedule, that might sound absolutely sane, but in reality was totally unachievable.

As we drove north east across the New Forest National Park, we pulled off and detoured to the Rufus Site, a monument marking the spot where Walter Tyrrell “accidentally” shot William II in 1100 with a cross bow through the heart whilst out on a stag hunt. The memorial stone has long been encased in a protective layer of metal to protect it for posterity, hardly aesthetic, but definitely good conservation for those aliens who arrive long after we are all gone. Today this delightful space in the open oak wood was devoid of yesterday’s holiday crowds and we were able to park, pause, read the signage and enjoy the wonderful ambience of the place.Further on, there is an inn just beyond the parking area, named for the infamous murderer (or assassin), the Sir Water Tyrrell Inn. It is not often that a murderer gets such a memorial.

Instead of returning directly to the highway, we drove a little further north, joining the B3078 at Brook and driving back through forest lined roads. It truly is a delightful area and I am looking forward to returning there tomorrow. But for now, our destination was Winchester, the third pilgrimage mecca for old Christians seeking miracles from the Saints. We have called at the renowned sites at Canterbury, Bury St Edmunds and Little Walsingham, and this would complete the quartet.

Winchester is also a most important location in the history of England, being the first capital of the country when the Wessex kings ruled. Under the Romans, then known as Venta Bulgarum, it was the fifth largest town in Britain, but it was in the ninth century that Alfred the Great really put Winchester on the map. Even after the Norman conquest, William recognised it significance and saw that the religious aspect of the place should be honoured.  Swithin, an Anglo-Saxon bishop who died in 863, subsequently canonised when miracles were attributed to him, has drawn the pilgrims through the ages. Having a Saint-in-house drew the tourists even a thousand years ago, and tourists mean money, and money is, after all, what makes the world go round.

We left our vehicle at the Park & Ride at the south side of town, and caught the bus into the centre of the city, which we found charming from the get-go. Calling into the Information Centre, we picked up a self-guided walking tour brochure, and elected to undertake a couple of the walks. It took us four and a half hours to complete just the first of our walks, because we kept getting side tracked. 

The first distraction was an old restored mill on the River Itchen; we noticed the National Trust emblem on the sandwich board outside and felt duty bound to check it out. It is probably the oldest working mill in England, still grinding token amounts of grain on live days, enough to keep the shop in flour stock to sell. There was an interesting video explaining the processes, and the restoration. 

The ruins of Wolvesey castle

The second was Wolvesey Castle, once the palace of the powerful and wealthy bishops of Winchester. Throughout the medieval period the bishops of Winchester held one of the highest positions of power in the English church, as well as in national politics. They owned vast estates stretching from Somerset to London which brought them great wealth. The surviving ruins of Wolvesey were largely the creation of one man, Bishop Henry de Blois  (1129 - 71) who built a palace befitting his immense wealth and powerful position.

When he became Bishop of Winchester in 1129, the residence consisted of a large hall block, which had been built in about 1110 by the previous bishop, William Giffard. Until his death forty two years later, Henry continually added new buildings.  Although subsequent bishops carried out various repairs and alterations to the buildings, Henry’s palace survived virtually intact for the next five hundred years. It is his work that comprises most of the ruins we saw today.

We lunched in the lovely gardens beside the river, alone worth a walk about the city, before heading on past Winchester College founded by William de Wykeham in 1382, and believed to be the oldest continuously running school in England. It was he who founded Oxford’s New College, and Winchester College was considered a feeder of students for the university. 

We walked past the house in which Jane Austin passed the last couple of months before her death in 1817. Nearby we found a fascinating book store, the kind no longer in every town as they once were. Chris hunted out a copy of “Children of the New Forest”, by Fredrick Marryat, the first book he ever read as a child. It is most pertinent given that it is set in the very area we are staying, and he was keen to reread it, just as I am keen to read it for the first time. 

Winchester Cathedral

Soon we found ourselves in the grounds of the Cathedral, the big draw card for the tourists who visit this otherwise very rural city with a population of about 120,000.

The first construction here was one adjacent to the existing cathedral, a church built by the Saxon Kings of Wessex in the mid-seventh century. The outline of this is clearly marked out with bricks on the adjacent grounds and is clearly visible. The current building has been standing since 1079, its form altered from time to time over the years, which is evident from the variety of architectural styles within. There is a charge to visit (we paid £5.95 each, taking advantage of our age), but we did decide this was a significant part of English history and should not be an option, once in Winchester. We also took advantage of the hour long tour, free once we had paid our entry fee. This proved to be a good decision, because unless you purchase a detailed souvenir guide, and take the time to read and absorb it all, there is no way you would understand the significance of all the features of the structure and its history.

Gormley's "Sound II"

Amongst the gems we learned and found was the very beautiful Winchester Bible, the largest of all surviving 12^th century English Bibles, illuminated in gold and lapis lazuli, and a very tasteful biographical exhibition about the life of Jane Austin, she who is buried within the cathedral. Of her, we learned that only four males were present at her funeral, it not being appropriate for women to attend such events in the day, and that the inscription on the floor marking her resting place remembers her only as a daughter, having borne her illness “with patience and the hopes of a Christian”, having had a benevolent heart, a sweet temper and “extraordinary endowments of her mind”. It was not until 1900, eighty three years after her death, that her talent was celebrated in a memorial on the Cathedral wall near that tombstone.

We were also delighted to recognise the lone statue of a man deep down in the crypt which has over the years been prone to flooding. Antony Gormley’s sculpture of Sound II is quite clearly a cousin to his fifty one steel human forms scattered over the surface of Lake Ballard, a salt lake in Western Australia. He was a gift to the Cathedral by Gormley, on the proviso that he should have his solitary position below floor level.

We had spent so much time in the Cathedral that the afternoon was now well on; we had yet to complete the first walking tour as per the tourist brochure. Instead we decided to walk up and down the High Street and give the other must-dos of Winchester (including a visit to “the Great Hall”) a miss. This we did before catching the bus back to the Park & Ride, and then returning home on the busy motorway. Southampton would have to wait for another day, a day beyond our current travel plans.