Winchester was a thriving town in the medieval period as well as the seat of powerful and wealthy bishops. It had developed along a grid system with the medieval streets being laid out in the late 9th C. The High Street was known as ‘market street’ by around 900 and there was a mint established in the 10th C.[i] To William I of England, Winchester was a key asset in establishing a grip on his conquest of England.
William the Conqueror: A Royal Palace & A Royal Castle
William the Conqueror (d. 1087) made sure early on in his conquest that he captured Winchester and the royal treasury. He built a palace of which there are slight traces. It was in Winchester he displayed his kingship and administered justice. The Accord of Winchester, 1072, established the primacy of the archbishop of Canterbury over that of the archbishop of York. Winchester was a key city in the conquest and rule of England.
St Lawrence’s Passage leads from the High Street to the Cathedral. It is around this area that William the Conqueror’s palace was. Of the royal palace of the West Saxon kings nothing remains. It maybe that Queen Edith, the widow of Edward the Confessor may have been allowed to live in the old palace. William also needed a great hall capable of containing his great feudal gatherings and the old palace may not have been large enough.[ii] William stamped his authority with a new palace for his regular visitations to Winchester. This was built in around 1070. The palace was destroyed in 1140 by Matilda (the conflict of The Anarchy between 1138 and 1153) and never rebuilt. In 1150 it was assigned to the parish of St Lawrence.[iii]
Chimney Breast in St Lawrence’s Passage A reused stone features a horseshoe pattern, which may be from William the Conqueror’s Palace which stood on this site.
Stone on the chimney breast decorated with an overlapping, repeating horseshoe design
Sign in St Lawrence’s Passage
WILLIAM’S ROYAL CHAPEL SITE
In St Lawrence’s passage is the parish church of St Lawrence. It is built on the site of William I’s chapel royal of his palace.
Parish Church of St Lawrence
Sign on the wall of St Lawrence’s Church
NORTHERN END OF THE PALACE
In the High Street is a covered walkway called The Pentice. The buildings are much later that the Norman site, but they mark the northern boundary of William I’s palace.
According to the wall sign, ‘the properties grew up along the northern boundary of William the Conqueror’s palace, and encroached onto the road. As a result the High Street is at its narrowest here.’ [x]
The Pentice in the High Street
WILLIAM II & RICHARD OF NORMANDY
Winchester, or rather the New Forest, was not that lucky for two of William’s sons. King William II, ‘Rufus’ (r. 1087-1100) was fatally shot by an arrow on the 2 August 1100 in the New Forest. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that ‘… on the morning after Lammas Day, the king William was shot with an arrow in hunting by a man of his, and afterwards brought to Winchester and buried in the bishopric the thirteenth year after he succeeded to the kingdom.’[iv] William was buried in the Cathedral. His brother, Richard, William’s 2nd son died in around 1070 when still a teenager in a hunting accident in the New Forest, when he collided with a branch.
Richard of Normandy?: Reconstruction in the Cathedral’s Kings & Scribes Exhibition
Photo of a reconstruction of adolescent bones found in the Cathedral’s mortuary chests. Part of the Winchester Cathedral Kings & Scribes Exhibition It may be Richard, 2nd son of William the Conqueror
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR’S CASTLE AT WINCHESTER
William also built a castle in the south-west corner of the city, within its defences. The western defences had been laid out in the Roman period. A royal chapel was built by 1072, when William held a council there. This chapel disappeared in the 12th C when a stone keep was built on the castle mound.[v]
By around 1100 Winchester Castle was the principal royal seat of the city and housed the Domesday Book.[vi]
All that remains today is Henry III’s spectacular great hall and some castle passageways and ruins. However, these are from the 13th C.
Winchester Castle: Passageway Ruins & Henry III’s Great Hall
Winchester Castle: Remains of Castle Passageways & Tower
ECCLESASTICAL ARCHITECTURE
It is in the ecclesiastical architecture we see the remains of Norman architecture. Winchester was chosen for the first new Norman cathedrals to be constructed after the invasion. It was started in 1079. The influence of the new architecture from Normandy is evident.[vii] It was Norman masons who designed the architecture and highly likely Anglo-Saxons were employed as labourers. In the Bayeux Tapestry there are workers who are using Anglo-Saxon tools.
Norman Crypt
The Norman architecture we see in the cathedral today is that from the time of William II.
Crypt of Winchester Cathedral (2024)
The crypt completed by 1093.[viii] It is prone to flooding. The statue “Sound II” is by Sir Anthony Gormley.
Crypt of Winchester Cathedral in 2015, when it was dry
Norman Transepts with Galleries
Norman architecture in the transepts. These galleries in the transepts are a feature derived from the continent.[ix]
Norman Arches
SUMMARY
William the Conqueror’s city was built on the existing Anglo-Saxon infrastructure. However, the city layout gives a glimpse to what the early-Norman organisation was. Although little remains of the early-Norman palace and castle, the cathedral owes, in part, its magnificent structure to the master masons of Normandy.
NOTES
[i] Counties and Wales: Winchester’, Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516, (Centre for Metropolitan History), < https://archives.history.ac.uk/gazetteer/gazweb2.html> [accessed 10 February 2025].
[ii] Winchester Royal Palace(s)’, Gatehouse Gazetteer, https://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/5010.html[accessed 12 Feb 2025].
[iii] ‘Winchester Palace’, Historic England Research Records, < https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=230957&resourceID=19191> [accessed 4 February 2025].
[iv] Michael Swanton (translated and edited by), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, (London: Phoenix Press, 2000), p. 235
[v] ‘Winchester Castle’, Historic England List Entry 1001959, (1915, amended 2014), https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001959?section=official-list-entry [accessed 12 February 2025].
[vi] ‘Winchester Castle’, Historic England List Entry 1001959.
[vii] ‘A Guide to Norman Architecture in England’, Historic England, 2022, < https://heritagecalling.com/2022/03/31/what-is-norman-architecture/> [accessed 22 February 2025].
[viii] A Guide to Norman Architecture in England’, Historic England.
[ix] A Guide to Norman Architecture in England’, Historic England.
[x] Wall sign on the Pentice in Winchester.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brett, Vivien, Winchester (Pitkin 1999; repr. 2014)
Swanton, Michael, (translated and edited by), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, (London: Phoenix Press, 2000)