Grand Tour of Winchester Part 1: Anglo-Saxon Wintancaester

November can be a good time to visit places to avoid tourists whilst venues are still open. I recently visited Winchester for a 2-night stay. It is a compact city with everything conveniently within in walking distance from the city centre. It was a pleasure to walk through the different ages in search of history through buildings and other evidence.

This blog post seeks to explore some of Anglo-Saxon Winchester. Although little remains in obvious evidence, there are still things to seek out that connect us back in history. This small city was once a seat of royal power, playing its key part in the history of England.

Iron Age Fort	Roman Town AD 70	Anglo-Saxon Wintanceaster	Anglo-Saxon Burh Wintanceaster
Oram’s Arbour – became Roman Fort	Venta Belgarum – major town	6th/7th Cs – usual court for kings of Wessex   King Cenwalh founded the Old Minster – became a cathedral in 660s when the West Saxon Bishop See was transferred from Dorchester-on-Thames	Alfred made it a burh in the late 9th C. A burh is a fortified settlement. Winchester had a mint.

Roman Venta Belgarum

The Romans built near Winchester a military fort at Oram’s Arbour, making use of the Iron Age tribal enclosure on the hill. Within 25 years they had founded a major town which the called Venta Belgarum – the marketplace of the Belgae (the local tribe – although the Belgae originate in Europe (Belgium area) and possibly settled through trade links rather than raiding). They built a forum, basilica, temple, houses and a grid of streets, based on the east-west road from which the current high street originates. The Roman town wall cuts across the eastern end of the Iron Age settlement.

An advantage of Winchester was the River Itchen, which rises near Alresford in Hampshire and flows south some 26 miles (42 km) to meet Southampton Water. On the eastern side of the settlement, it was diverted, and a street grid laid out. Venta Belgarum grew in significance and by the beginning of the 3rd C was given protective stone walls. It was at this time one of the largest towns by surface area in Roman Britain.

Winchester declined in the later 4th C, along with the Roman presence in Britain. How its occupation continued is of question, as are many post-Roman English cities. However, in the 7th century King Cenwalh built his church there.

ANGLO-SAXON WINTANCEASTER

The Anglo-Saxons called it Wintanceaster (“Fort Venta”). King Cenwalh of Wessex founded the Church of St Peter and St Paul in 648. This minster later became known as the “Old Minster”. It became a cathedral church in the 660s when the West Saxon Bishop see was transferred from Dorchester-on-Thames.

King Alfred obliterated the Roman street plan to create a burh in the late 9th C as a defensive measure against the invading Vikings. The city’s first mint appears to date from this period.

Three royal minsters were created in Winchester:

1. Old Minster: Possibly built in 648 by King Cenwalh of Wessex (a Christian king). In 660 it became a cathedral. In 964 Bishop Aethelwold reformed the Old Minster as a Benedictine monastery – known as St Swithun’s Priory. The monastery survived for the next 600 years, but when the new Normal Cathedral was built in 1093 Old Minster church was demolished. Bishop Walkelin (d. 1098) was the building bishop.

2. New Minster: In 901 the New Minster was founded by King Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great, as a royal church. It was built next to the Old Minster, only a few feet to its north. The remains of King Alfred were reburied there. In 1110 the monks moved out to Hyde Abbey, taking Alfred’s bones with them.

3. Nunnaminster: Founded in 903 by King Alfred’s widow, Queen Ealhswith – there are some remains of the later medieval church. Following the Norman Conquest it became the Abbey of St Mary & St Edburga.

Note on Hyde Abbey (Benedictine) – 1100. Only the 15th C gatehouse left. What would have been the east end of Hyde Church is represented by Hyde Abbey Gardens. King Alfred’s remains were taken to Hyde Abbey, along with those of Queen Ealhswith and King Edward the Elder and placed in front of the high altar. Hyde Abbey became a place of pilgrimage. It was dissolved in 1538.

Royal Capital?

Wintancaester was the centre of secular power and the centre of ecclesiastical power. It centred on administration, formulation of laws, and political thought. However, the Witan was where the king would call together his leading nobles and counsellors. It was formed at a time and place the king chose. Its duty was to advise the king, not to direct the king to action or formulate laws. However, a wise king would want the assent of his Witan for laws and actions.[i]

Moots

These were regular meetings at the ‘shire’ level. The Shires were first started in Wessex. Its purpose was to hear cases and discuss local matters. They were likely to be attended by local lords, bishops and the sheriff, and four representatives of each village. This would become the County Court under the Normans.[ii]

St. Swithun

Saint Swithin was buried outside the Old Minster in 862. The Benedictine reforms of the 10th C, headed at Winchester by AEthelwold, saw both the New Minster (built 901) and the Old Minster rebuilt. Now with two monasteries virtually next door to each other, the singing was said to intermingle. The form of the reconstructed Old Minster of the 970s was the Carolingian form incorporating the feature of the west-work which rose to a height of between forty and fifty metres directly opposite the royal palace. West-works allowed for a throne at first or second floor height, from which the ruler could sit and observe the main interior of the church.[iii]

These models are in the Kings & Scribes Exhibition in the Cathedral, which is well worth a visit to appreciate the rich history of the Cathedral. For more information visit: Kings & Scribes Exhibition.

A shrine to Saint Swithun was built in 971 and his body translated into the Minster. The legend is that Swithun had requested his burial outside of the Minster where ‘passers by might tread on his grave and where the rain from the eaves might fall on it’.[iv] When his body was re-interred to the indoor shrine on the 15 July 971 it rained heavily. The legend is that if it rains on this day, it will rain for 40 days.

St. Swithun’s day, if thou dost rain,

For forty days it will remain;

St. Swithun’s day if thou be fair,

For forty days ‘twill rain na mair.[v]

When the Norman Cathedral was built alongside the Old Minster, which was demolished, St Swithun, the royal burials and bishops were re-interred in 1093.

King Cnut (c. 990 to 12 November 1035, r. 1016-1035)

Cnut reigned England for almost 19 years. He also reigned Denmark (r. 1018-1030) and Norway (r. 1028-1035). His queen was Emma of Normandy (c. 984 – 6 March 1052), whose first husband was AEthelred the Unready (d. 1016).

Both King Cnut and Queen Emma were buried in the Old Minster at Winchester. Their son, King Harthacnut (r. 1040 – 1042), was also interred there. During the English Civil War (1642-51), parliamentary forces disinterred their remains and scattered them in the Cathedral. The jumbled bones were collected and now lie in royal mortuary chests on top of the chancel screen. There has been recent work to identify the bones in the mortuary chests.

Ancestral figure: The Sigmund Stone survives from the decoration of Old Minster around the grave of King Cnut. It was part of a carved narrative frieze telling the mythical origins of English and Danish royalty. Sigmund, who killed the wolf that had eaten his nine brothers, was one of the ancestral figures both Saxon and Danish mythology. (Transcript of the sign in the exhibition).

It is easy to get transported back in time in Winchester. The world of the Wessex Anglo-Saxons might need a bit of seeking out, but it is there. Look out for at the other mortuary chests. The royal burials of Winchester, rulers of Wessex and later England, included are: Cynegils, Cenwalh, Cynewulf, Aethelwulf, Alfred, Edward the Elder, Edred, Edwy, Edmund Ironside, Cnut and Harthacnut.[vi] Some have ended up in the mortuary chests in the Cathedral.

GUNNI, THE EARL’S COMPANION

An Anglo-Saxon gravestone is held in Winchester’s City Museum. It belongs to Gunni, The Earl’s Companion. It dates from the early 11th C and is from the outside of the east apse of the Old Minster. It may date from the time of King Cnut.

The sign in the museum reads:

Grave-cover and footstone from an early 11th century burial outside the east apse of Old Minster in Winchester. It is made of Bembridge limestone from Isle of Wight. Archaeologists did not find a marker at the head end of the grave, but it is likely there had been one originally.

Along the central axis of the stone there is a carved inscriptions in a single line. When it was in its original position the inscription ran from west to eat and was to be red from the south side, that is, the end began at the head end of the grave.

The inscription, in Old English, translates as ‘+ Here lies Gunni the Earl’s companion’. The name shows Scandinavian influence. Possibly it marked the grave of one of King Cnut’s men, or a member of the entourage of the powerful Earl Godwin of Wessex. Gunni was aged 45 or more at the time of his death in the 1020s or 1030s.

The foot stone is carved with the Hand of God coming down from Heaven holding the Cross, a sure promise of Resurrection. This means that Gunni was a Christian.’

To find out more about the City Museum visit: City Museum, Winchester

NOTES

[i]  ‘Anglo-Saxon origins’, UK Parliament: Origins of Parliament, https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/origins/#:~:text=and%20the%20moot.-,The%20Witan,individuals%20whom%20he%20particularly%20summoned.[accessed 31 December 2024].

[ii] Anglo-Saxon origins’, UK Parliament: Origins of Parliament.

[iii] Susan J. Ridyard, Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press; Reissue edition, 2008.

[iv] ‘St. Swithun’s Day, Weather Online, < https://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/wxfacts/St-Swithuns-Day.htm#google_vignette> [accessed 2 January 2025].

[v] St. Swithun’s Day, Weather Online.

[vi] Susan J. Ridyard, Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brett, Vivien, Winchester (Pitkin 1999; repr. 2014)

Sykes, Norman, Winchester Cathedral (Pitkin, 1990; repr. 1996)