Abbey house stands on the sight of St Mary’s Abbey. It was built about 1750 and originally faced the gardens to the rear. The present castellated front was added after the widening of Broadway in 1771. Benedictine nuns, fleeing the disturbances of the French Revolution, made their homes here in the 1790s. The house now serves as the official residence of the Mayor of Winchester.*

The gardens with the guildhall to the right:

The statue of King Alfred as seen from the front of Abbey House:

*From a signboard next to the house.

Alfred. king of the West Saxons (AD 871-889) drove the Danish invaders from Wessex. He created fortified centres, of which Winchester, the largest was his capital. During his reign, the streets in use today were first established. Alfred was the most esteemed of English kings. He encouraged the revival of learning and monastic life, and laid the foundation for a single kingdom of England. This statue by Hamo Thorneycroft, was erected in 1901.*

*From the signboard beneath the statue.

After our trips further afield from Winchester it was time to explore the historical town itself. We set off on a walking tour that was shown in the back of the ‘Winchester Pitkin Guide’. The first stop on route was to photograph the statue of King Alfred. It was good to find that the hanging basket that had been hung on his sword by weekend revelers had been removed, therefore allowing for a perfect photo opportunity.

As we walked along the route we noticed ‘The Church of St Lawrence‘. It was a hidden gem tucked away in among the shops. With the exception of the sounds of music from a street musician the noise and the hustle and bustle from outside could not be heard.

After experiencing solitude in the church we carried along the path of our walking route towards Westgate. Unfortunately the museum was closed, but I did get to see a lone man working on repair work on a nearby steeple. We carried on past the Westgate to the Great Hall. The hall and the round table have breathtaking proportions. My immediate thought on entering the hall was WOW!!!

The next port of call was Peninsula Barracks to take in a couple of the museums that were on Mr C’s ‘To Do’ list. Before the museum visits we had lunch in Cafe Peninsula, where I opted for Crayfish sandwich, it was delicious. Mr C’s museum choices were HorsePower, the Museum of The King’s Royal Hussars and the Gurkha Museum.

Both museums were interesting to me. The HorsePower museum because of my interest in armoured vehicles, the development of ‘main battle tanks’, specifically Challenger 2. The Gurkha museum with its life sized and scale models of battle situations enabling the visitor to see the extreme difficulties that the Gurkhas overcame. Unusually after those two visits Mr C was all military museumed out…We continued on our walking route and visited St Swithun upon Kingsgate, a rare example of a church located above the historic gates of a city.

After all that walking we returned to the hotel to chill out and rest our weary feet before venturing out for our evening meal. Our venue for the evening was La Place, the food was excellent but unfortunately we were sitting next to a table whose occupants were a drunk and rowdy threesome. They were not happy drunk, there was a grumpy edginess to it. As they were sitting just behind me I felt really uncomfortable until they left. They were older people so I can’t even give them the benefit of being young and stupid.

Before returning to our hotel for a good nights sleep we retired to The Old Vyne to relax after the unpleasant experience.