After breakfast which was much quieter than the previous day, we walked through the Cathedral close towards Cheney Close so that we could show mum the church over the bridge. On our way we saw the Christmas market being set up in the Cathedral close but as we turned the corner we were dismayed to see that Cheyney Court was partially obscured by scaffolding. When we passed through the Priory Gate we were even more dismayed to find that The Church of St Swithun upon Kingsgate was covered by scaffolding and boarding because it was being re-roofed. I was hoping to show mum the church because she would have loved it, however it wasn’t meant to be. We continued on our way past the rare Victorian post box, which is just around the corner from the church, towards Peninsular Barracks.

After a steep walk we arrived at Peninsular Barracks to find noisy building works which detracted from the peaceful square. Our hopes up a cup of tea in the Cafe Peninsular were also dashed, we found that it was shut on Mondays! I had secretly been looking forward to lunch there too

We made our way to the Royal Green Jackets museum next door to the cafe which was our reason for visiting Peninsular Barracks in the first place. Mr C and I wanted to see the Waterloo Diorama that we had missed by just one day on our previous visit to Winchester. The Napoleonic display was well worth the wait with the diorama being the jewel in the crown. The son et lumiere display gave a great insight into the battle and how it played out. We found that other displays in the museum had changed too, adding interest from our previous visit.

We then made our way to the nearest teashop for a cup of tea before visiting the Great Hall. When we had finished the tour of the Great Hall it was time for lunch so we made our way to the Cathedral Rectory where I enjoyed a delicious mini quiche. Afterwards we enjoyed browsing around a second hand bookshop, a cookshop and indulging in some ‘Christmas’ purchases from the Cathedral shop. We then had some more refreshments in the Cathedral Rectory before returning to the hotel to chill out before dinner. Our timing was perfect, the heavens opened just after we arrived back at the hotel.

We dined in Rick Stein’s restaurant, which was easily the meal of the weekend. The food, service and ambience were excellent, a perfect dining experience.

After dinner we relocated to a bar that was ‘interesting’. The football was on and there were televisions squeezed into the most unexpected places so that there was no escape from the visual display. A couple arrived shortly after we did, they were quite vocal and mum remarked that it was like watching Coronation Street. We stayed for a short while before moving on to a more genteel location.

When we returned to the hotel mum went to bed but we weren’t quite ready for sleep so we decided to have a drink in the bar area. There were people in there but the lights had been turned off…

We were about to give up on the idea and return to our room when we saw the night porter and asked him if the bar was open. He said “yes I will serve you”. He accompanied us into the bar area and turned the lights back on before he served us. Eventually the bartender turned up and asked Mr C to sign the bill (which had already signed) because he was closing the till, by now it was 11pm. He was advised that this had already been done and he replied ‘no you haven’t’. We both chimed up at the same time ‘yes we have’. He looked at us and said ‘oh! did you do it with the night porter”? We said “yes”. He then marched off in the direction of the night porter and didn’t even come back to apologise.

To mark the start of the annual Armed Forces Week there was a flag raising ceremony outside the Great Hall in Winchester and the unveiling of a memorial to those that passed through Morn Hill camps during the First World War.

On Monday, June 23, proceedings began with a selection of military music at the Buttercross, High Street, by The Band & Bugles of the Rifles.

They then marched to St Maurice’s Covert where they were met by a contingent of service personnel drawn from the Royal Navy, the Army and Royal Air Force.

Together they proceeded up the High Street to the Great Hall for the ceremony and unveiling of the ‘To Honour a Promise’ memorial, which marks the centenary since the outbreak of WWI in 1914.

It sits at the base of the steps in the courtyard by the Great Hall, and throughout the ceremony was covered in a cloth made by textiles students from Peter Symonds College.

Simon Smith’s brief was not to create a standard memorial, but something to represent those who had passed through the camp. The memorial sensitively shows the kit as if it has been left on the seat- but where is the soldier now?

View on YouTube

Just outside the  south door of Winchester’s Great Hall is the reconstructed ‘Queen Eleanor’s Garden’.

It is a re-creation of a late thirteenth century ornamental herber, designed by Dr Sylvia Landsberg and Dr John Harvey, and opened by Her Majesty the Queen Mother on 8 July 1986 as part of the Domesday 900 celebrations.

The garden is named after two garden-loving thirteenth-century queens who would once have walked on this spot: Eleanor of Provence, wife of Henry III (1216-1272) who built the Great Hall, and her daughter-in-law, Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I (1272-1307) who created the Round Table.*

*From The Castle of Winchester, Great Hall & Round Table by Martin Biddle and Beatrice Clayre

The stained glass windows were made in 1875-80. The glass features the arms of famous people associated with Hampshire. The portraits show significant kings involved with the history of Hampshire.

The east wall features a nineteenth-century painting showing the names of the members of parliament from 1283 (Edward I) to 1868 (Victoria).

A doorway that originally led to the apartments of Queen Eleanor, wife of Henry III.

A bronze statue of Queen Victoria which is the work of Sir Alfred Gilbert R.A. It was presented to the County by the High Sherrif of Hampshire in 1887 to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

A bronze sculpture commissioned in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the work of Vivien Mallock.

The Great Hall has been used for holding courts throughout history. This nineteenth century judge’s bench was used in the Assize Courts, then in the Crown Court, which moved to the adjoining building in 1974.

]]> http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2014/11/29/within-the-great-hall/feed/ 9 http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2014/11/28/the-round-table/ http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2014/11/28/the-round-table/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2014 20:50:00 +0000 CherryPie http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/?p=14650

The Round Table ‘King Arthur’s Table’ is mounted on the west wall at one end of the Great Hall. It  has hung there since 1873 when it was moved from the east wall to make way for arches that link the hall to the Assize Courts next door.  The table is thought to have been built in the 13th or early 14th century, possibly for a tournament to celebrate the wedding of one of Edward I’s daughters.

On the table is the inscription ‘This is the round table of Arthur with 24 of his named knights’. It is 5.5 metres in diameter, weighs 1220 kilograms, and is made from 121 pieces of oak.

Apart from a few segments of foundations, all that remains of Winchester Castle is Henry III’s Great Hall.  In 1066 Winchester surrendered without at fight to William the Conqueror and shortly after his coronation he gave orders for a castle to be built. The castle remained the seat of government under the early Norman kings.

During the reign of Henry III the castle was almost completely rebuilt. A fire in 1302 caused much damage and the castle ceased to be used as a royal residence, the monarchs moved to the nearby bishop’s palace of Wolvesey. In 1651 the castle was demolished but the Great Hall was kept as a venue for assemblies and county assizes.

The Great Hall was used for the administration of justice until the 1970s and it was here that Sir Walter Raleigh was condemned to death in 1603. The Great Hall is now linked to the new court house by two archways. The arches lead to the judges’ gallery. In 1983 two pairs of  wrought steel gates, designed and made by Antony Robinson were installed within the arches as a commemoration to the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer in July 1981.

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.

The figures – biblical, allegorical and mythological – are far too numerous to catalogue, and in the screen alone there are angels, a crusading knight, Elizabethan ladies, the Twelve Apostles (these in narrow tier) with the pilgrim knight again featured at the centre, perhaps representing the builder of the house.  The loser tier has as its subject the four Evangelists and their emblems.  In the woodcarving below, the figurines in the frieze depict the Twelve Tribes of Israel, with en-scrolled captions naming them and supplying relevant texts.

The massive chimney-piece is a further example of elaborate Elizabethan alabaster, rich in allegory.  The lower part depicts the Wise and Foolish Virgins – those on the left are industriously at work spinning and washing while the idle ladies on the right sing and dance, their lamps upturned.  The carved wood entablature above incorporates the arms of Sir Thomas Boynton and two of his three wives.  This was brought from nearby Barmston Hall, an early home of the Boyntons.  The chimney-piece is surmounted by the arms of Sir Griffith Boynton, 6th Baronet, impaling those of his first wife, Charlotte Topham. *

*From the Burton Agnes Hall guidebook.