Helen Stephenson's Winchester Page

This page contains clickable images.

This page contains pictures taken during visits to Winchester.

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Winchester has links with King Arthur of Round Table fame. King Arthur's statue stands at the foot of the main shopping street.

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Above is the remains of a city gate. The Great Hall is open to the public and contains a Round Table. Its authenticity is not proven, and King Arthur may well have been around centuries before the table was made, but nevertheless, it is a very old table. (No photo of the table is available.)

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Below are some of the buildings near to the Cathedral. The Cathedral can be seen in the background of one picture.

 


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These are views of the West front of the Cathedral. I have included a close-up shot of the West Door, and two close-ups of the decoration on the central apex of the West Front.

 


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Note the difference in colour between the two close-ups of decoration on the central apex of the West Front. The sun was much stronger for the shot on the left, which I suspect is the more realistic of the two.

 




 

I changed my image processing procedure before preparing the images which follow. I did not sharpen the original bitmap, but created my screen-sized and thumbnail images and individually sharpened them. I believe that it has improved the quality of the images, particularly the thumbnails.

 




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I liked this side chapel very much. The stained glass windows are modern and very well executed.

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To the left is the view down the centre of the Nave to the west window. This window was smashed when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. The local people gathered up the glass from this window (and numerous others which were also broken) and the glass was replaced later, but randomly. In recent times, IBM input the shapes and colours of all the glass fragments into a computer and used it to attempt to recreate the original design of the windows. They were able to piece together one complete panel for the west window, and that panel was restored. All the other panels are still made up of random fragments, so you do not see scenes depicted by most of the windows in Winchester Cathedral.


To the right is the view looking towards the west along the north aisle. The Gothic design of this part of the Cathedral is apparent in these views. The Cathedral actually predates Gothic architecture, but was remodelled at the time when such architecture was popular. The transepts retained their original Norman architecture, which can be seen later.

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This beautiful carved wooden screen separates the Nave from the Choir.

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Behind the Choir, under the tops of the arches, are kept boxes of relics. The picture on the left shows one of these boxes.

To the right is the pulpit for the Choir.

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Here are two views of the altar and screen behind the Choir.


 

The Lady Chapel is located in the East end of the Cathedral.

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Winchester Cathedral is built on poorly drained land and by the beginning of the 20th Century, it was subsiding seriously. Old oak beams used in the foundations had rotted away and were so waterlogged that a diver had to be employed to carry out the necessary remedial works. The statue commemorates his efforts. The walls of the Cathedral will never be straight again, as the picture on the far left of the south east aisle shows.

 


 

The final two pictures show the Norman architecture in the transepts. They were taken some years earlier than the rest of the pictures on this page, and on much slower film. The difference in quality is noticeable, and I apologise for it.

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Last Revised: 30th December, 1999.