A king, a cathedral and a writer

Who is this grand personage? Which city does he stand over?

After a long day of travel from Wales to Winchester which involved a cancelled train, a shared taxi with a fellow walker we'd met several times on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and a young woman also stranded by the cancelled train, the taxi getting a flat tyre, waiting by a busy road for a replacement taxi, getting on a later train unsure if our tickets were still valid, we eventually arrived in Winchester a few hours later than planned but before dinner. We had three days to rest and explore before starting our next walk.

Here are a few photos from Winchester.

Not much remains of the 13th century medieval castle. Stairs down to the passages beneath the castle.

The Great Hall, where banquets were held and the king sat in judgement over legal disputes.

Medieval coffins unearthed at a former nunnery nearby.

The City Mill on the River Itchen, a very pretty chalk stream, shallow with clear water filtered by the chalk geology.

Beautiful parks along the river and near the cathedral.

A piece of the Roman city wall from 300AD.

View of the bridge over the river from inside the City Mill.

Alms houses, built by the church for the poor.

Winchester Cathedral. The longest medieval church in Europe.

We did a guided tour. Very interesting.

The crypt under the cathedral has never been used for burials as it floods regularly due to the high water table beneath Winchester. This statue is a modern art work.

There are ten of these mortuary boxes, full of bones from early burials.

William Walker, saved the cathedral with his bare hands. He was a diver who spent five years between 1906 and 1911, under water in complete darkness beneath the cathedral removing rubble and concreting 114,900 concrete blocks and 900,000 bricks to shore up the foundations. He literally saved the cathedral from collapsing.

Famous literary figure, Jane Austen died in Winchester and is buried inside the cathedral.

A bronze statue of Jane, near the cathedral.

It was easy to fill in two days wandering the centre of Winchester. A charming city.

The imposing man is Alfred the Great, the king who united the various kingdoms in the 9th century to form England. Winchester was his city.