Hampshire Delights Part 2.....

After breakfast on Day two of our visit to Hampshire we set off to the village of Alresford to the railway station

where we boarded a steam train for a 20 mile round trip on the Watercress Line, which runs the 10 miles (16 km) from New Alresford to Alton where it connects to the National Rail network. The line gained its popular name in the days that it was used to transport locally grown watercress to markets in London.   MWM took a short video of our ride on the train, turn up your sound then you will hear all the train sounds.

After our train ride we had a short time in Alresford to get some lunch before boarding the coach again for a visit to Winchester. 

Our destination in Winchester was of course the Cathedral.

The Anglo-Saxon Old Minster was demolished in 1093-4 to make way for the present cathedral.

You can see where the Old Minster stood by the foundations that can still be seen to the side of the new Minster.   The Old Minster contained the shrine of St.Swithun, a bishop of Winchester who died in 863.  His relics attracted pilgrims from far and wide and by the year 1000 the church was "hung about on both walls from end to end with the crutches and stools of the crippled who had been healded by the saint'.  Old Minster was the most important royal church of anglo-Saxon England, among the kings buried there were Egbert in 839 and Alfred in 899 - later moved to the adjacent New Minster.   The Old Minster was also the burial church of King Cnut -Canute, d.1035 and his wife Emma and son Harthacnut d.1042.  

Edward the Confessor was crowned here in 1043. William the Conqueror and after him William Rufus 'wore his crown' in Old Minster at Easter every year they were in England until the monks moved to the new Norman Cathedral in 1093.  The new Cathedral received the relics of St. Swithun, the patron saint of the cathedral,  and the remains of Anglo-Saxon kings and bishops, the Old Minster was then demolished.  According to tradition, whatever the weather on St. Swithun's feast day (15 July) it will continue for forty days and forty nights, which is why in England we pray for fine weather on this date!

One of England's famous authors is also buried in the Cathedral - Jane Austen.

The Cathedral takes you through centuries of English church architecture, from the massive vaults

and it's early Norman crypt.

This mysterious life-size statue of a man contemplating the water held in his cupped hands is the work of the celebrated British sculptor Antony Gormley.  The crypt floods during rainy months and to stop the force of the flood water knocking over the sculpture it was filled with water.

It's Renaissance chantry chapels,

 it's beautiful ceilings,

original medieval tiled floors,

stained glass windows,

the view down the aisle to the main altar

and the great screen.

Winchester Cathedral is beautiful and so interesting with it's long history, well worth a visit.

It was almost time to head back to the meeting point for the coach so we ambled through the town taking in more modern architechure - the town hall,

and guess who this is

King Elfred (Alfred),  the only English monarch to be accorded the epithet "the Great".

We thoroughly enjoyed the train trip and the history of Winchester, I hope you did too.

Join me next time for Part 3 when we visit Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, where we see Henry VIII's flagship The Mary Rose amongst other fascinating historic ships.