• England Guide

  • Introduction to England
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Entry requirements
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore England

  • Kent and Sussex
  • Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire
  • Oxfordshire, the Chilterns and the Cotswolds
  • Bristol, Bath and Somerset
  • Devon and Cornwall
  • East Anglia
  • The West Midlands and the Peak District
  • The East Midlands
  • The Northwest
  • Cumbria and the Lakes
  • Yorkshire
  • The Northeast

• Cities

  • Bath
    
  • Birmingham
    
  • Bradford
    
  • Brighton
    
  • Bristol
    
  • Cambridge
    
  • Canterbury
    
  • Carlisle
    
  • Chester
    
  • Chichester
    
  • Durham
    
  • Ely
    
  • Exeter
    
  • Hereford
    
  • Lancaster
    
  • Leeds
    
  • Lincoln
    
  • Liverpool
    
  • London
    
  • Manchester
    
  • Newcastle upon Tyne
    
  • Norwich
    
  • Nottingham
    
  • Oxford
    
  • Portsmouth
    
  • Salisbury
    
  • Sheffield
    
  • Wells
    
  • Winchester
    
  • York
    

England Guide

Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire

Winchester

• Accommodation
• Food and drink

Nowadays a tranquil, handsome market town, WINCHESTER was once one of the mightiest settlements in England. Alfred the Great made it the capital of his Wessex kingdom in the ninth century and for the next two centuries Winchester ranked alongside London, its status affirmed by William the Conqueror's coronation in both cities and by his commissioning of the local monks to prepare the Domesday Book. It wasn't until after the Battle of Naseby in 1645, when Cromwell took the city, that Winchester began its decline into provinciality. Hampshire's county town now has a scholarly and slightly anachronistic air, embodied by the ancient almshouses that still provide shelter for senior citizens of "noble poverty".