Winchester Walk

The town is a unspoilt cathedral city on the edge of the South Downs national park, Winchester is England's ancient capital and the former seat of King Alfred the Great. It was founded shortly before the Romans arrived in Britain, at a important crossing point on the River Itchen. Alfred the Great made it capital of the West Saxons in ad 871 and the Statue of him stands at the foot of the High Street and Winchester remained the capital of Wessex and, in a sense, of England well into Norman times.

Details of Walk

• Date of Walk: 26/02/2011

• Distance: 4.95 Miles

• Starting Point Postcode:

• Car Park: Fingrith Hall Lane near the Crossroads CM4 0RL

• Refreshments: Leather Bottle & Prince Albert, 2 Tearooms Jericho Cottage & Blackmore Tearooms.

• Photos Taken on Walk

Winchester Castle where both kings Henry III and Henry VIII's elder brother, Artur, were born, was destroyed during the civil war and only the Great Hall remains where the great painted round table-top hangs which is linked to king Arthur but it was probably made in the Tudor times. Well that's a brief look into the history let's start the walk, we parked up at the guest house and headed into town to start the walk cutting through St Michaels passage along side the church into Kingsgate up to College Street where we turned into and went past Winchester college on our right then turned right down College Walk with the college wall on the right of us all the way.

We were now walking alongside one of many tributaries from the River Itchen that run through the town heading out into the country. Its not long before you come to St Cross Hospital with fine almshouses that date from the 12th century, with a superb Norman church and they have a ancient tradition of providing beer and bread for wayfarers, which are still given today on request, we were not hungry or needed a drink so we carried on. When reaching a gated road we turned left and went over the River Itchen where looking up the river from the bridge you could see a Island where the river splits and then goes under a farmhouse.A little bit further you turn left and head back to WInchester and we see a footpath sign on the right, thinking this is the one that will take us up Catherine's hill we set out to follow the path uphill only to find out that we should have carried on as this was another hill next to Catherine's hill, so down we came the other side to face another climb up another hill which was even more steeper, mind you they did have steps don't ask me how many as we did not count but there was a lot. the view once up the top was worth the climb, see photos above. From here we descended down the other side without the aid of steps and a little bit muddy under foot and Christine landed on her rear, we carried on along the banks of the River Itchen until we reach the town which takes you past the castle ruins, City Mlll, the Statue, and then the cathedral and grounds then go down the cloister to go out via Prior's gate and under St Swithun's Church into Kingsgate Street again. then back to the guest house to change so we could go up the town to look around.

We decided to go to evening song at the cathedral where you get the atmosphere and able to see inside at the same time. Afterwards we went to Theatre Royal to see My House musical with music based on records the group Madness had made. We were very lucky as when we went to book the tickets in the afternoon they said they had sold out and only had returned ones which were £4.00 cheaper as they had been a family booking. We were right in the middle of the first row in the circle, when the curtain came up and nobody had come on the stage the audience were all applauding which seemed a little strange but a bit later we found out that most the audience was made up of parents of the actors. The musical was done by a local youth amateur theatrical society, but saying that it was very good a funny.