Winchester and me

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Winchester from St Giles Hill

A couple of weekends ago, as described in my last post, John and I stepped off the train at Winchester to meet Becky of The Life of B. Forty years ago I arrived at the same station on a Sunday afternoon, on my way to an interview the next day which resulted in my first library job as a Trainee Librarian with Hampshire County Council.

Winchester is an ancient settlement (in the 9th century King Alfred reconstructed it), so I wasn’t expecting much to have changed in the historic centre – but what about my own history? Both Becky and John were kind enough to indulge me in searching it out.

Library HQ was very close to the station, and for my interview I stayed in a hotel between the two – I think this is the building below, now converted to housing, but Becky will correct me if I’m wrong. I know I definitely went to this church on Jewry Street in the evening.

Former Inn?
Church on Jewry Street

The first thing Becky did was take us for coffee in the library. I never worked in this building, which I believe was the Lending Library at the time, though I’m sure it didn’t have a colourful staircase like this back then. After coffee and a chat, Becky took us round the corner to the former Library HQ, now private residences. I remember the structure – the arches led to the Reference Library and the rest was HQ where I worked in one of the rooms with the big bay windows. My boss seemed to spend most of his time on the window seat, drinking coffee and chatting to his friends, while I did everything else! What I didn’t remember was the vibrant red brick – maybe it has been cleaned up in the interim.

Winchester Library
Former Library HQ

I lived in Winchester’s YWCA (a misnomer, as most of the residents were men) for 8 of the 12 months of my traineeship. Later in the day, after Becky had left us, we went looking for it – I knew roughly where it was, but couldn’t remember what it looked like. However, as soon as I saw the building below the memory of entering through that covered passage-way came back very clearly. It’s now known as Milford House and still seems to be some sort of hostel.

But enough about me! Time for some pictures of the really interesting bits of Winchester. The Cathedral is not to be missed, of course. The two monuments are in honour of William Walker, a diver who worked in 14 feet of water to underpin the tottering foundations between 1905 and 1912. What an awful job! The ladies in pink you probably know.

Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral
Memorial to William Walker
Anabel and Becky, Winchester 2018
Statue of William Walker
Winchester Cathedral

Jane Austen, whose books I love, is buried in Winchester Cathedral, and nearby is the house in which she died – allegedly: Becky tells me this is no longer certain.

Jane Austen’s grave
Jane Austen’s House

St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate Church is interesting – it’s set above an archway in the City Walls. Oh look, those ladies in pink again!

St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate
St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate

And – I could go on and on, but here are just a few of the other lovely buildings we encountered (all are captioned, please Becky – tell me of any mistakes!)

Chesil Rectory
City Mill
King Alfred
Bishop’s House
St Swithun Street
Symonds Street
St Thomas Street
Cheyney Court
Buttercross
High Street
Eclipse Inn
Westgate
Peninsula Barracks
Serle’s House

Many thanks once again to Becky for being our tour guide in the morning. We had a great day out in this wonderful city, and the only thing I really wanted to see and didn’t was the Great Hall and King Arthur’s Round Table, which was closed for a wedding. I’ll need to save that for the next time – although unless I live to be 100 I can’t afford to let another 40 years elapse before I revisit!

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  1. Pingback: Sheffield 2: more student memories – and a murder enquiry – The Glasgow Gallivanter

  3. Anabel, somehow I have fallen way behind on reading my favourite blogs, and am trying to catch up now. It must have been so interesting comparing your memories from 40 years ago with the sights as you walked around. Memory is an interesting thing.

    Jude

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  5. oh this is fabulous . . .what a wonderful wonderful post on my home town and it looks to me that you got everything spot on 🙂

    It was so lovely to meet you both, and I only wish i could have stayed longer. Next time I promise I won’t be so busy! And how about coming down again in September, making it 4months instead of 4days for Heritage Open days – talking of which may I repost this there?

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  7. We once went to a wedding not too far from Winchester but have never actually made it to the city. Thanks for an enjoyable tour and lovely photos – always so interesting to revisit places and reminisce!

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  10. Winchester looks like a wonderful place to visit, and I’m so glad you were able to meet a fellow blogger who could show you around. It’s always fun to revisit our “old stomping grounds” and see what has changed and what has remained the same. I hope you don’t let 40 years go by before your next visit!

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      • Hi Anabel…I also lived at the YWCA in Winchester between ’82 and ’86. 40 years ago from 2017 would have put you there a few years before me…however during my time there, the numbers had swung the other way, with about 5 guys to 40 or so women.Two other guys and myself had the three rooms on the very top floor of the building (to the left of your photo). For three 19 year old lads, a Penthouse Suite and 40 odd ladies to pursue, we thought we had died and gone to heaven!

        Loved Winchester and still do. Any one who hasn’t been, needs to….

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        • Thank you for adding that information! I was there Jan-Sept 1979. It’s interesting to know that just three years later the gender balance had swung completely. As far as I can remember there was one double room for women which you got when you arrived. The women’s single rooms were to the right of that, in a slightly more modern part of the building. When somebody left, you got “promoted” out of the double room. I can only remember about half a dozen other women, but there may have been more. Like you I enjoyed having lots of the opposite sex around and had a couple of temporary boyfriends “in-house” before meeting someone outside with whom I became more seriously involved, though that didn’t last either. It was a fun time!

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          • Yes the girls single rooms where to the right of the main staircase on two levels (so to the right of the corridoor entrance from the road.). I think there were about six rooms there. The area was very much off limits to boys, supposedly ;). The boys single rooms where the three on the top floor on the left of the building, once again suppousedly off limits to the girls. All the other rooms on the second floor of the main house were multibedded rooms 2/3 accept for two singles which were always girls rooms whilst I was there.. There were then two single rooms off the the main hall on the ground floor which were unisex whilst I was there. Newbies shared and as singles became available it was based on seniority.

            I can hardly rembember what I did last week….but this stuff is clear as it if where yesterday LOL

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  12. I need to go back to Winchester one of these days too. There’s actually quite a lot to do there! I did get to see the Great Hall and Arthur’s Round Table (which is obviously of shady provenance, but still cool), but I didn’t go in the cathedral, and I skipped some of the military museums in the old barracks.

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    • There is loads more we could still do too. Because i was on my nostalgic building hunt we didn’t actually go into anything very much, apart from the cathedral. We would always skip the military museum – not my thing – but there’s loads more. The gardens at the barracks were still a parade ground “in my day” and I remember going to Beating the Retreat there which involved, as far as I can remember, lots of military band music.

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  14. Winchester is a most delightful city, small enough to be able to explore the centre on foot. You were lucky to have a tour guide 🙂 My lasting memory of the cathedral was an Australian choir rehearsing for a competition and the voices made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, they were so beautiful. Talking of going back in time though, I bet I wouldn’t recognise anything from the city I was born in (and lived in from age 10 – 18). Might be interesting though.

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    • I have done that a few years ago (pre-blogging) in the 3 areas I lived in from birth to 16 and recognised quite a lot, though some things had changed and some memories were distorted. Understandably, everything seemed much smaller than I thought it was!

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      • Why is that? I mean I can understand as a child things look bigger, but as a teenager? Surely not. I have used Google maps to spy on the places I lives as a child. Some unrecognisable.

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        • I don’t know! I went to a school reunion at my old secondary which I attended 11-16. I remembered a huge entrance hall but it was actually quite small. Maybe the importance of it made it loom large in my mind? Staff room and head teacher’s office both off it. As an aside, that same headteacher was in the news recently standing as a councillor aged 96!

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  15. Hi Anabel – how lovely to have that nostalgic trip back … such fun to see. Interesting about staying in the YMCA for the duration in your younger days … but loved seeing all the buildings – I must get there when I return … cheers Hilary

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    • It was lovely to wander through memories, Hilary. The hostel was a YWCA officially but only had a few women so it might as well have been a YMCA! I remember it being quite fun.

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    • I was surprised how many of my memories were inaccurate. Roughly right, but my impressions of what the buildings looked like were often wrong. But I suppose that’s what 40 years does for you!

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  19. Hi, Anabel – Your post made me wonder what it would be like to visit the town where I held my first full time (teaching) job many years ago. Sadly, as the population of that town is just under 1,200 people, I would be unlikely to meet any bloggers there that I follow. 🙂
    BTW – What a wonderful opening photo – the bright blue triangle in the foreground is very intriguing.

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    • It is – I don’t remember noticing it on the ground. It’s the same bright blue as the hostel door (which i’m sure wasn’t that colour back in the day). Memory played tricks again here – I confidently asserted I had never been up that hill before, and yet I later found a little photo of the same view (one of those square instamatics).

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  20. Didn’t know anything about Winchester at all apart from the name so that was a great visual tour. Really interesting old buildings. Enjoyed The Last Kingdom TV series recently about that neck of the woods around King Alfred’s time and Wessex ( the last kingdom of the title) resistance against the Danes attempting to colonise and settle large parts of England. I hope libraries always have a place in society. I still use them all the time.

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  22. Your personal history is intermixed with so much of this city’s history … and now of course you will associate it with meeting Becky.

    Great photos – it looks like a beautiful city. I have trouble wrapping my head around how old it is. There were 2 things that struck me the most from your photos – the large black clock on High Street looks like it’s playing peek-a-boo, and on first glance, Westgate appears to have 2 wine glasses on the top over the doors. Sign of a party place perhaps 😉

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  23. Just lovely Anabel, and we will visit it when we are in Chichester during June. The buildings are beautiful. Great that you caught up with another blogger 🙂

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  26. Another great trip and so many unique and very old buildings. It must have been fun to revisit where you were 40 yrs ago. I’d love to see these old buildings and the cathedral. It must have been a great time to spend it with a fellow blogger.

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  27. Good post. Never been to Winchester so enjoyed the photographs. The ‘Pink Ladies” looked well. Actually all I know about Winchester is the song. Nice to go back to the past and see old places. Sadly my past is gone. Highland Haulage and Craigmont Street depot have gone as have other areas from memory. Our house in Cardonald is still there, so that’s at least something.

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  28. What lovely recollections, ably assisted by our good friend, Anabel. 🙂 🙂 It’s a fine looking city, with a cracking history, isn’t it? I watched the Tony Robinson programme on the cathedral with interest.

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  29. Lovely post. Your photos are beautiful. I wasn’t aware that Winchester was the final resting place of Jane Austen. It’s one of these cities on my “bucket list” to visit; maybe I need to look out a train map 😉

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  30. How lovely to revisit and reminisce. I’ve been to Winchester twice. It’s such a pretty city and there is so much history. The second time was with Mr ET and we did a walking tour with a volunteer from the Tourist Information Centre. She was delightful and passionate about her city. I also bought the most delicious fresh raspberries at a market in Winchester. They were enormous and so sweet. I’ve never forgotten them. 🙂

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  31. Very interesting post. A nice walk into history, both your own and of the wider world. Winchester Cathedral looks particularly beautiful.

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  33. I can imagine a forty year younger you roaming those gorgeous streets, Anabel. And I just love the way colourful, artistic and modern touches (like the stairs) are right alongside old buildings.

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  34. Great post and reminds me of a recent holiday there. I went for the watercress festival and ate all that was put before me, watercress scones, bread, rice, mashed potatoes – you name it, they put watercress in it.

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  36. What a wonderful stroll down memory lane! It’s so interesting to see a place from different eyes – first as a young woman just starting out, then from the eyes of a mature adult enjoying the freedom of retirement. How nice that you were able to rediscover the town and the buildings that played such a big role in your life way back then.

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