Prize for the longest Nave goes to. . .

Winchester Cathedral

On Tuesday Sep 3rd I went to Winchester. By all accounts a gorgeous town and apparently one of the best places to live in the whole of Britain. Now that I've seen it with it's immaculate public gardens, impressive buildings, amazing statues and friendly locals; I can't argue. 


Winchester itself has enough history to have occupied me for an entire week. The first settlements there date back to prehistoric times but at the beginning of the third century is when protective stone walls were placed and, in around 686 after some Kings had it out (King of Wessex won), it became known as the de facto capital city of Wessex for a time. By this point we're looking at the Anglo-Saxon era, when Arthur the Great laid out a street plan which is still fairly evident today. There is a fab statue of him extending a sword point downwards by the hilt, towards the end of the 'main drag' of town, where you will have passed by the quite beautiful 'Buttercross' dating back to the 15th century.


Fascinating though the town is, I specifically went to see the Cathedral. A superb building to be sure, if you manage to find it. One would think a humongous cathedral would sort of 'stand out', but no; it stands back in fact, behind a lot of shops fronts, followed by a lot of trees, a long path and park grounds. Thankfully, the people at the information desk know exactly where it is and which shops to use as landmarks in order for us tourists to find it. 

Winchester Cathedral is quite something to behold, and boasts the 'longest nave and greatest overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe' according to Wikipedia. There are nooks and crannies everywhere and spiral staircases hidden behind tiny doors that go up and up and up. I was lucky enough to be able to see the Winchester Bible while there and it is absolutely beautiful, the artwork really is superb. I might do a separate blog on it as some stage. Also up there is a library, which I may have taken a slightly forbidden photo of (I say slightly because the lady guarding the door at the time coughed and looked the other way for me) while hiding in the window alcove...

Sneak peek of the Library

In 642 the cathedral was founded and became known as the Old Minster, becoming part of a monastic settlement in 971.  In 1079 a completely new cathedral was underway, and come 1093 this new cathedral was consecrated, and starting the very next day Old Minster was slowly demolished, though not before transporting its precious contents to the new one.  This new Cathedral was and is Winchester Cathedral, measuring 170.1 metres in length. As a point of interest, the floor plan/ birds eye view is in the shape of a cross, due to two chantrys being added on the north and south sides at some stage. 

View of the nave (and the incredible vaulted ceiling) towards the west door

While I was there I was lucky enough to witness choir practice, which certainly brought the place to life; accompanied beautifully by a huge organ. The acoustics were glorious, no matter where you were in the cathedral you could hear every note ring out perfectly.

Choir practice

Not surprisingly quite a number of well known/ famous people have been there and or are buried there. The two facts I was most surprised at: Mary of Tudor was married there, and Jane Austin is buried there. 

To finish up I'll leave you with a fascinating bit of history info on this building. When I heard this I reckon my eyebrows hit the ceiling and my jaw hit the floor!

From 1906 to 1912 a diver named William Walker spent 6 hours a day below the cathedral. What on earth was he doing down there you ask? 
Well, the south and east walls of the cathedral had seriously waterlogged foundations and the cathedral was doomed to collapse. This man reinforced the foundations by diving below the cathedral, where he packed more than 25,000 bags of concrete, 115,000 concrete blocks and 900,000 bricks directly onto and around the foundations. He worked in total darkness at depths up to 6 metres (20 feet) for 6 years, so it won't come as a surprise that for saving the cathedral from total collapse, he received an MVO. 
Cool, right? 

Bye for now!