A Winchester Treasure: Warden White's ceiling - TrustNews March 2007
In 1885 some interior alterations were put in hand to remodel the rooms at Winchester College, occupied by the Warden when in residence, to create what is known as ‘Tenth Chamber’, a dormitory for the Scholars. In the course of this work it was discovered that the partition walls were of reused oak boards covered with canvas and paper, concealing their original decoration. The then Bursar, T.F. Kirby, an active member of the Society of Antiquaries, recognising the black and white decoration as belonging to the 16th century, undertook some research and identified them as being attributable to Warden John White (1542-1554), and commemorating the marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain in Winchester Cathedral on 25th July 1554, which he had attended as Bishop of Lincoln.
Kirby exhibited this find to the Society of Antiquaries in 1886. He reported that 135 8” x 1” boards about 6½ feet long were discovered. When assembled, some of the boards made up panels decorated with a pair of medallions, one bearing the initials “IW”, attributed by Kirby to John White, and either a female Tudor head or a male Spanish head. Other wider boards fitted together to form fragments of a frieze, decorated with portrait medallions or plaques containing “Vive le roi” or texts from Ecclesiastes. Kirby also said that he had had some difficulty in matching some of the pieces and concluded that a considerable part was missing.
The oak boards were stored at the College until 1915 when they were loaned to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it was classified as a wall painting. It returned to the College in 1946, by which time it was clear that that some of the panels were from a ceiling, but no suitable site could be found where it might be reinstalled. It was stored for a time in the College Cheese Room and then in the Beer Cellar. In 1974, Elizabeth Lewis, the then Curator of the Winchester City Museum, who was researching timber ceilings, asked the College for permission to study the panels. This eventually led to an agreement between the City and the College to have the boards cleaned and restored for display in the Westgate Museum, which is not dissimilar in size and construction to the chamber above the Middle Gate of the College, where they were probably originally installed. Sadly, space does not permit an account of the highly professional process of restoration that was put in hand. The timber used in the majority of the panels is close grained and of Baltic origin. The other panels are constructed from English oak with a more open grain pattern.
White was born at Farnham in 1510 and entered Winchester College aged 11. He went up to New College, Oxford in 1527 and in 1534 was in the service of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester. In 1535 he became Headmaster of Winchester College, Prebendary of Winchester Cathedral 1541, Warden of Winchester College 1542, Bishop of Lincoln 1554, Bishop of Winchester 1556-1560, the last Roman Catholic to hold the post.
I am in the debt of Elizabeth Lewis whose detailed research into the origins of the ceiling is published in the Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, Volume 51, 1995, 137-165. I am also very appreciative of the help and advice I have received from Ross Turle of the Winchester City Museums Service, and Suzanne Foster, the Archivist at Winchester College.