TrustNews Mar 21

Winchester in the Archives

 

'A visitor who sees Winchester for the first time early in the morning on a sunny summer day will probably admit at once that he would have to travel far to find a more picturesque and, indeed, glorious background to the old buildings, towers, and spires in the foreground. Seventy years ago this wooded valley was bare downland.'

 

So wrote Alderman Thomas Stopher, Winchester architect (1837-1926), in his opening paragraph of ‘Reminiscences of the City of Winchester Seventy Years Ago’. It was published in 1920, in Volume 9 of the Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, founded in 1885.

 

Many organisations have created digital archives of their publications. This article features a sample of the contents of three archives that cover aspects of the history and architecture of Winchester.

 

Hampshire Field Club: Hampshire Studies archive - www.hantsfieldclub.org.uk

1892 Vol 2 - The Old House in Cheesehill Street by G H Kitchen

1929 Vol 11 - St Catherine's Hill and the Origin of Winchester

1941 Vol 15 part 1 – Winchester Cathedral Close by T D Atkinson

1943 Vol 15 part 3 - The Appeal of Architecture by R H Luce

1953 Vol 18 part 1 - King Charles and Winchester College by M Toynbee

1961 Vol 22 part 1 - A notable family of artists: the Caves of Winchester by Barbara Carpenter Turner

1971 Vol 28 - A Gazetteer of Brick and Tile Works in Hampshire by W F C White

1974 Vol 31 - The lost theatres of Winchester 1620-1861 by P Ranger

1989 Vol 45. - The History and Archaeology of the Hyde Brewery: Part 1 The Archaeological Survey by M Doughty

 

Winchester Cathedral Record Archives - www.wincathrecord.org

1932 - St Swithun’s Gate and The County and City Memorial

1958 - Had Winchester Cathedral a Central Spire? by John Harvey

1975 - The Cathedral Architect by Corinne Wilson

1992 - Robin Home McCall: Town Clerk of Winchester 1948-73

2011 - New Minster and the move to Hyde Abbey in 1110

 

The Georgian Group (founded in 1937) - www.georgiangroup.org.uk/journal

2002 Journal (Vol XII) - The lead-work at Winchester College School by Paul Holden<

 

As many of us have found during the ‘lockdown’, online browsing reveals a treasure trove of information. If there are other online archives that Members have found useful to further their knowledge about Winchester, please let us know.

 

Richard Baker