Winchester

Winchester lies in the sheltered valley of the River Itchen, amid the chalk hills of Hampshire. Once a royal centre of Anglo-Saxon England, it retained its importance through its cathedral, bishopric and castle. The cathedral housed the remains of early kings, while the great hall of the castle recalled the presence of later rulers.

In the Civil War Winchester's ancient ties to the Crown did not spare it from attack. Parliamentary forces took the city in 1642, and soldiers damaged the cathedral, breaking stained glass and disturbing the chests containing royal bones. Royalist forces retook the city in October of the following year. The fighting and the demands of armies left their mark on the town as well as its great church.