Visit Hampshire, United Kingdom
Winchester is a fabulous city situated in Hampshire, South West of England and has fantastic scenery surrounding its city. It’s about nine miles from Southampton. I visited Winchester this year, and I noticed a booming town.
Winchester is fast becoming the leading tourist destination as it has lots of tourist attractions, most of which are medieval and steeped in history. Winchester has a cathedral, and this alone has years’ worth of history behind it.
Some stories that you will hear about Winchester Cathedral lie somewhere between myth and fact. Legends mingle with historical chronicles to form a feast for the imagination. There’s no way to know precisely how long-ago humans first settled in Winchester.
Winchester has been part of the myths and legends of the Iron Age, Roman occupation, the history of King Arthur and his knights, and the brutal invasions of the Saxons.
Close by to Winchester is Old Sarum – The settlement at Old Sarum is likely connected to the stone monoliths of Stonehenge and Avebury. The hill stands at the intersection of two ancient trading paths. The Romans were not the first to occupy Old Sarum. When the Romans took over, the fort was already occupied by a tribe of exiled Gauls called Atrebates. The Saxons next captured old Sarum.
In 1070 William the Conqueror decided that Old Sarum was strategically valuable. He built a motte-and-bailey castle right in the middle of the hillfort. Can you imagine what they must have found in 1070? Digging the foundations on top of eight thousand years of history probably made incredible artefacts. Historians think that the original castle was built of timber. The fortified stone structure didn’t appear until sometime in the thirteenth century. Sadly, little remains of this castle today other than exposed foundations. For 150 years, Old Sarum was an essential centre of secular and religious government.
Historically a centre of the cloth industry, Salisbury-the county town of Wiltshire-lies at the point where the Rivers Nadder and Bourne flow into the River Avon. The city is most famous for its beautiful cathedral, a masterpiece of the early Gothic style that dates to 1220 when the building’s foundation stone was laid.
The old city centre is also worth exploring and is the location of many significant tourist attractions. Notable for its checkerboard layout, with lovely enclosed gardens squeezed between the houses, Salisbury was to become a model for medieval town planning.
On receiving royal market privileges, a bridge was built across the Avon in 1244, thereby creating perfect conditions for Salisbury to become an important trading centre. These days, Salisbury is a much-visited tourist destination not just for its rich and storied history, not to mention its proximity to Stonehenge, just 10 miles north of the city centre, but also for its many fine boutique shops and first-rate dining opportunities.
