Winchester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity and of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and of Saint Swithun in Winchester, is the cathedral of the city of Winchester, England, and is among the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Winchester and is the mother church for the ancient Diocese of Winchester. It is run by a dean and chapter, under the dean of Winchester.

The cathedral as it stands today was built from 1079 to 1532 and is dedicated to numerous saints, most notably Swithun. It has a very long and very wide nave in the Perpendicular Gothic style, an Early English retroquire, and Norman transepts and tower. With an overall length of , it is the longest medieval cathedral in the world. With an area of , it is also the sixth-largest cathedral by area in the UK, surpassed only by Liverpool, St Paul's, York, Westminster (RC) and Lincoln.

A major tourist attraction, the cathedral attracted 365,000 visitors in 2019, an increase of 12,000 from 2018.

History

Earlier buildings

Though churches were recorded in Winchester as early as 164, the first Christian church can be traced back to c. 648, when King Cenwalh of Wessex built a small, cross-shaped building just north of the present building. This building, known as the Old Minster, became the cathedral for the new Diocese of Winchester in 662, a vast area stretching from the English Channel to the River Thames, the bishopric having been transferred from Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire by Bishop Wine. The design of this early church cannot be confirmed, for no trace other than ground plan exists today, but Wolstan mentions a gateway tower situated some distance from the west end. Walkelin began the construction of a huge new Norman cathedral, on a site just to the south of the Old and New Minsters, the site of the present building. The next year a new chapter was formed, and the last prior, William Basyng, was appointed dean. Mary I married Philip of Spain here in 1554. The monastic buildings, including the cloister and chapter house, were later demolished, mostly during the 1560–1580 tenure of the reformist bishop Robert Horne.

17th–19th centuries

The 17th century saw important changes to the interior, including the erection of a choir screen by Inigo Jones in 1638–1639, the insertion of a wooden fan vault underneath the crossing tower (previously the tower was open to the church) and the destruction of much medieval glass and imagery by Parliamentarian soldiers in December 1642, including the near-complete destruction of the massive Great West Window by Cromwell and his forces. The window was put back together by the townspeople as a mosaic following the Restoration of the Monarchy, but it has never regained its original appearance as the damage was too great.

Jackson, acknowledging he was out of his depth, brought in engineer Francis Fox, whose company had completed projects such as the Mersey Tunnel. Jackson and Fox sunk a trench to the foundations of the east end and discovered the Normans had constructed the entire cathedral on a 'floating raft', consisting of a 15-inch-thick layer of beech trees, laid diagonally one on top of the other. Some of these beech trees were solid, but others had rotted and collapsed, and as they did so, the cathedral shifted and sank into the soft ground, which was not strong enough to support the enormous weight of the building, causing the cracks, bulges and leaning walls. Fox removed a layer of topsoil, and ten feet of clay, at which point they arrived at the raft. Below this was a solid layer of peat, about 8 feet thick, and below this at a depth of 16 to 24 feet below the cathedral floor, they encountered a more solid layer of gravel, which they intended to utilise as the new base for the foundations. and is credited with saving the cathedral from collapse. The total cost of the work was £113,000, equivalent in 2017 to nearly £9 million. Walker laid more than 25,000 bags of concrete, 115,000 concrete blocks, and 900,000 bricks.

21st century

In February 2000, a three-year project was completed to clean and conserve the nave and west front, which were last cleaned in 1897. For those three years, the nave had been covered with scaffolding both internally and externally. Following the removal of the scaffolding in early 2000, it was the first time the cathedral interior had been free of scaffolding since 1990.

thumb|upright=1.3|The west front in 2012, after restoration

During August 2006, a near-catastrophic fire was narrowly averted, when a flying Chinese lantern got caught on the roof and began setting fire to it. Fortunately, no lasting damage took place and the fire was quickly extinguished. A spokesman for Hampshire Fire & Rescue said that had it not been spotted, the fire could have been similar in scale to the 1984 fire at York Minster, which almost completely destroyed the south transept.

In March 2011, a new single-storey extension in the corner of the north presbytery aisle was completed. Called the Fleury building after it was officially opened by the abbot of Fleury from L'Abbaye de St-Benôit-sur-Loire in France, it was the first new extension on the cathedral building since the lady chapel was extended in the mid 16th century. The new building housed toilet facilities, storage and a new boiler, replacing a remote facility in the Wessex Hotel a short distance away. The new extension cost £820,000, which was raised by the Friends of Winchester Cathedral.

2012–2019 restoration

During September 2012, fundraising began for a planned £19 million programme of repair and expansion. This project aimed to repair and conserve the ancient stained-glass windows of the presbytery clerestory, restore the wooden vault of the presbytery, replace the lead roof of the east end, rewire the building with a new sound system, and open a new exhibition on the Winchester Bible in the south transept triforium.

During the end of 2012, a high-level internal access scaffold was erected in the presbytery to enable close inspection of the vault and clerestory windows. The vault was subject to a detailed construction and paint analyses. The results of the inspection and analysis revealed severe corrosion in the windows, many of which had holes in and collapsed glass, and the failure of the lead roof above, which was causing degrading to the 16th-century wooden vault of the presbytery. A trial removal of the 1950s paint revealed the surviving 16th-century paint underneath on the nearly 200 roof bosses. In July 2013, a £10.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund allowed the restoration work to begin.

In 2014, a birdcage or suspended scaffold was installed below the vault in the presbytery, where it was expected to stay for four years. This scaffold allowed close contact with the vaults and clerestory windows to be repaired. The scaffold weighed 5 tonnes. Also in 2014, the south transept was removed of all of its items including 7,000 books from the library, to allow it to be restored and made ready for the new exhibition, Kings and Scribes, which was planned to open in the triforium at the end of the restoration project. The south transept was then filled with scaffolding and sealed off at the tower arch from the rest of the cathedral, which was expected to remain for nearly three years.

thumb|The presbytery vault in February 2009, before restoration

In January 2015, a massive scaffolding frame began to be assembled in the Outer Close, which would be raised to cover the entire presbytery roof. In March 2015, a 300 tonne crane lifted the 27 tonne scaffolding frame to a height of above the cathedral floor onto the roof. This scaffolding frame, which was moulded to the shape of the roof, was then covered with a waterproof layer to allow the lead underneath to be removed. Over the next few weeks, 54 tonnes of lead were removed from the roof, dating back as far as the early 19th century, and sent to Leicester to be recast. This stage of work was completed in May 2016 with the removal of the external scaffolding and the completion of the lead replacement.

thumb|The same vault in November 2020, after restoration

As part of the works to restore the south transept ahead of its use as an exhibition space, a statue was discovered on its gable end in 2017. The original statue, made of Caen stone, was in a very poor state of repair. Caen stone was too soft as an external stone, especially on the exposed roof ridge on the south transept, where it is exposed to the prevailing wind. The head had sheared off at the neck and several cracks were found elsewhere in the statue. The plinth supporting the statue was also in very poor condition. Examination of the statue revealed it dated back to c. 1330 to 1352. Thanks to a grant from The Radcliffe Trust, the statue was replaced with a newly carved life-sized figure of a medieval ecclesiastic clad in an alb, made of Portland stone. By February 2017, the cathedral were only £200,000 short of their fundraising goal, which had increased to £20.5 million. By November, the final clerestory window had been reinserted. They had been removed beginning 2015 for restoration and were sent to Wells, Somerset for restoration. The Great East Window was also restored in this time but was so fragile, the conservation works were completed in-situ. Just as these window repairs were completed, conservation on eight windows in the north transept began, including the oldest stained-glass window in the cathedral, dating from 1330. A new oak mezzanine floor was installed in the triforium to prevent visitors from walking on the uneven floor. The glass lift was installed in the frame during this time, comprising 18 panels, the largest weighing some 550 kilograms.

Starting in January 2018, the birdcage installed in 2014 was slowly removed due to the completion of the vault and window repairs, allowing the vault and windows to be viewed for the first time in nearly four years. The stone reredos, dating from 1450 to 1476, called the Great Screen, was cleaned for the first time since 1890.

The entire project came to a close on 21 May 2019, with the opening of the Kings and Scribes exhibition in the south transept, the removal of all internal and external scaffolding, and the reopening of the south transept, which had been closed off for five years, some two and a half years longer than originally expected.

Management crisis and resignations, 2024–25

During Summer 2024, the cathedral entered into a period of disruption when it became clear that the resignation on 2 May of the long-serving director of music, Dr Andrew Lumsden, was not a decision he had made willingly. Dr Lumsden’s departure was reported in the national press. Amidst negative reports concerning the management by the cathedral’s Chapter of their music department, the crisis deepened when it was announced on 18 June that the senior non-executive member of Winchester Cathedral Chapter, Mark Byford (a former head of the BBC World Service and its former deputy director-general) had resigned. The Bishop of Winchester, Philip Mounstephen, stepped in and commissioned a review.

The review was conducted by a partner at the law firm Winckworth Sherwood, Patti Russell, and a former Dean of Norwich, the Very Revd Jane Hedges, who interviewed 47 members of the cathedral community, and reviewed more than 140 submissions. Whilst the full report was not made public, the summary published in March 2025 stated that, on starting interviews in September 2024, the reviewers “immediately encountered stress and, in some cases, extreme pain at what had happened to the institution, to themselves and to other individuals caught up in the fall-out”. Mistakes had been made by the leadership team at the cathedral through “misunderstandings ... poor judgement ... inadequate advice ... organisational culture ... and some simply due to individual personalities”. There was “failure to appropriately manage people, including the management of poor performance, unacceptable behaviour and contractual changes”, along with a “culture of secrecy, due to a misunderstanding of appropriate confidentiality and the aversion of key individuals to conflict”. The reviewers recommended that the posts of Director of Music and Precentor (a position held by Canon Andrew Trenier since 2019) be restructured, and the music strategy be “revisited”.

The Dean, Catherine Ogle, stepped down with immediate effect, apologising on behalf of the Chapter to “everyone who has been hurt by the events of the last few months”. The Chapter, she said, had to accept “collective responsibility” but, as its leader, she was stepping back. On 13 July 2025, it was announced by the Acting Dean that “after six years the Revd Canon Andrew Trenier has concluded his tenure as Canon Precentor and Sacrist of Winchester Cathedral as of July 11, 2025”.

left|thumb|Nave cross section showing how it was transformed from Norman (right) to Gothic (left)

The central tower, which rises only one story above the steeply pitched roof of the nave, was rebuilt in the Norman style following its collapse in 1107. There are indications it was originally intended to be higher, the interior of the belfry stage is highly decorative, featuring dog-tooth carvings, which additionally indicates it was intended to be a lantern stage, potentially with a belfry stage above. Whether a further stage was planned or not is unknown, but a wooden fan vault was installed in 1635 to allow the installation of bells above, thus closing the upper stages of the tower off to the cathedral below. Underneath the tower is the choir, separated from the nave by a large and intricate wooden screen dating from the 1870s, by George Gilbert Scott. Behind the screen are the choir stalls and misericords, some of which date back to 1308, and are made out of carved oak. <gallery widths="200" heights="250">

File:Plan of Winchester Cathedral by Philip Walsingham Sergeant.png|Plan of the Cathedral

File:Winchester Cathedral November 2020 39.jpg|Norman central tower and north transept

File:Winchester Cathedral West Facade sunset.jpg|Bishop Edington's west façade

File:Winchester Cathedral Choir, Hampshire, UK - Diliff.jpg|Choir stalls and screen

File:Orgel der Kathedrale von Winchester.jpg|Choir stalls canopy, organ, tower arch and fan vault

File:Winchester Cathedral (Holy Trinity) (47137660351).jpg|Detail on Lady Chapel

File:Winchester Cathedral November 2020 15.jpg|Arches cut into the retroquire

File:Winchester Cathedral reredos post restoration.jpg|Reredos and Great Screen – 1450 to 1476

</gallery>

Stained glass

Much of Winchester's stained glass was lost during the time of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector when the enormous Great West Window was smashed by Roundheads, as were many other windows in the lower levels of the building. The glass from the Great West Window was put back together with clear glass as a mosaic following the restoration.

As such, most of the surviving stained glass is in the upper levels of the cathedral, such as in the Great East Window, which was restored as part of the 2012–2020 restoration. The great east window dates from 1620s, and contains the work of Flemish craftsmen, whose work can also be seen in King's College Chapel in Cambridge. Much of the glass in the presbytery clerestory dates from 1404 to 1426, and was made by Thomas of Oxford. There is also a rose window in the gable of the north transept. The oldest stained-glass window in the cathedral is in the north transept, dating from 1330. <gallery widths="200" heights="225">

File:Winchester Cathedral Mosaic Stained Glass, Hampshire, UK - Diliff.jpg|The Great West Window, now a mosaic

File:Winchester Cathedral Stained Glass 4 (5699670578).jpg|Stained glass in one of the clerestory windows of the nave

File:Winchester Cathedral - Lady Chapel Window.jpg|Lady chapel window

File:Rose Window in Winchester Cathedral by John Francis Campbell.jpg|An engraving of the north transept rose window

</gallery>

Vaults

Much of the cathedral building is vaulted, some using stone and other parts, wood. The oldest vaulted part of the building is the 11th-century crypt, which is vaulted in stone throughout. The nave and aisles are vaulted using Beer stone. The aisles of the presbytery, the lady chapel and the retroquire are also vaulted in stone. The vaulting underneath the central tower and spanning the presbytery is vaulted in wood, painted to look like stone. Many of the chantry chapels have fan vaults. The highest vault in the cathedral is above ground level. The transepts are not vaulted except for in the aisles, instead, they have 19th-century wooden ceilings. <gallery widths="213" heights="190">

File:Anthony Gormley's Sound II - Winchester Cathedral.jpg|Antony Gormley's Sound II in Winchester Cathedral's crypt whilst partially flooded.

File:Winchester Cathedral retrochoir-1.jpg|Early English vault in the aisles of the presbytery

File:Winchester Cathedral November 2020 17.jpg|Blue pseudo fan vault of the SE chapel of the retroquire

File:Winchester Cathedral prebystery vault.jpg|Late perpendicular Gothic vault of the presbytery

File:Winchester Cathedral November 2020 33.jpg|Vaulting in the nave, early Perpendicular

File:Winchester Cathedral chantry chapel fan vault.jpg|Fan vault in one of the chantry chapels of the retroquire

File:Winchester Cathedral (Holy Trinity) (33238516478).jpg|Wooden fan vault underneath the tower, 1635.

</gallery>

Monuments and treasures

The cathedral has numerous monuments and treasures. These include the 12th-century Tournai font, the Morley Library, the Kings and Scribes exhibition and the Winchester Bible. The font is a rare survivor from a collection known as the Tournai fonts and dates back to c. 1150. It is one of only ten fonts of its kind in England. The font weighs 1.5 tonnes and is made from Carboniferous limestone from Belgium. It features unique carvings of the healings of Saint Nicholas. The font was gifted to the cathedral by Henry of Blois.

The Morley Library, housed in the triforium of the south transept, houses a collection of rare books, all of which were given to the cathedral by George Morley, Bishop of Winchester from 1662 to 1684. The books still rest on their original 17th-century carved shelves.

The Kings and Scribes exhibition is the culmination of a £20.5 million restoration of the transepts and east end, and displays hundreds of ancient artefacts, including skulls, weaponry and building stone, all displayed alongside 21st-century technology. Also in the exhibition is the famous Winchester Bible, which is considered to be the largest and best-preserved 12th-century Bible in England. The text, in the Latin of St Jerome, was handwritten on 468 sheets of calf-skin parchment, each measuring . These sheets were folded down the centre, making 936 pages in all. The illustrations in the Bible sometimes used lapis lazuli which was both rare and extremely expensive, coming from Afghanistan. The remains of these individuals were originally interred in the Old Minster, chief burial place of the Wessex ruling dynasty, but they are believed to have been transferred to Winchester's Norman cathedral after the minster was demolished in 1093 to make way for the new construction. Their bones were placed in chests, but these were heavily disturbed during the English Civil War, and the remains are today commingled, with several individuals found within each chest, and some individuals spread over multiple boxes.

File:Jane Austin Memorial (5699253668).jpg|Monument to Jane Austen

File:WinchesterBible2Kings(frontpiece).GIF|One of the pages of the Winchester Bible

File:William Walker bust winchester.jpg|Bust of William Walker, who saved the cathedral by diving underneath it

File:Wincath1-11S7-9724wiki.jpg|Site of the shrine of Swithun, destroyed in the Dissolution.

</gallery>

Chantry chapels

The cathedral building contains a large number of chantry chapels, often dedicated to the various Bishops of Winchester. These chantry chapels, which can be found mostly in the retroquire but also the nave, are intricately designed. Famous chantry chapels include those of William Wykeham, William Wayneflete, Richard Fox and Henry Beaufort.

<gallery widths="200" heights="200">

File:Winchester Cathedral (Holy Trinity) (46223984685).jpg|Bishop Fox's chantry chapel

File:Winchester Cathedral (Holy Trinity) (46223988085).jpg|Bishop Gardiner's chantry chapel

File:Winchester Cathedral (Holy Trinity) (46223985465).jpg|Henry Beaufort's chantry chapel

File:Winchester Cathedral (Holy Trinity) (46414538304).jpg|Chantry chapel of Bishop Wayneflete

</gallery>

Music

Organ

thumb|Organ case

The earliest recorded organ at Winchester Cathedral was in the tenth century; it had 400 pipes and could be heard throughout the city. This first organ required two men to play it, and 70 men to blow it. The present organ has its core dating back to 1851, when a very large instrument was built by Henry Willis and Sons for the Great Exhibition, held at The Crystal Palace, London. The then Cathedral organist, Samuel Wesley, visited the exhibition and was impressed by its size and tone. He recommended to the Dean & Chapter that they purchase the instrument for Winchester. The purchase was completed for £2,500, and the instrument was installed at Winchester three years later, in 1854, after being reduced in size slightly. The instrument, as installed, had four manuals and 49 stops.

It was modified in 1897 and 1905, and completely rebuilt by Harrison & Harrison in 1937 and again in 1986–88. Organists at Winchester have included composer Richard Browne (1627–1629); Christopher Gibbons whose patronage aided the revival of church music after the Interregnum, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, the composer of sacred music and Martin Neary, who arranged the music for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey.

The organ in its present form contains more than 5,500 pipes and 79 stops.

The Cathedral Girls' Choir was founded in 1999 and is made up of 20 girls between the ages of 12 and 17, who are educated across Hampshire. The girls' choir sing a weekly Sunday service with the Lay Clerks during term time and unite with the boys for the major festivals of Christmas and Easter.

The Cathedral Chamber Choir is formed of 30 professional adult singers from across Hampshire, and provide choral music for school holidays when the boy and girl choirs are on break, except for Easter and Christmas. The choir regularly performs at concerts.

Additionally, there is a volunteer choir formed of members of the congregation, known as the Cathedral Nave Choir, formed of 40 adults. The Nave Choir sing one service per month. There are also two further youth choirs, one called the Junior Choir, and the other called the Youth Choir. The Junior Choir is a mixed choir of boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 13. There is no audition process for the Junior Choir, unlike all the other choirs. The Youth Choir is similar to the Junior Choir, but is for boys and girls over the age of 14, and requires an audition process.

Bells

Bells have rung out from the Cathedral since Saxon times. It is recorded that King Cnut gave two bells to the Old Minster where he was buried in 1035, though neither of these bells survive. By the middle of the 17th century, following conversion of the tower from a lantern into a tower suitable for bells, seven bells were installed in a very large oak frame made by John Williams.

In 1891, the tenor bell cracked and was recast by Mears & Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1892 to a slightly lighter weight of 30 long cwt (1,524&nbsp;kg). At the same time, the bells were augmented to ten with two new trebles, also by Mears & Stainbank, hung in a new extension frame. The existing bells were also rehung at the same time.

thumb|300x300px|The inscription on the tenor bell at the Cathedral shows 'Edward Octavi' crossed out due to the King's abdication.

In 1921, the bells were augmented to twelve with the addition of two new treble bells, cast by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon, to give Hampshire and the Diocese of Winchester its first ring of twelve bells. The new bells were dedicated to the fallen of Winchester in the First World War. This peal of twelve was not to last long, however, as the bells were taken down in 1936 and sent to John Taylor & Co of Loughborough, Leicestershire, for complete recasting.

The bells were intended to be recast for the coronation of Edward VIII, and the inscription on the tenor bell makes note of this. However, by the time the metal had cooled, the bells tuned and rehung in Winchester, Edward had abdicated, and his brother George VI became king. As a result, the inscription 'Edwardi Octavi' was crossed out, and 'Georgi Sexti' was etched in by hand. The new Taylor bells were a heavier peal of twelve, with the tenor bell weighing some 35 and a half long hundredweight (1,806&nbsp;kg). The heaviest eight bells were rehung back in the original 1734 oak frame,

In 1967, a redundant bell from St Lawrence's Church in Winchester was transferred to the cathedral and hung in a new cast iron metal frame as a semitone bell, called a flat sixth. This extra bell enabled a lighter peal of eight to be rung when the natural sixth was substituted for the 'new' flat sixth, thus avoiding using the heaviest bells. This bell weighs 6 and a half long cwt (340&nbsp;kg) and was cast by Anthony Bond in 1621, thus making it the oldest bell in the cathedral tower. This bell celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2021.

By 1991, restoration was required again, though this time it was the tower that required attention. It was found in a survey that the great wooden frame, which was not attached to any of the tower walls as modern frames are, was moving and shifting on the belfry floor during the ringing, and that was damaging both the tower and the floor. Additionally, the floor beams were rotting, and the louvre boards were damaged. Ringing was suspended indefinitely. The resulting restoration involved lowering all 13 bells (the ring of twelve plus the ex-St Laurence bell) to the ringing chamber where they were hung on a special scaffold. With the frame clear of bells, it was hoisted up clear of the belfry floor, suspended from massive steel girders dug into the tower walls. The floor was repaired with new beams replacing some very severely rotted ones, and the newly strengthened bell frame lowered back onto it and the bells rehung. At the same time, it was decided to augment the bells to the world's first diatonic ring of fourteen, with two new treble bells cast by Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1992, and a third extra bell to become a sharp fourth, to be used in much the same way as the ex-St Laurence bell – to provide a lighter peal of ten without using the three tenor bells. A new frame was provided for the lightest seven bells, constructed of iroko, replacing the metal frame provided in the 1937 recast.

No major work has been carried out on the bells since 1992. They remain the only diatonic peal of fourteen change ringing bells in the world.

Cultural connections

Nowadays the cathedral draws many tourists as a result of its association with Jane Austen, who died in Winchester on 18 July 1817. Her funeral was held in the cathedral, and she was buried in the north aisle. The inscription on her tombstone makes no mention of her novels, but a later brass tablet, paid for from the proceeds of her first biography, describes her as "known to many by her writings". There is also a memorial window in her honour by C E Kempe.

Having spent three years in the city as a child, the novelist Anthony Trollope borrowed features of the cathedral and the city for his Chronicles of Barsetshire. In 2005, the building was used as a film set for The Da Vinci Code, with the north transept used as the Vatican. Following this, the cathedral hosted discussions and displays to debunk the book.

Winchester Cathedral is possibly the only cathedral to have had popular songs written about it. "Winchester Cathedral" was a UK top ten hit and a US number one song for The New Vaudeville Band in 1966. The cathedral was also the subject of the Crosby, Stills & Nash song "Cathedral" from their 1977 album CSN. Liverpool-based band Clinic released an album titled Winchester Cathedral in 2004.

thumb|Rose cultivar 'Winchester Cathedral', [[David C.H. Austin|Austin 1992]]

In 1992, the British rosarian David Austin introduced a white sport of his rose cultivar "Mary Rose" (1983) as "Winchester Cathedral".

When he was posted to England during the First World War, Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, visited the cathedral and had an initial experience of the presence of God.

The cathedral is the starting point of the 34-mile-long St Swithun's Way, a Long-distance footpath which was opened in 2002 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

The cathedral and surrounding area have been used multiple times as a filming location for The Crown, a popular Netflix historical drama series based on the monarchy during the time of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. The interior has been used as a substitute for both Westminster Abbey (for the funeral of Lord Louis Mountbatten in Season 4) and St Paul's Cathedral (for Sir Winston Churchill's funeral in Season 3, and for Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's wedding rehearsals and subsequent wedding in Season 4).

Each November and December since 2006, the Cathedral grounds have hosted the Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market.

Public access

In common with many other Anglican cathedrals in the United Kingdom, an admission fee has been charged for visitors to enter the cathedral since March 2006. Visitors may request an annual pass for the same price as a single admission.

Dean and chapter

As of 17 July 2025:

  • Dean – vacant following resignation of Catherine Ogle, March 2025
  • Interim Dean (formerly Vice-Dean, Canon Chancellor and Pastor) – Roland Riem (Vice-Dean since 2012; Canon Pastor since end of June 2005; Chancellor since before 2011)
  • Canon Missioner – Dr Tess Kuin Lawton (since 2021)
  • Canon Precentor and Sacrist – vacant following conclusion of tenure of Andrew Trenier (2019 - 11 July 2025)
  • Non-executive member of Chapter – Professor Elizabeth Stuart
  • Non-executive member of Chapter – Alan Lovell
  • Non-executive member of Chapter – Sarah Peppiatt

Disposal of the dead

Burials

right|thumb|Tomb of [[Henry Beaufort|Cardinal Beaufort]]

  • Saint Birinus – his relics were eventually translated here
  • Walkelin, first Norman Bishop of Winchester (1070–1098)
  • Henry of Blois (or Henry of Winchester), Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey (1126–1129) and Bishop of Winchester (1129–1171)
  • Richard of Ilchester, Bishop of Winchester (1173–1188) and medieval English statesman
  • Godfrey de Luci, Bishop of Winchester (1189–1204)
  • Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester (1205–1238) and Chief Justiciar of England (1213–c.1215)
  • Henry Beaufort (1375–1447), Cardinal and Bishop of Winchester (legitimised son of John of Gaunt and Lord Chancellor of England under Henry V and Henry VI)
  • Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler (9 August 1593 – 15 December 1683)
  • John Ecton, Queen Anne's Bounty official, legal compiler and author, died at Turnham Green, Middlesex, on 20 August 1730 – his will, bearing date 7 July 1730, was proved at London, 8 September 1730, by his widow, Dorothea Ecton, noting that he desired to be buried in Winchester Cathedral
  • Jane Austen (1817)

Displaced in mortuary chests

thumb|Panel with list of mortuary chests and their contents in Winchester Cathedral.

  • Cynegils, King of Wessex (611–643)
  • Cenwalh, King of Wessex (643–672)
  • Egbert of Wessex, King of Wessex (802–839)
  • Ethelwulf, King of Wessex (839–856)
  • Eadred, King of England (946–955)
  • Eadwig, King of England and later Wessex (955–959)
  • Cnut or Canute, King of England (1016–1035) and also of Denmark and Norway
  • Emma of Normandy, wife of Cnut and also of Æthelred the Unready of England
  • William II 'Rufus', King of England (1087–1100) – not in the traditional tomb associated with him, which may in fact be that of his nephew Henry of Blois, brother of King Stephen of England

Also

  • Harthacnut, King of England (1040–1042) and also of Denmark
  • Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1072)

One of the mortuary chests also refers to a king 'Edmund', perhaps either Edmund I, grandson of Alfred, or Edmund Ironside, (d. 1016). However, both are reported as buried at Glastonbury Abbey in most accounts, including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Originally buried at Winchester

  • Edward the Elder, King of England (899–924) – later moved to Hyde Abbey
  • Alfred the Great, King of Wessex (875–899) – moved from Old Minster and later to Hyde Abbey

See also

  • Wedding of Mary I of England and Philip of Spain
  • Architecture of the medieval cathedrals of England
  • English Gothic architecture
  • Priory of Saint Swithun
  • Romanesque architecture
  • Gothic cathedrals and churches
  • List of Gothic Cathedrals in Europe

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Willis, Robert (1846; 1980) The Architectural History of Winchester Cathedral; by R. Willis [with] The Normans as Cathedral Builders; by Christopher N. L. Brooke. Winchester: Friends of Winchester Cathedral (First work is facsimile reprint of article from Proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1845, published 1846.)
  • A history of the Pilgrims' School and of the choristers of Winchester Cathedral
  • Flickr images tagged Winchester Cathedral
  • Images of Fedorov's Iconostasis at Winchester Cathedral