Winchester Cathedral
This week’s Beautiful Britain picture is of the majestic Winchester Cathedral, which is getting on for a millennium old. I grew up just outside the city so was used to seeing this impressive sight on a regular basis, but it’s only as an adult that I’ve really come to appreciate just how incredible this building is.
The cathedral is one of the oldest in the UK and was consecrated in 1093, less than thirty years after the Norman Conquest of William the Conqueror. At that time, the whole cathedral was only what is now the east end, but more sections have been added since, with the main construction work finishing in 1532.
From my childhood, I remember the celebrations in 1979 for the 900th anniversary of the beginning of the cathedral’s construction. A parade was held with people dressed as various historical figures associated with the cathedral. The only person I really remember from that parade was diver William Walker. Walker is a man we are deeply indebted to, as, in all likelihood, without his work, the cathedral would no longer be here for us to enjoy today.
By 1905, the building was in serious danger of collapse and was sinking into the ground, probably due to faults with the foundations. To cut a long and technical story short, William Walker, who was arguably the most experienced diver in the country at the time, arrived in Winchester on 5 April 1906, and for the next six years worked six or seven hours a day in the flooded trenches beneath the building, laying bags of cement to stop the water rising from below. Walker was later admitted as a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in recognition of his heroic work, and there is a statue in his memory in the cathedral. (You can find out more about this amazing story and the rest of the history of Winchester Cathedral here.)
So we have two Williams to thank for being able to enjoy this magnificent cathedral today: William the Conqueror for commissioning its construction nearly a thousand years ago, and William Walker for preserving it from collapse. Maybe we should now go and toast those two gentlemen at the William Walker pub just near the building in question.
Fun fact: A number of notable people have been buried in the cathedral over the centuries, but the most well known must be the novelist Jane Austen, who died in a house in College Street, just a stone’s throw away. At the time of her death, she wasn’t famous, but in the two hundred years since, she has risen up the rankings and is now one of the best-loved novelists of all time. Many people come to Winchester from all over the world to see her grave.