BSAO offers courses each summer on a rotation of time periods. Two years ago we were doing the Long 18th Century and offered a course on Jane Austen. This was when I first visited the adorable city of Winchester. You can read more
HERE! Today we visited for the Medieval Period. The town was having a huge festival that covered the entire High Street, a few side streets and the close around the Cathedral. I had a delicious blueberry and pear scone that was huge for lunch.
Our first of two stops was Winchester Cathedral. It is such a lovely church, started in 1079. Despite numerous modifications, much of the Norman archetecture can still be seen. The nave itself was redone in the 14th century in the Perpendicular style.
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| Nave |
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| Perpendicular style arches |
Our second stop of the day was the 13th Century Great Hall, built by Henry III. The hall was used throughout the ages primarily for different functions of the government. 'King Arthur's Round Table' has hung in its present position since 1873 at one end of the hall but the table itself dates to the 13th or early 14th century. The table was painted in 1516 by Henry VIII with King Arthur in the top center and the names of his 24 Knights of the Round Table written around the edges. The face of Arthur is very similar to Henry himself!
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| Me with Arthur's Round Table |
Each year we take the students to Stonehenge and each year I say I will skip it but inevitably it is stuck on the end of another visit I want to do. At least this year we had the possibility of some newness to the visit. I think if we had more time, all the changes they have made around the site would have been very good but we only had a limited amount of time and we really did not get to enjoy the new exhibit or walk along the landscape. But we saw Stonehenge... again.
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| Will Wolfe (Student Assistant) & Me |
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