I remember Winchcombe for its pubs. I didn't go into all of them, but I wanted to - I made a mental note to myself to plan a day working my way around the Winchcombe pubs.
A visit to several pubs on the same day takes planning in a way that visiting several churches does not. The police take no notice of an air of sanctity, (although they might be inclined to comment in the traditional manner of British policemen "Halo, Halo, Halo, what's all this then?"). They are a lot less tolerant of drunken drivers. Fortunately Winchcombe's wonderful pubs are all within easy walking distance of each other and filled with a fine selection of traditional beers and ghosts (draft and bottled). They include:
The George Inn was built in the early 16th. century to house pilgrims travelling to the great abbey at Winchcombe. The Corner Cupboard Inn was built c.1550 as a farmhouse and became an inn subsequently; there are reports of it being haunted by the ghost of a 12 year old girl. The White Lion was built in the 17th. century.
In Saxon times Winchcombe was the most important town in the Cotswold region, a part of the kingdom of Mercia. The right to mint coins is a measure of the economic and administrative importance of a town, and in Saxon times there were mints in Gloucester, Bristol, Berkeley and Winchcombe - the Winchcombe mint is reputed to have been built on the site of 8 Hailes Street. There was also an important abbey at Winchcombe founded by Offa, King of Mercia (or variously, Kenulf) in the 8th. century, and it was the burial place of two Mercian princes, Kenulf and his son Kenelm. The size and wealth of the abbey (it was one of the largest in England) and its importance as a place of pilgrimage was founded on a trifling little monkish fabrication.
People didn't go on holidays in the 11th. century. They didn't strip off at the seaside and lie on the sand for two weeks for the sake of their suntan. They went on pilgrimages for the sake of their souls, and they consulted the Good Abbey Guide to find the places where miracles were truly astounding. Good miracles were thin on the ground even in the 11th. century and monks invented copywriting. A monk of Winchcombe Abbey invented a story that Prince Kenelm of Mercia, who died in 811 as a young man, was murdered by the lover of his sister Quendreda, who wanted to be queen of Mercia. Her lover and Kenelm went out hunting and Kenelm was murdered and his head buried under a thorn tree. Out of the severed head flew a white dove which carried a scroll telling of the evil deed to the Pope in Rome. The Pope ordered that the body be found, and a white cow was used to locate it on the slopes of Sudely Hill, where a spring burst forth. During the funeral procession Quendreda tried to curse the event by reading Psalm 108 backwards, but her eyes exploded and splattered her psalter. Its all true ... honest ... and I can sell you a scroll just like the one the dove carried to the Pope (didn't rest once, it didn't, all the way from Winchcombe to Rome) and a vial of water from the spring at Sudely Hill. That'll be two groats, God bless you.
It was on the strength of this ... little fiction ... that Winchcombe Abbey became one of the largest in England. And if exploding eyes isn't incredible enough, there was the ficti .. eh ... story about the amazing Bloode of Hailes, exhibited at nearby Hailes Abbey, another major centre of pilgrimage. Suffice to say that when Henry VIII's commissioners were taking a good hard look at the abbeys, they weren't impressed.
"We have been boulting and sifting the Bloode of Hailes all this forenoon, and verily it seems to be an unctuous gum and compound of many things."
The scam was that only the truly holy could see the sacred blood, and so the credulous pilgrim would pay the monks for masses and indulgences until the Holy Fathers judged him ready (or flat broke!), at which point sleight of hand was used to switch an empty vial with the vial of sacred Bloode. A commentator referred to this as "An horrid cheat".
The dissolution of the abbeys throughout England in 1536 and 1538 may seem like an appalling act of destruction, but it was accomplished with remarkably little public outcry. They had become an anachronism which had grown too powerful and too greedy. In most cases the buildings were systematically reduced to their foundations, and in Winchcombe nothing remains of the great abbey. Some ruins remain at Hailes a few miles away, and there is a museum at the site.
Winchcombe today is a quiet and very pleasant little town which is easily ignored by tourists who cram themselves into Broadway and Chipping Campden. I thought the shops were more functional than exotic, but it is a great place to have stroll and lunch in a pub - there are plenty to choose from. There are some very fine traditional buildings (see the picture of the Jacobean House top right), and the church is notable for a series of forty or so carved grotesques (see the title header) which adorn the outside walls and tower. Keep an eye out for ghosts of monks in the aptly named Cowl Lane.
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The Corner Cupboard Inn, C.1550, possibly earlier. Note the massive
buttresses and the bust of Disraeli above the door, enlarged in the thumbnail (22k JPG). 
Hailes Street. The 16th.C timber-framed house to the left was formerly a
public house called the "Sudely Arms" (15k JPG). 
Cottages in Vineyard Street, named after the abbey vineyard (23k JPG). Return to Contents
In most cases further details are available under Things to See.
The village of Alderton a few miles from Winchcombe has a comprehensive WWW site.
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Copyright © Digital Brilliance 1995