WYKEHAM WANDERERS

We went over the weekend to Guildford.  It seems to have been raining a lot even here.  You will have seen shocking photographs of the floods in various parts of Britain.  I used to blog on climate change at one time; maybe I should start again.  This is the river at Guildford.




The usual quiet stream was a raging torrent.  It still had some way to go before it might flood, but it was a frightening volume of water.

It was the same story at Winchester yesterday.  This is the millrace. - always fierce, but rarely this high.




But in Winchester, for the first time, we managed to get into the College.  So here are a few pics for you.  This is the inner courtyard (with a scholar crossing to the studyrooms).

 

Everywhere we went was history.  As you may know, Winchester is the oldest continually running school in Britain, having been teaching top scholars since it was built in the 14th century. This is the Scholars Dining Room.  As you see, the scholars have the privilege of music whilst the eat.  But I was amused by the guide's description of the room - 'these benches are new; the original ones were less sturdy, so these were commissioned in 1643'.  Yes, very new!


 
And it was fascinating to see the students' graffiti.  This was the oldest one I found.

 

And we were able to see the College chapel.



As you can see, the altarpiece statues were almost as good as when they were carved almost 900 years ago.  Apparently, when Oliver Cromwell's men came through, he put an officer in charge of the College who was an old boy and he made sure the college was undamaged.  So, much of the original woodwork and statuary (and some documents) were saved, whilst the Cathedral suffered the same fate as other churches throughout the country.

Here is a section of the choir where the younger choirboys sit.



Not much space to park larger bottoms!  Note the obscure college names labelling the seats.

The Cathedral Christmas market was also in full swing, with lots of interesting local artefacts, like gluwein and bratwurst.  There was also an ice rink which looked very attractive in this setting and was fun to watch.