WINNALL

History of the Winnall area of Winchester.

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c. 1200 BC The Iberians (Bronze Age Man) arrive

From Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), these settlers bring with them a new metal, a copper-iron alloy called bronze. It makes better weapons for killing more enemies quicker.

c. 600 BC The Celts arrive

The discovery of how to work iron enabled the Celts to improve weapons one stage further, and they swiftly overran most of Europe from their Swiss homelands. They established a settlement on St. Catherine‘s Hill.

c. 100-50 BC A Celtic tribe called the Belgae takes over the area

From modern Belgium, these Celts quickly occupied a large area covering south Hampshire, Wiltshire and north Somerset. Their capital was at Oram’s Arbour, just west of modern Winchester’s city centre.

43 AD Romans invade England

The Belgae tribe make a big mistake! They are one of a few tribes to resist Roman rule, and are crushed, losing everything except their three ‘towns’ in south Hampshire. By AD 70 the Romans have built a new regional centre next to the old Celtic town, called Venta (their word for ‘local capital’) Belgarum (of the Belgae).

406 Romans leave England

Venta Belgarum has declined, but does have a stone wall for its defence. Just as well...

514 Gewissan Jutes under Cerdic, a half-Saxon half-Celt leader, land at Totton

The Jutes came originally from Jutland (modern Denmark), but had until recently been spending time in Frisia (northern Holland). They called themselves the Ytes, and called the first major river they came across the Ytene (of the Ytes). It later changed to Itchen. The word Gewisse came from a title born by Cerdic’s grandfather.

530 Gewissia takes over Belgic kingdom

Cerdic seized the Belgae’s other two towns, at Portchester and Bitterne, but was beaten off in an early attack on Venta. He then occupied all the countryside around it, cutting it off. Venta surrendered in 530, and became the Gewissan ‘capital’. It was renamed Ventancaster; castra = army camp, which probably shows just how little ‘city life‘ really went on.

643 First cathedral built at Wentchester

Christianity had reached the Gewisse in 636, and Wentchester started to become a city again. Every city needs a place to bury their dead - and what better place than that nice set of fields to the east by the willow trees?

862 July 15 It rains

So what? In Winchester they‘re burying the late bishop, St. Swithun. It then rains for the next 40 days. This gives rise to the legend that the weather on St. Swithun‘s day will always be repeated for the next 40 days.

864-878 Vikings!

In 864 the Vikings got a bit to greedy, and took so much loot that the West Saxons (the Gewisse had renamed themselves in 685) caught them up. No Vikings were left alive. They continued attacking Wessex elsewhere, and in 878 King Alfred the Great ordered a major rebuilding of Winchester with improved defences. As a reault the town’s population grew towards 1,000.

927 Alfred’s grandson King Athelstan of Wessex completes the union of England

What will one day be Winnall is a few houses along the east bank of the Itchen.

1066 Norman invasion

This doesn’t affect the hamlet much, as most of Winchester is Church land. But it marks the beginning of London’s role as capital city

1086 The Domesday Book mentions WILIGHEALH

William I’s attempt to increase tax revenues doesn‘t think the hamlet is worth much, and brackets it under Chilcomb. But it does record its name for the first time. The name means nook/corner of the willows.

1088 King William II grants the Bishops of Winchester the right to hold a fair

St. Giles’ Fair (held on the 16 days from St. Giles’ Day, August 31, was a major medieval fair. People came from miles around, and all sellers had to pay a tax to the bishops, which was used for the new cathedral.

1111 Winchester’s city church rebuilt at Hyde and renamed Hyde Abbey

This was because the Normans were rebuilding the cathedral in their style, and the old city church was too close to it. There was more growth as a result on the eastern (Winnall) side of the city. But...

1129 Henry of Blois becomes Bishop of Winchester

Blois was a country near France. Henry, a younger brother of Count Theobald, was popular in England, and spent lots of money in Winchester. The intervening brother, Stephen, was however to cause Henry some bother.

1141 Hyde Abbey (+ Winchester) accidentally burnt down during the Rout of Winchester

In 1135 the English throne should have gone to Henry I’s daughter the Empress Matilda - but she was a woman! The country instead chose her cousin Stephen of Blois. Years of civil war followed. In 1141, just after she had captured Stephen, Matilda’s’s forces are trapped besieging those of Henry Bishop of Winchester (Stephen’s brother) at Wolvesey Castle in the city. Both sides use fire-arrows on a windy day near a town largely built of wood. Oops! Town and abbey are later rebuilt.

1205 A charter of King John mentions the hamlet of WILEHALE

1236 Glass!

The latest technology arrives in Winchester and Wilehale when the first glass appears in windows.

1272 A charter of King Edward I calls the village WYNEHALE or WILENHALE

Many villages had their name spelled a dozen different ways before printed books arrived in the 1500’s.

1349 Plague (Black Death) reaches Hampshire; it lasts on and off until the 1660’s

Exact figures don’t exist, but it is likely that the population of Winchester fell by half in the first outbreak, from 8,000 to 4,000. By 1670 the population was about 5,500.

1381 Peasants’ Revolt; a local uprising is crushed in Winchester

1538 Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. Hyde Abbey destroyed

1554 Queen Mary Tudor marries Philip of Spain in Winchester Cathedral

This was an occasion for much feasting in the city - but it didn’t last. Several of the 300 Protestants burnt on Mary’s orders went up in flames in Winchester itself, often on the orders of Mary’s Bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner.

1642-5 English Civil War. WYNNALL doesn’t notice it much

Winchester Castle was destroyed by the Roundheads in 1645. Only the Castle Hall survived.

1685 Death of King Charles II

This was a blow to Winchester and thus indirectly to Wynnall. Charles had planned to build a new royal palace in the city, and the foundation stone had even been laid - but on his death the plans were dropped.

1687 WINNAL MAGDALEN is now officially a church parish

Winnall has had a church for ages, but now runs its own Church affairs. It merges with the even smaller hamlet of Magdalen, so-called after a chapel to St. Mary Magdalen on Magdalen Hill.

1703 27-29 Nov. Great Storm devastates Hampshire

Though smaller, hamlets like Winnal Magdalen suffer more because towns and cities are cleaned up first.

1831 Henry Cook (aged 19), a local farmworker, is hung at Winchester during the ‘Captain Swing’ riots against new farm machinery.

Cook had knocked Judge Bingham Baring’s hat off (with a sledgehammer!) Two other men were also hung. Ten more men were all transported to Australia for rioting. Judge Baring later beat a handcuffed and innocent prisoner to death with a stick. The judge was fined £50!

1840 Winchester joins the Railway Age; London to Southampton line opens

In the ten years after the arrival of the railway, the city’s population grew from 7,000 to 13,000.

1886 WINNALL follows into the Railway Age

The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway builds right through the village. A station is built at Cheesehill (Chesil) in the city. The Anglo-Saxon cemetery is discovered at this time.

1945 World War Two ends

Great Britain faces a severe shortage of housing (the Germans have bombed over 25% of it!), and Winchester grows as a result, starting to include Winnall.

1948 Winnall Industrial Estate formed

1966 D.N.S. line through Winnall closed and lifted

Part of the line north of Winchester is used for the new by-pass; this results in the positioning of Junction 9 of the M3 motorway near Winnall.

1994 M3 motorway completed