The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, St Peter, St Paul and St Swithin.
(Well, this is a new Holy Trinity for me! Who knew?)
There was a £6.50 charge to enter this Cathedral, and I could see no way of avoiding it, as I was between service times. I could have asked to speak to a chaplain, or been escorted to pray in the Epiphany Chapel, but I wasn't really in the mood for that, and anyway, it wasn't why I'd come! So I paid up. My ticket is apparently valid for a year (the visitors in front of me joked, 'Hope you've got plenty of food and water inside!').
There are parts of Winchester Cathedral so old that it inspires quietness and awe...
The huge tiled area around and behind the high altar (laid 1260-80), full of tiles glowing with warmth and colour and worn with age (and where I was also pleased to pause at St Swithin's shrine), offered a rich contrast with Anthony Gormley's 20th century sculpture in the crypt, 'Sound II' - a still, prayerful man, sometimes thigh or waist deep in the water which rises into the crypt regularly.
Prayers were led at 4pm, most people making a pause in their visit to stop and listen.
This is the beautifully peaceful chapel of St John the Evangelist and Fisherman-apostle, otherwise known as the Fishermen's Chapel. Apparently it's a place of pilgrimage for fishermen from all of the world. I didn't meet any during my visit. There's also a plaque and memorial window in the Cathedral to Jane Austin. So much to see and learn from!
It was hard to avoid the extensive renovation work being done, necessarily on such an old building, but maybe this somehow fed the prevailing 70s feel to the Cathedral Close (for me at least! - and I'm not saying that's a bad thing..)
I was sorry to have arrived too early to catch the flower festival held in the Cathedral from June 12th-16th. It looked truly amazing, with the whole nave completely transformed by a wildflower lawn - a great example of how such buildings can be creatively used in a contemporary context.
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