The Winchester City Mill is one of the oldest watermills in the country a mill having existed on the site since at least Saxon times, possibly on the site of an earlier Roman mill. Extremely profitable to begin with it had fallen into disrepair by 1471 and then gifted to the city in 1554 by Mary I after her marriage to Philip of Spain at Winchester Cathedral.
Although these three museums are separate buildings I’m linking them together because you can get an Explorer ticket to visit all three for 20% off the ticket price, which is what I did. As each place takes roughly 30 or so minutes to explore visiting them in one day is a good way of spending a morning, though your ticket does give you 12 months entry to them all. I followed the order recommended on the website but you can of course visit them in any order you want. Therefore I began at The Great Hall, the only remaining part of Winchester Castle which was constructed in 1067 by William the Conqueror.
Holy Trinity Church was built in 1853-4 and I only really popped in because I needed somewhere to sit down away from the sun.
I’ve wanted to visit Winchester Cathedral for a while now due to the Jane Austen connection (she is buried here) but until I arrived I had no idea how large and full of interesting tombs, artefacts and museums it would prove to be.
Travelling back to Winchester from Chawton I did a quick search of things to do that would still be open late afternoon. The most obvious place seemed to be the English Heritage site Wolvesey Castle which could be accessed following a pleasant 10 minute walk along the River Itchen which is where I got off the bus.
Back in March I travelled down to Winchester for a week, in part because visiting some Jane Austen related sites has long been on my bucket list, but also because I got an insanely cheap deal on train tickets. Unfortunately Jane Austen’s House was closed for refurbishment (but you can see a photo of the outside further down) – this includes things like her writing desk so I will be back at some point. But within the same village is Chawton House where she spent a lot of her time – it belonged to Austen’s brother Edward and is still owned by his descendents (though run via the Chawton House Trust as a charity).
Here’s my final post about Shrewsbury in Shropshire with a round up of all the random places I took photos of that don’t fit into their own posts. We’ll start off with my accommodation which was at Darwin’s Townhouse. A family owned B&B in an 18th century Georgian townhouse centrally located in Shrewsbury town centre it was a lovely place to stay. It could be a little loud at night because there are several pubs nearby but nothing too outrageous and it was more than made up for by the comfortable room, delicious breakfasts and fun decor throughout – Charles Darwin was born in the town and baptised at St. Chad’s Church.
On my last afternoon in Shrewsbury I decided to take a trip on a boat along the River Severn. There are daily trips between 1st March until 31st October and 11am to 4pm, leaving on the hour. I’d read that seats are issued in order of booking so you’re not guaranteed a seat on the top deck which is why I decided to book in advance as I’d seen long queues for the boats when I’d walked by on previous days. Thankfully though there was plenty of room on top for my 3pm trip on a random Thursday despite there also being several parties on board celebrating birthdays.
The Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery is a free museum in the centre of the town housed in a former music hall dating from 1835 but also spreads out through a 13th century mansion.
I knew absolutely nothing Shrewsbury Castle before I arrived in Shrewsbury other than that it existed. I had assumed that visiting I would learn all about the history of the castle and why it was built, but I learnt basically nothing about the castle’s origins because the castle in fact houses The Soldiers of Shropshire Museum which spans the entirety of the building.
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