The Inn has a connection with an execution in 1685 of Lady Alicia Lisle who was sentenced to death for harbouring rebels from the Monmouth Rebellion (against James II). The 71 year old, was sentenced to be burnt at the stake. Horrified clergy and citizens made such an outcry that the sentence was commuted to beheading.
For the execution, a scaffold was erected outside the Eclipse Inn and Lady Alicia spent the last day of her life in a small upstairs room, before being executed on a scaffold outside The Eclipse.
After James II fled the country Lady Alicia's daughters won an annulment of their mother’s conviction.
There have been repeated sightings down the years of a ghost in the room and passage outside where Lady Alicia was held.
A wonderful book called Time Gentlemen Please has a history of all the pubs of Winchester.
I'm curious. Why "Eclipse?"
ReplyDeleteAparently it was called the Eclipse as it was built as a rival to an inn opposite called The Sun!
ReplyDelete