Wall painting

This is St John's church which has already featured on the blog. Last weekend there were a number of heritage open days and I took the advantage to go inside a photo some of the wall paintings that are within the church. These were covered up during the Victorian times and those which survived were uncovered in 1958. The paintings are believed to date from around 1280. This one shows to the right a bishop with his hand raised in blessing, St Christopher or St Antony on the left and the devil at the top. 

***I am away with work at the moment & have scheduled this post, thanks for stopping by***

St John's Church

 

In St John's Street is St John's Church. On one wall was this fascinating statue.

I am away for the weekend so sorry if I don't respond to any comments straight away

Tudor House

This building is in St John's Street, it's a 16th Century Tudor House. It was once used as a barracks for Cromwell's men during the English Civil War, this elegant half timbered building is now two separate private dwellings.

St John's Croft

I saw this house on a walk up to St Giles Hill and thought it looked lovely, so I came back to see if I could find any information on it. The house is called St John's Croft and is actually a Bed and Breakfast establishment. It's a Grade II listed Queen Anne town house built around 1770.

There is some controversy around this house when an adjacent meadow belonging to the property was sold off for development of 14 houses. Local residents waged a campaign against this over-development and the saga rolled on from 2007 until November 2010. The local resident's group eventually realised that it was inevitable houses would be built there, but managed to get the number reduced to just six. The building of the new houses hasn't started yet so if you hurry you might be able to catch a glimpse of the last meadow in Winchester before it is lost forever. Or if you fancy putting a bid in for one of the new houses click here!

St John the Baptist Church

This is another one of the many places of worship in Winchester and is on St John's Street on the way up to St Giles Hill. It's believed to be the oldest parish church in Winchester. The church building was certainly in existence in 1142, though its exact age remains elusive. Parts of the building may have been significantly older, since the church stands in the middle of an important fourth century Roman-British cemetery. This area became a quite prosperous, partly due to the growth of the St Giles Fair on the hill above the church.

The first scholars at Winchester College attended St John's Church when lodging in the area and whilst the college was being built. The church is also on Pilgrims Way and was one of the last churches that pilgrims would attend before setting out for Canterbury.

Oldest house in Winchester

Here on the corner of Blue Ball Hill and St John's Street is what is supposed to be the oldest house in Winchester. It's the Old Blue Boar and was built around 1340. The property which is now a private house was originally an inn known as The White Boar which was the emblem associated with King Richard III. King Richard was killed in a battle at Bosworth Field in 1485 by Henry VII who had been helped by the Earl of Oxford. The Earl's badge was a Blue Boar and in order not to upset the new King many owners of White Boar Inns were reported to have quickly painted their white boars blue!

The pub is also renowned for being the place in 1764 where a volunteer solider called Thomas Thetcher "died of a violent fever contracted by drinking small beer when hot". He is buried in Winchester cathedral as my post yesterday showed.