Moberly's

Around Winchester are the boarding houses of Winchester College where the boys who attend the college live. There are ten boarding Houses and each is a self-contained community where the boys eat, sleep and spend their time when not in lessons. Here in Kingsgate Street is Moberly's which is one of the oldest boarding houses. It accommodates 60 boys and was founded by The Revd Harry Moberly, the first Housemaster (1860-1880). It is formally known as Moberly's but informally as Toye's, after the second Housemaster Jack Toye.

As these are where the boys live they aren't open to the public, but I have been to a number of the boarding houses of Eton where the boys get bigger rooms the older they get, and they weren't bad at all.

L is for Little Minster Street

Just behind the Cathedral Close wall is Little Minster Street. There is a pretty 17th century house on the corner here, and in the background the spire of the former church of St Thomas and St Clements in Southgate Street, used as the Hampshire Records Office until 1993 and now used by Hampshire County Council.

For more 'L' themed posts see ABC Wednesday

Steel Drums

Particularly on a weekend you will always find buskers and musicians in the High Street. They range from a tramp with a bongo drum, university students trying to raise a bit of extra cash to a whole steel band this weekend. They were really very good.

Arms

The Arms of the City of Winchester depict 5 castles and 2 lions as shown here on the gate to the Mayor's Residence. The 5 castles are thought to possibly reflect the original 5 city gates of Winchester, there are now only 2 city gates left, Westgate and Kingsgate. These arms appear in a number of places in Winchester, not least my Council Tax bill as they're part of of the Winchester City Council logo

Canoe Event

Yesterday canoeists from all over the country descended on North Walls Park to take part in the Winchester and and District Canoe Club, Novice and Open Short course Slalom Competition. There appeared to be all ages taking part, and the photo above shows children's canoes that were for sale. I think it could be quite fun - apart from the falling in bit!

Friarsgate

Friarsgate - sounds nice doesn't it, makes you think perhaps of a church or an ancient city gate? Or perhaps even a 1960s car park. Winchester is not all cathedrals, history and monuments, we have our fair share of naff architecture and ugly buildings. This area is due to be redeveloped at some point.

Stained Glass Window

One of the first things you see on entering the Cathedral is the beautiful stained glass window. On closer inspection of the glass you notice that the stained glass does not form any particular picture, the windows although very pretty just appear to be a mosaic of colours

There is a reason for this - The original panes were destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's forces following the English Civil War in 1642, broken with the bones of old kings as mentioned in another post! The broken glass was kept though and in 1660 after the restoration of the monarchy the stained glass was re-assembled randomly, as we see here today.