Winchester (cont.) and Dorchester

Oh dear! The problem with waiting to finish my account of Winchester is that now I have Dorchester to cover too.

When I left off, I was giving you a very brief history of Winchester cathedral. Winchester (the town) was the capital of Alfred's kingdom and they had a fairly sizeable cathedral. When the Normans came in 1066, they razed the old building and replaced it with a huge cathedral in the Romanesque style. The Normans built rather hastily, so the church tower collapsed after a few years. They rebuilt it with a bigger, but more stable, tower. The tower was originally just to let in light and air, but before long they were using it to house the bells. The cathedral was remodelled again in Gothic perpendicular style. The Gothic remodel blocked off a portion of the ceiling, and it eliminated most of the Norman 2nd story walkway that went all the way around the perimeter of the building.

The roof tour took us up tiny spiral staircases (and I really do mean tiny, the wide part of the step measured about 6in) to the remaining parts of the walkway on the second story and then up again to an even higher catwalk. The catwalk originally didn't have much of a barrier, so walking up there back in Norman days must have been quite an experience.

--From the catwalk--



Then we went up more tiny staircases and through some one foot wide passageways. We went up the attic, where you can see the roof beams and the Gothic ceiling from above. We went to the bell tower and saw where the bells hang and we went to the room below (where the bell ropes are) so we could hear the hour strike without being deafened. We went to the roof and saw the city and country below us. Then we returned (via small spiral staircases) to the cathedral floor, and that was the end of the tour. But it was definitely the best tour I've been on so far. The tour guides, Diana and David, gave us an incredible amount of information about the cathedral, its history and current use, its architecture, its peculiarities. The told us about the cathedral's fire safety system, about change-ringing, about the diver who saved the cathedral*, about the disasters that have befallen previous tour groups**—in short, everything you could wish to know.

I asked Diana if she had ever read The Spire, by William Golding (hearing that the Norman's first tower collapsed reminded me of it). She got all excited and said that I should talk to David because Golding was his teacher in school. So I did, and he said both that Golding was a very eccentric character and that Lord of the Flies was based heavily on the boys in his class.

So, that was Winchester.

Dorchester--

This was today (Sat.). Only about 30 of us went because now that we have library cards some of us are inclined to be studious. Dorchester is a small and very pretty town about eight miles south of Oxford. Dorchester used to be on the coach system but the highways bypassed it, so it hasn't changed much. There's a church, a post office, an antique shop, several old coach inns, and a multitude of cottages with roses and thatched roofs. There are also some public footpaths. Following these we crossed sheep fields to reach the remains of an old Iron Age fort, which climbed on. Then we crossed the Thames and climbed another hill to reach “The Clumps,” which is what they call the trees at the top of the hill.


--The Iron Age fort--




--The Clumps from halfway down--



We ate the lunches we'd brought at The Clumps. Then we went all the way back down again. Someone asked a riddle, and the soon the entire group was asking and trying to solve riddles. It was great fun.
I asked

What God never sees,
The King seldom sees,
And we see every day.

Simon's wife Coral*** was first to guess the answer.****

We returned to the church (which is actually part of an old Abbey) to have tea and overwhelm the teashop staff with our numbers (though we had warned them in advance). And while I was sitting there enjoying my tea and cake, who should I see but the Howells? Apparently they were out wandering and enjoying their weekend. I introduced them to Amy and we had a nice chat.

Then we returned to Oxford.

--The “Jesse Tree” window in Dorchester Abbey--



--A cute house near the abbey--



Hmm, what else should I tell you? I ate dinner, did some laundry, chatted with my roommates—nothing very interesting. I have two 9-12 page papers to work on, so if you don't hear from me in a while, don't be surprised.

I think that's it. I'm glad I've finished this post before I can see any other places or meet any other unexpected people.


*Unfortunately, the cathedral sits on a swamp. The south-east side of the building sank enough that they thought the building might collapse if is sank much further. Fortunately, a diver whose name escapes me spent 5 years diving beneath the cathedral to stack cement blocks and give that part of the cathedral a firm foundation.

**Such as getting locked outside on the tower, or getting locked inside the tower, or getting to the bottom of the final staircase and finding the door locked, and so having to retrace their steps and go up and down about a million staircases to get out. This doesn't sound too bad to me—I say the more the staircases the better the fun.

***Simon is the head of student affairs for SSO. His wife and their baby daughter came on the trip.

****A: An equal.