After the Roman conquest of Britain, the settlement served as the capital of the Belgae and was called Venta Belgarum. At the beginning of the third century, Winchester was given protective brick and stone walls.

Like many other Roman towns, Winchester’s population and funding began to decline in the late fourth century.

After the roman withdrawl of Britain in 411, the settlement within the walls had greatly reduced in size, much of the land turning over to inner-wall farms. The city may have functioned as a centre for a tiny Christian community or as a royal palace for a local Romano-British strongman.

Winchester appears in post-roman Welsh literature as the city of Cair Guinntguic.

With the invasion of the Saxons, the city came to be called Wintanceaster (fort Venta in Old English). In 648, King Cenwalh of Wessex erected the, probably wooden Church of St Peter and St Paul. This was upgraded to a stone cathedral in the 660s, likely built out of the bricks of old roman villas and pieces of the roman wall. A monastery likely sprung up around the cathedral.

Habitation within the crumbling walls before the 870s was mostly clerical, although at some point in this early period Winchester would become a countryside estate in the shadow of roman ruins, visited by the king for a period very year.

In the 870s, King Alfred the Great obliterated the Roman street plan in favor of a new grid-plan. He encouraged more extensive public settlement within the walls in order to provide the local populace with better defense against the Vikings. Over the next couple decades, the saxons of Winchester would carry out the process of rebuilding the crumbling Roman walls, using wooden replacements where the wall was obliterated.

In 890 Winchester would finally be coming to resemble a proper urban center, one of England’s first since the roman period. Winchester’s new settlers were transitioning from agricultural life to urban life, so many of the houses were bought or rented for seasonal habitation, to sell craft goods or farming surplus within the city in agricultural off-seasons. Most of the houses would have had back-yard lots for storing livestock, cultivating gardens, or to house workshops, as Winchester’s seasonal inhabitants needed to be largely self sufficient for food even when away from their countryside farms.

Winchester, by this time, would have been a reputable trading center, visited often by Frankish, Scandianvian, Spanish, Welsh & Irish traders who would sail up the river Itchen and moor on the strand to peruse the markets.

In 899 a Nunnery was founded within the walls near the river by Æthelswith, Alfred the Great's wife. In 901 a new Cathedral would be founded, the New Minster, next to the Old Minster.


To scale Winchester City Museum Model


The Old and New Minster after renovations in the 970s

Additional Screenshots:


City Map


Ruined Roman Temple on a Hill


Monastic Apothecary Garden




Monastic Apothecary Garden


Roman Bathhouse


Roman Bathhouse

Interior


Shared Pig Pen in Winnal


Winnal Firewood Storage


Winnal Communal Cowshed


Winnal


Interior


Interior





Interior

Winnal Meadhall


Interior


Interior


Interior


Interior


Fireplace


Fish Store


King Alfred's Roman Royal Villa


Alfred's Villa


Alfred's Villa


Alfred's Study


Alfred's Private Bath


Alfred's Villa


Tax Storage Shed


Tax Storage


Tax Storage


Royal Cowshed


Alfred's Villa


Alfred's Villa


Monastic Apothecary


Alfred's Villa


Royal Stable


Alfred's Villa


Market


Royal Kitchen


Royal Kitchen


Court Priest Quarters


Hearthguard Barracks


Royal Servant Quarters

Royal Meadhall


Winchester Cathedral


Winchester Cathedral


Crypt under Winchester Cathedral - Tomb of the West Saxon Kings


Roman Bathhouse Villa


Ruined Roman Villa


Roman Villa


Market


Roman Villa


Market


Market


Market


Market


Market


Market


Blacksmith


Traveling merchant's cart with wares on display


Market


Market


Gate


Gate with cart


Very zoomed out view


Backyard Plots


Backyard Plots


Royal Complex with Meadhall


Farms


Simple Well


Monastic Vineyard


Backyard Plots


Backyard Plots


Woodcutter in old Roman villa


Backyard Plots


Backyard Plots


Backyard Plots

Front Gate


Ruinous detail on the wall


Good View


Monastery


Ruinous detail on the wall


Suburb


River Itchen


Interior of the Monastery Church