Page 15 - Dec 2022

Some Fact s about Winchest er Cat hedral

- The locat ion of Winchest er Cat hedral,
one of Europe's largest cat hedrals, has
been a religious sit e for more t han 15
cent uries.
- King Alfred t he Great , of Saxon renown,
was originally buried in Old Minst er.
t he original church. upon his deat h in
899. His bones were t aken t o Hyde
Abbey in 1110 but were lost when t he
abbey was dest royed during t he
Reformat ion.
- A deep sea diver saved t he Cat hedral. in
t he 1900s t he wooden foundat ion was
rot t ing away, causing cracks in t he

walls. Diver William Walker and a t eam
of 150 men were called in from t he
Port smout h shipyards and worked on
t he sit e for six years, oft en in complet e
darkness, excavat ing t renches t hat
oft en filled wit h wat er and filling cracks
wit h concret e. 25,000 bags of concret e,
115,000 concret e blocks, and 900,000
bricks were used t o fix t he foundat ions.
- Novelist Jane Aust en is buried here but
her original marker did not ment ion her
books. This was remedied in 1872.

15