Qualla: Winchester Castle https://qualla.com/winchester-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:21 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/4/winchester-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Winchester Castle https://qualla.com/winchester-castle Winchester Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/winchester-castle/ Photo credit Martin Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0. Hanging on the west wall of Winchester Castle's Great Hall is a massive round table, eighteen feet across, painted with the names of twenty-four knights and a figure of King Arthur at its head. For centuries, visitors believed it was the original Round Table of Arthurian legend. Dendrochronology dating has placed its construction at 1275 -- during the reign of Edward I, a king who understood the political power of myth. The table is a forgery, but a magnificent one, and the hall that houses it is the real thing: one of the finest surviving medieval halls in England.

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Image: Martin Kraft | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/4/winchester-castle-wp/gcp4-winchester-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Winchester Castle: The Seat of Norman Power https://qualla.com/winchester-castle/ Photo credit Murgatroyd49, CC BY-SA 4.0. William the Conqueror founded Winchester Castle in 1067, just a year after the Norman Conquest. For over a century, it served as the seat of government for England's Norman kings, rivaling London in political importance. Henry II built a stone keep to house the royal treasury and...

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Image: Murgatroyd49 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/4/winchester-castle-wp/gcp4-winchester-castle-the-seat-of-norman-power.mp3 0:06 2 full Winchester Castle: Trials and Tribulations https://qualla.com/winchester-castle/ Photo credit G Fawcett, CC BY-SA 2.0. Winchester Castle's Great Hall has served as a courtroom for some of England's most consequential trials. In 1685, in the aftermath of the Monmouth Rebellion, the notorious Judge Jeffreys held the Bloody Assizes there, sentencing rebels to death with a ferocity that earned him la...

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Image: G Fawcett | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/4/winchester-castle-wp/gcp4-winchester-castle-trials-and-tribulations.mp3 0:06 3 full Winchester Castle: Hidden Stories in the Walls https://qualla.com/winchester-castle/ Photo credit Oscar Taylor, CC BY-SA 2.0. Not all the castle's history belongs to kings and conquerors. In 1287, a Hebrew inscription was carved into the ruins of the Jews' Tower by Asher, son of Licoricia of Winchester, during his imprisonment. The entire Jewish community had been confined in the castle on 2 May 1287, a...

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Image: Oscar Taylor | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/4/winchester-castle-wp/gcp4-winchester-castle-hidden-stories-in-the-walls.mp3 0:06 4 full Winchester Castle: What Survives https://qualla.com/winchester-castle/ Photo credit Christophe.Finot, CC BY-SA 2.5. Oliver Cromwell ordered the castle demolished in 1649, after it served as a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil War. The Great Hall survived, along with the Westgate, the castle's principal defensive gateway. Behind the Great Hall, a medieval-style garden called Queen El...

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Image: Christophe.Finot | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/4/winchester-castle-wp/gcp4-winchester-castle-what-survives.mp3 0:06 5 full