This film is part of Free

Winchester

A film profile of Winchester, featuring panoramas of the city and its medieval streets lined with shops. There’s also a mayoral procession and views of Winchester College.

Amateur film 1964 25 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for Wessex Film and Sound Archive

Overview

This colourful film showcases Winchester, once England's capital. Amid spring blossoms we see the medieval cathedral, period buildings and streets, still bearing traffic, that form the central shopping area. We also glimpse many of the city's modern, municipal buildings juxtaposed against more ancient structures. After a visit to the Peninsula Barracks we see a mayoral procession at the cathedral before joining the pupils of Winchester College and their parents.

This fascinating film captures Winchester's street scene in the period just prior to pedestrianisation. Any visitor to this ancient city today would find it hard to believe that traffic once passed through what is now a pedestrianised shopping area. Look out also for the many High Street names that have since disappeared - among them John Collier and MacFisheries.