Friends

Established in 1931, the Friends of Winchester Cathedral is an independent charity set up specifically to:

Assist Chapter maintain the Cathedral
Help stimulate interest in the Cathedral
Preserve and beautify the Cathedral, its music and history
Set up by Dean Selwyn, our first grant of £100 paid for new kneelers and cushions for the choir stalls. Since then we have given over £10 million to the Cathedral in present day terms.

Over 90 years, we have provided substantial support in a number of ways including:

Repairs to stonework, stained glass windows, the organ and the roof
Providing a cherry picker, an altar frontal, vestments, kneelers and a piano
Funding the magnificent Fleury building extension through a grant for £819,000

Membership starts at £25 for a single membership or £45 for a joint membership.

Annual Grants
We provide in the region of £70,000 each year in regular grants to the Cathedral. This year we have provided grants for:

• The Girls’ Choir. We pay the expenses of the Girls’ Choir each year, plus the costs for each of the girls to learn a musical instrument.
• Two scholarships for boy choristers
• The maintenance of the trees in the Close
• Cathedral Flowers. We pay for the flowers in the Cathedral throughout the year.
• The Cathedral Christmas tree. The Friends provide the funding for the large Christmas tree at the West End of the Cathedral each year.
• Broderers. The Friends fund the work of the Broderers

You can either join online here

Or download an membership form and return it to the Friends’ Office by post. The Friends’ office is at 2 The Close, Winchester SO23 9LS

The Friends of Winchester Cathedral Extended Privacy Statement

The Friends of Winchester Cathedral Complaints Policy

The Friends of Winchester Cathedral Safeguarding Policy

In June and July over 200 Friends gathered in the Cathedral to hear about the Friends commitment to support the forthcoming Organ restoration project. The Friends are aiming to raise £100,000 to help the Cathedral meet its’ fundraising target of £1.1m. Already, £900,000 has been raised for this project.

A recording of the Friends’ receptions can be viewed here

A booklet has been posted to all Friends but a copy of this can be found here

A list of the Stops that are available to sponsor and a response form can be found here

If you would like to donate to the appeal, you can donate online via this link

Alternatively, you can ring the office on 01962 857244/4 to pay by debit/credit card or you can send a cheque made payable to Friends of Winchester Cathedral at 2 The Close, Winchester, SO23 9LS

‘The Fabric of Life’ by Dean Catherine Ogle – Wednesday 21 September, 7pm, Paul Woodhouse Suite or via Zoom

The mortuary chests in Winchester Cathedral have been found to contain some ancient textiles.  As we await the results of scholarly analysis, Dean Catherine will share her life-long interest in fashion and textiles and how historic clothing opens windows on the lives of our forebears.  Dean Catherine was a student of fashion and textiles before becoming a ‘woman of the cloth’.  Her mother was a dressmaker and taught Catherine to make her first dress at the age of seven.

Tickets are £10 for Friends and £12 for non-Friends in the Paul Woodhouse Suite. Attendance by Zoom is by donation. Please book through the Friends’ office.

Friends’ Annual Lecture by Michael Wood & Martin Biddle – Thursday 6 October, 6.30pm, Cathedral Nave & Cathedral Live Stream

The historian and documentary maker, Michael Wood, will interview Martin Biddle about his long and extraordinary life in archaeology, and in particular his path-breaking project on Winchester which is still ongoing. Look back over the illustrious career and extraordinary life of Martin Biddle as you sit in the majestic nave of Winchester Cathedral.  The event will start with a drinks reception in the Cathedral.

Tickets are £15 for Friends and £18 for non-Friends for seats in the Cathedral or access via the Cathedral live stream and are bookable at the Cathedral Box office in the Cathedral or by phone 01962 857275 or online

“Relief, Rejoicing and Remembrance – how Winchester celebrated victory in the Great War and commemorated its dead” by Geraldine Buchanan and Derek Whitfield – Wednesday 16 November, 2.30pm, Paul Woodhouse Suite or via Zoom

An examination of the Armistice Day celebrations in Winchester on 11 November 1918 and how the Cathedral and city commemorated the hundreds of citizens who gave their lives in the conflict. In this talk, Geraldine Buchanan & Derek Whitfield will look at how ambitious memorial plans had to be abandoned, the creation of the Winchester War Service Register as well as other memorials inside and outside the Cathedral. The latter will focus on men from the parish of Fulflood and Weeke who are also remembered in the Cathedral, with particular attention paid to their contrasting lives in the two different suburbs before 1914.

Tickets are £10 for Friends and £12 for non-Friends in the Paul Woodhouse Suite. Attendance by Zoom is by donation. Please book through the Friends’ office

The Friends’ coffee mornings will be held on 16 September, 21 October, 18 November & 9 December in the Undercroft from 10.30am.  Do come along and meet Friends, new and old.

Please book our talks by contacting the office on 01962 857244/5 or by emailing friends@winchester-cathedral.org.uk

If you would like to view talks from earlier in 2021, you can view them on You Tube or Zoom:

• Johanna Strong, PhD student, University of Winchester – “Mary I of England – how ‘Bloody’ was she?”
• Jane Hands, Lay Canon, and Dr Tim Hands, Headmaster of Winchester College – “Cathedral and College: breaching the wall – from Wykeham to Wesley and beyond“
• David Farthing, Cathedral Guide – “The Winchester Diver: Behind The Scenes”
• Tom Watson, Friends’ Trustee – “Edward the Martyr: the murder mystery king”
• Chris Dobbs, Head of Interpretation at the Mary Rose, Bruce Parker and Margaret and Nick Braddock – “The raising of the Mary Rose by individuals who were involved in the story”
• Jeannie Berridge, Cathedral Guide – “The Great Screen – Magnificence, Mayhem and Mystery”
• Tom Burden: former Headmaster, The Pilgrims’ school – if you would like to view the recording of this talk, please contact the office.
• Tom Watson, Friends’ trustee – “The history of the formation of the Friends”
• Friends’ AGM – 10th July 2021
• Friends 90th Anniversary Evensong – 10th July 2021
• Tracy Chevalier “History through the eye of a needle” – if you would like to view the recording of this talk, please contact the office.
• Cindy Wood, Friends’ trustee – “The Chantry Chapels at St George’s Chapel, Windsor”
• Rosey Smith – Winchester Cathedral Literary Links
• Andy Trenier – a Precentor’s Tale
• Derek Beck – Cathedral Music in Three Movements

If you enjoyed any of these talks, maybe you would like to make a donation the Friends are welcome via this link.

It was largely through the influence of Cathedral organist Samuel Sebastian Wesley that the ‘Father’ Willis organ from the 1851 Great Exhibition came to Winchester. Wesley was the finest organist of his time and a renowned composer, but also a very difficult character who fell out with Deans & Chapters wherever he worked. Professor Tom Watson’s article introduces Samuel Sebastian Wesley and his career.

Friends’ member Patrick Daniell spotted the connection between Winchester and Waterford on a recent visit. From his notes and other research, the story of this little-known bishop who came from St Swithun’s Priory back to his homeland is told.

An audible feature of the Kings & Scribes Triforium exhibition is the reading in Old English of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles’ reports on the coronation of Edward the Confessor at the Old Minster in 1043. This Editors’ Note sets the context for the period.

Professor Tom Licence’s history of Edward the Confessor presents the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings as a far stronger and more astute monarch than the traditional pallid saintly image. Published in late 2020, it covers the political landscape of eleventh century England before the Normans invaded.

Cathedral guide Stephen Jones and Tom Watson tell the story of Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester (1869-73), and his memorial in the Cathedral’s south transept. He was the son of the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce MP and one of the major personalities of the Church in mid-Victorian England.

A new feature in Record Extra is Editor’s Notes, short articles on Cathedral topics and book reviews prepared by the joint editors, Dr Cindy Wood and Professor Tom Watson. In this edition, there are three articles and a book review:

St Birinus, the apostle to the West Saxons, is now largely forgotten but in the early thirteenth century the presence of his relics in the Cathedral was contested by the Augustinian monks of Dorchester Abbey.

The Duke of Connaught, third son of Queen Victoria, was the first Cathedral Friends’ patron in 1931. Recently, the 80^th anniversary of his death in 1942 was commemorated at the Cathedral.

Leading medieval historian Nicholas Orme’s recent Going to Church in Medieval England (Yale University Press, 2021) is a highly recommended, very readable social history of daily church-going across the Middle Ages.

Bishop Godfrey De Lucy, Agatha and their three sons: clerical relationships in the thirteenth century

Cathedral guide Anna Withers tells the little-known story of Agatha, the “wife” of Bishop Godfrey de Lucy (1189 -1204), and their three sons. Their time together was in the aftermath of the Gregorian Reforms which enforced chastity in the Church.

Captain Henry Pearson, RN and the Great Samoan Hurricane

Ian Glenday, also a Cathedral Guide, and Tom Watson investigate the North Transept plaque commemorating Captain Henry Pearson, RN and find a late Victorian naval hero who came to Winchester in retirement.