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

CAPTAIN MARTIN PHIPPS MBE, TRINITY HOUSE

Tuesday 17 May, 7pm, Paul Woodhouse Suite & Zoom

Have you ever wondered who looks after the major lighthouses around England, Wales and the Channel Islands? How did they come to be there in the first place? Incorporated by Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1514, Trinity House is today a vital part of Britain’s maritime community.

GIRLS’ CHOIR SUMMER CONCERT

On Wednesday 8 June, the Girls’ Choir will perform a summer concert for the Friends in the Cathedral. Please book tickets to come along and hear wonderful music from the choir which the Friends have supported since its inception over 20 years ago.  Tickets are available to book here

The Friends’ coffee mornings will be held on 29 April, 20 May and 17 June, 15 July, 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”

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

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.