The much-visited city of Winchester will be well known for King Alfred’s statue, the Great Hall and Jane Austen’s final resting place. However, woven into its long and remarkable history are hidden gems of little-known stories, from the bishop who had a vision of King Arthur on one Winchester hill, to the sorry fate of an Anglo-Saxon earl who lost his head on another; from an empress fighting for the Crown, to the eventful life of one medieval Jewish family; from the horrors of the Black Death, to the opulence of a Tudor royal wedding. Centuries of commerce and culture, religion and war have shaped the city.

Fully illustrated throughout, Secret Winchester delves beneath the surface of this ancient capital, journeying from Iron Age origins to Victorian aspirations through medieval fairs, Restoration races and Georgian theatres, inviting the reader to discover the lesser-known facts and hidden aspects of Winchester’s history.