Visit to Winchester
The Friends and the Steyning Society organised a trip to Winchester on 20 May 2025, entitled In the Steps of Bishop Henry of Blois. (Bishop Henry’s nephew Henri de Sully was our abbot and Lord of the Manor when the nave of the Church was built. Here is a paper explaining the historical background.)
We visited the Hospital of St Cross and the Cathedral and some participants did the lovely walk along the river Itchen water meadows to the Cathedral.
The object was to look at the features at the Church of the Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty (founded by Bishop Henry of Winchester in 1132) which connect it with Steyning Parish Church. See the attached summary by Sarah Leigh of the features which Professor Malcolm Thurlby identified in his lecture ( see this link) as indicating that the same masons worked in both places. Two Brothers of St Cross acted as our guides, Brother John and Brother Peter, and the party included our Vicar, and the Chairmen of the Steyning Society and of the Friends. The Chairman of the Friends of St Cross, John Pringle was there and they plan a visit to Steyning next year.
We had a most interesting afternoon in the Cathedral with excellent guides who focussed what they had to say on Bishop Henry’s contributions to it as Bishop of Winchester 1129-69.
