Editing Winchester (section)

===Anglo-Saxon===
[[File:Winchester-alfred-wyrdlight.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Statue of Alfred the Great, Winchester|Statue of Alfred the Great]] by [[Hamo Thornycroft]] in Winchester]]

[[File:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - Wintan ceastre (British Library Cotton MS Tiberius A VI, folio 12r).jpg|thumb|left|A mention of Wintanceaster (here spelled ''Ƿintan ceastre'') in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'']]
The city became known as '''Wintanceaster''' ("Fort Venta") in [[Old English]].<ref name="Anglo-Saxon Dictionary">{{cite web|title=Wintan-ceaster|url=http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/035936|website=Anglo Saxon Dictionary|publisher=Bosworth-Toller|access-date=18 June 2014}}</ref> In 648, [[King Cenwalh of Wessex]] erected the Church of St Peter and St Paul, later known as the [[Old Minster]]. This became a cathedral in the 660s when the West Saxon bishop's see was transferred from [[Dorchester on Thames]]. The present form of the city dates from reconstruction in the late 9th century, when [[King Alfred the Great]] obliterated the Roman street plan in favour of a new grid in order to provide better defence against the [[Viking invasions of Britain|Vikings]]. The city's first mint appears to date from this period.<ref name=WB>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England|year=2014|edition=2nd|publisher=Wiley Blackwell|isbn=978-0-631-22492-1|title=Winchester|first=John|last=Crook|editor=Lapidge, Michael |display-editors=etal }}</ref>

In the early 10th century there were two new ecclesiastical establishments: the convent of [[Nunnaminster]], founded by Alfred's widow [[Ealhswith]],<ref>*{{cite encyclopedia |first=Marios|last =Costambeys | publisher = Oxford University Press | encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | title= Ealhswith (d. 902)| year = 2004 | url =http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39226 | access-date= 21 June 2014|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39226 }} {{ODNBsub}}</ref> and the [[New Minster]]. Bishop [[Æthelwold of Winchester]] was a leading figure in the monastic reform movement of the later 10th century. He expelled the secular canons of both minsters and replaced them with monks. He created the drainage system, the "Lockburn", which served as the town drain until 1875, and still survives. Also in the late 10th century, the Old Minster was enlarged as a centre of the cult of the 9th century [[Bishop of Winchester]], Saint [[Swithun]]. The three minsters were the home of what architectural historian John Crook describes as "the supreme artistic achievements" of the ''Winchester School''.<ref name=WB/>

The consensus among historians of Anglo-Saxon England is that the court was mobile in this period and there was no fixed capital.<ref>{{cite book |last= Stenton|first= Frank M.|author-link=Frank Stenton| title= Anglo-Saxon England|year= 1971|edition=3rd| publisher= Clarendon Press|page=539|isbn=978-0-19-280139-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Foot | first = Sarah | author-link=Sarah Foot| title=Æthelstan: the first king of England|publisher=Yale University Press| year = 2011 |page=78|isbn= 978-0-300-12535-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Naismith |first=Rory |title=Citadel of the Saxons: The Rise of Early London|page=11 |publisher=I. B. Tauris |location =London, UK |year=2019|isbn=978-1-3501-3568-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor1-first=Ryan|editor1-last=Lvelle |editor2-first=Simon|editor2-last=Roffey | editor3-first=Katherine|editor3-last=Weikert |title=Early Medieval Winchester: Communities, Authority and Power in an Urban Space, c.800-c.1200 |publisher=Oxbow Books |location =Oxford, UK |year=2021|page=4|isbn=978-1-78925-623-9|quote= Contrary to popular belief, though, Winchester has never been a 'capital' of England, or even of Winchester}}</ref> [[Martin Biddle]] has suggested that Winchester was a centre for royal administration in the 7th and 8th centuries, but this is questioned by [[Barbara Yorke]], who sees it as significant that the shire was named after Hamtun, the forerunner of [[Southampton]].<ref>{{cite journal| last= Yorke|first=Barbara |author-link= Barbara Yorke|journal=Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society |title=The Foundation of the Old Minster and the Status of Winchester in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries|number=38 |year=1982 |pages=79–80 |issn= 0142-8950}}</ref> However, Winchester is described by the historian Catherine Cubitt as "the premier city of the West Saxon kingdom"<ref>{{cite book|first=Catherine|last=Cubitt|chapter=Pastoral Care and Religious Belief|page=399|title=A Companion to the Early Middle Ages: Britain and Ireland c.500- c.1100|editor-first=Pauline|editor-last=Stafford|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|location=Chichester, UK|year=2009|isbn=978-1-118-42513-8}}</ref> and [[Janet Nelson]] describes London and Winchester as Alfred the Great's "proto-capitals".<ref>{{cite book|last=Nelson|first=Janet|chapter=Power and authority at the Court of Alfred|editor1-last= Roberts|editor1-first= and |editor2-last= Nelson|editor2-first=Janet|title= Essays on Anglo-Saxon and Related Themes in Memory of Lynne Grundy|pages=327–28|location=London|year= 2000|publisher=King's College London Centre for Late Antique & Medieval Studies|isbn= 978-0-9522119-9-0}}</ref>