Winchester College Heritage

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Winchester College's Treasury museum, guided tours, collections and public events. Welcoming visitors seven days a week, all year round.

30/09/2026

🏅 It’s today! To celebrate, we're sharing the story of George Stuart Robertson (College, 1884–1891) - Wi******er College’s first Olympian.

Robertson competed at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens, the first modern Olympic Games. A talented scholar and sportsman, he excelled at athletics at Oxford, winning the hammer throw in the Varsity Sports three times.

He travelled to Athens hoping to compete in the hammer, only to discover it wasn’t an Olympic event. Instead, he entered the discus, despite having never thrown one before. His throw of 82’8” placed him 4th and set the inaugural British record 💪

He also competed in tennis and, in perhaps his most unusual Olympic achievement, composed and recited a Pindaric ode in classical Greek before the King of Greece.

A remarkable sporting story from Wi******er’s history! 🏆

20/09/2026

Yesterday we celebrated the 207th anniversary of Keats's 'Ode to Autumn', one of the most famous poems in British literary history, which was written during Keats's stay in Wi******er in 1819.

In addition to a rare copy of the first edition of this beloved poem, Wi******er College's collections have many other items relating to Wi******er at the time of Keats’s visit. These include early guidebooks to the city and many watercolour views by two local artists: George Sidney Shepherd (1784-1862) and Richard Baigent (1799-1881). Shown here is Baigent's watercolour of St Cross from the water meadows, dated 1840.

19/09/2026

in 1819, John Keats wrote his ode 'To Autumn', inspired by his daily walks across the water meadows of Wi******er and the grounds of Wi******er College. Keats stayed in the city for a brief period from August - October 1819 and described the beauty of his walks and the early Autumn season in his letters: "How beautiful the season is now - How fine the air. [...] this struck me so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it."

The Fellows' Library at Wi******er College includes a first edition of To Autumn, published in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St.Agnes and Other Poems (1820). This was Keats' third and final volume of poetry, containing some of his greatest works including his six famous odes.

10/09/2026

The Bayeux Tapestry is back in England for the first time since it was made nearly 1000 years ago! 🥳 🪡

But did you know that Wi******er College has it's own Bayeux-style mural, telling stories of life at the school from over 100 years ago?

It all started with a 1921 Hot Roll (football team list) by scholar Christopher Hawkes, drawn in the style of the famous tapestry. Three years later, Hawkes developed the idea into a mural filled with recognisable characters from College life — from the Head Porter and the Warden to the College Cook, a hairdresser and even some scholars getting themselves into trouble!

Painted in 1924, the mural offers a wonderfully quirky snapshot of life at Wi******er over 100 years ago.

Discover the story behind the mural in our latest blog: https://www.winchestercollegeheritage.org/news-diary/news/

06/09/2026

Today marks 206 years since the birth of Rev. William Webb Spicer (1820–1879), an English clergyman and notable amateur botanist who attended Wi******er College in the 1830s. He donated thousands of plant specimens to the College in 1874, which forms a significant part of our Herbarium.

Read more about Spicer and his contribution to our Herbarium on our blog: https://www.winchestercollegeheritage.org/news-diary/news/

03/09/2026

This month's theme is ! To celebrate this theme, we're sharing our Founder's Statues, which has an important word missing.

Wi******er College was founded in 1382 with various permissions – from both the King and the Pope. In 1535, the words 'apostolica et' were deleted from the Founder’s Statutes of September 1400 under the terms of a set of injunctions issued by Henry VIII. These injunctions required that any statutes which recognised the authority of the Pope should be ‘utterly put forth and abolished out of the books or muniments of that religion, order or place’.

29/08/2026

Please note that our College tours won't be running tomorrow (Sunday 30 August). Our Treasury museum 🖼 will be open from 2-4pm as usual and our tours will resume on Monday 31 August at 2.15pm and 3.30pm! Hope to see you here soon.

24/08/2026

For our final themed post of month, we're sharing this photo from the c. late 1960s - early 1970s of our founder's statue, dressed for Winkies (Wi******er College Football)... this certainly would have been a surprise to whoever discovered it first!

21/08/2026

Please note that our College tours won't be running tomorrow (Saturday 22 August) as we are hosting a wedding. Our Treasury museum will be open from 2-4pm as usual 🖼

Address

Winchester College, College Street
Winchester
SO239NA

Telephone

+441962621209

Website

http://www.winchestercollegeheritage.org/

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