Photograph of the High Street, Winchester decorated for the Rifle Brigade
Taken in 1874
Winchester's High Street is decorated to celebrate the return of the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade from the Gold Coast where it had been fighting in the 1873-4 Ashanti War of colonial expansion in present day Ghana. It played an important part in the taking of Amoaful and Coomassie (or Kumasi), fighting in difficult conditions; many men fell ill in the swamp and jungle of West Africa and more died from sickness than in battle during this campaign.
St Maurice's Church, which was rebuilt in the 1840s and demolished in the 1950s, can just be seen on the south side of the High Street beyond the arch.
The photograph was taken by Winchester photographer William Savage (1817-87) and is found in an album of his work.
