Photograph of the north transept of Winchester Cathedral
Taken about 1886
This image gives an indication of what a mighty building the Norman Cathedral would have been. The 1080s structure of the north transept with its flat buttressing retains its original lower windows in the north wall except for the eastern one dating to about 1300. The windows above are also of the fourteenth century with a tracery rose window in the gable.
Five young boys are lined up for the photograph near the site of the east end of the Saxon Minster which the late eleventh century building replaced. Until the Reformation the Cathedral was associated with the Benedictine Monastery of St Swithun, who was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester.
The photograph was taken by Winchester photographer William Savage (1817-87) and is found in an album entitled 'Hampshire Views of Churches, Country Houses and Public Buildings'.
