Church and Almshouse of Saint Cross

I love this place. i got married in the chapel of the Hospital back in March 1999. It has awesome memories. A beautifu area, where you can still get the wayfarers dole if you are travelling. THere is great history surrounding the place. Well worth a vist — will bring a tranquil part of your day.

Ice cream, drinks, home made cakes sold in the Hall just inside the Gate. You can sit inside or outside. Just what you need after an exhausting walk in the meadows or up St Catherine’s Hill.

A lovely twenty minute walk along the water meadows by the River Itchen, going south from the centre of Winchester, brings you to the Almshouse and church of Saint Cross.
The Almshouse, founded in 1132, is the oldest and best preserved in Britain, and is England’s oldest charitable institution. Founded to take care of thirteen frail men and to feed a hundred poor men a day, it was extended in the fifteenth century. To-​day it includes twenty five brothers, all pensioners (although they are not actually monks — they’re all lay brothers). They wear the mediaeval style of robes of two orders which date to the founding in 1132 or the extension of 1445.
The Almshouse still provides the ‘Wayfarer’s Dole’ to visitors, if you ask for it: a horn of beer and a morsel of bread.
As well as the Almshouse itself, the adjacent church is a magnificent example of late Norman romanesque, on a grand scale, with later gothic additions. The Almshouse also has a lovely garden, open to visitors.