On Sunday, the eve of King Alfred’s Day, the St Bartholomew’s church congregation in Winchester walked in procession to Hyde Abbey church.
St Bartholomew’s is the surviving church within Hyde Abbey precinct and on King Alfred Sunday there is a procession to the now open-air mother church.
A cross led the procession down King Alfred’s Place into Alswitha Terrace being the former nave of the abbey church.
In the sanctuary, now a garden, Rector Karen Kousseff read prayers before Mayor of Winchester Cllr Jamie Scott placed flowers on the presumed burial site of King Alfred. Floral tributes were also laid on the graves of Alfred’s wife Queen Alswitha and his son King Edward the Elder.
St Bartholomew’s church is a pilgrim church welcoming walkers on both the Pilgrims’ Way from Winchester to Canterbury and those on the St James Way from Reading to Southampton.
The latter are on the first leg of the English route to Santiago de Compostela. Recently a mouteira, or Camino ‘milestone’, was installed outside the Winchester church. Pilgrim stamps are available in the porch when the church is not open.
***King Alfred’s Day is 26 October. The King died on that date in 899. There are outdoor statues of Alfred in both Winchester, which he made the Saxon capital, and Southwark, which he founded as a borough.
***The Rector has recently completed her own pilgrimage along the St James Way.
