List of places of worship in the City of Winchester District



As of 2024, there are more than 140 current and former places of worship in the district of the City of Winchester in the English county of Hampshire. Christian denominations and groups of various descriptions use 108 churches, chapels and meeting halls for worship, and there is also a mosque for adherents of Islam; another 34 former churches and chapels no longer serve a religious function but survive in alternative uses. The City of Winchester is one of 13 local government districts in the county of Hampshire—a large county in central southern England, with a densely populated coastal fringe facing the English Channel and a more rural hinterland. The district covers a large, mostly rural area in the centre of the county, focused on the ancient and historic cathedral city of Winchester—where a settlement existed by the Middle Iron Age, the first church was built in the mid-7th century, and the present inner-city street layout was established by Alfred the Great in the 880s. In the surrounding area are small market towns such as Alresford and Bishop's Waltham, each with a variety of places of worship, and dozens of villages with medieval Church of England parish churches and, often, a Nonconformist chapel: various forms of Methodism were strong locally in the 19th and 20th centuries, and several Methodist chapels remain open.

The 2021 United Kingdom census found that, although not forming a majority, the largest percentage of the district's population was Christian. A large proportion of places of worship are churches belonging to the Church of England—the country's Established Church—but the Roman Catholic Church has an unbroken history locally even during the post-Reformation "penal era", and several Catholic churches are in use. Of the major Nonconformist denominations, Methodism was always the strongest locally—as late as 1940 there were 27 chapels in use—and, apart from one United Reformed congregation in Bishop's Waltham, worshipping communities of Baptists, the United Reformed Church, Quakers and The Salvation Army are confined to Winchester itself. Groups of Evangelicals, Open Brethren and Pentecostals linked to the Assemblies of God denomination also have their own places of worship; and several of Britain's smaller and less mainstream groups meet in the area as well, such as Christian Scientists, Latter-day Saints and members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, who have several meeting rooms.

Historic England or its predecessor English Heritage have awarded listed status to 70 current and nine former places of worship in the district. A building is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, a Government department, is responsible for this; Historic England, a non-departmental public body, acts as an agency of the department to administer the process and advise the department on relevant issues. There are three grades of listing status. Grade I, the highest, is defined as being of "exceptional interest"; Grade II* is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and Grade II, the lowest, is used for buildings of "special interest".

Overview of the district and its places of worship
The City of Winchester district covers about 250 sqmi of land in the central part of Hampshire and had a population of about 118,000 in 2017, rising to nearly 127,500 in 2021. Clockwise from the south, it shares borders with the city of Portsmouth, the boroughs of Fareham and Eastleigh, the district of Test Valley, the borough of Basingstoke and Deane, the district of East Hampshire and the borough of Havant, all in Hampshire. The largest centre of population is the ancient cathedral city of Winchester, where about one-third of the district's residents live; other large settlements are Denmead (2017 population 7,175), Bishop's Waltham (6,750) and Alresford (also known as New Alresford; 6,300).

Winchester, situated at a narrow crossing point of the River Itchen, was important to a succession of settlers: evidence from the Early and Middle Iron Ages survives, and the remains of the settlement were taken over by the Romans, expanded and named Venta Belgarum. After the Romans left, "a wave of Germanic settlement occurred", followed by the arrival of Anglo-Saxons. They quickly established a church (the Old Minster) here, and by 660 it was a cathedral. The present Winchester Cathedral replaced it in the late 11th century, and the city was thereafter an important centre of Christianity. Abbeys, priories, almshouses (such as the Hospital of St Cross) and religious houses opened across the city, and by 1300 there were 54 churches within its boundaries. The only survivors from that era in the city are St Leonard and St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate, although the tower of St Maurice still stands and the redundant St Peter Chesil is now a theatre.

The Anglo-Saxons founded many other churches in the surrounding villages and countryside, and some survive in whole or in part. Boarhunt is "a very valuable specimen of a pre-[Norman] Conquest building" and has been dated to the 1060s. Corhampton, which was altered in the 19th century, may date from as early as 1020. Hambledon was extended several times in the medieval era but retains much Saxon-era fabric inside, as does Headbourne Worthy, where some of the work has been dated to c. 1030. Tichborne, prominently sited on a hill, has kept its Saxon layout and its contemporary chancel, although the nave was built in the Norman era (the 12th century). That period was significant for the area's parish churches: many were founded or rebuilt. Chilcomb, Easton and Farley Chamberlayne are wholly Norman or have been only slightly altered. Others of that era, with varying amounts of surviving Norman features, include Bighton, Bishops Sutton, Bishop's Waltham, Bramdean, Cheriton, Compton, Crawley, Droxford (a "typical ... Hampshire village church" of the Norman era), Martyr Worthy, Morestead, Soberton, Southwick, Sparsholt, Stoke Charity, Warnford and Wickham. The 13th century, when Norman architecture transitioned into Gothic, also left its mark locally: new churches, many of which were altered, extended or rebuilt at various times between the 16th and 19th centuries, were provided in the villages of Durley, Exton, Hunton, Kilmeston, Meonstoke, Micheldever and Upham, and Owslebury's church dates from the late 13th and early 14th centuries.

Little happened for the next four centuries to the area's parish churches except for some extensions or refitting: the only new church was Avington, a Georgian "gem" described as "the best in the county" of its era (it was completed in 1771). The church at Old Alresford was also rebuilt in Georgian style around this time. Churchbuilding and rebuilding took off in the following century, though: many churches in the area underwent restoration in the Victorian era or shortly afterwards, in common with many other places. Some of these programmes of works were carried out by architects of national significance: Arthur Blomfield at Alresford, Thomas Graham Jackson at Bishop's Waltham, Corhampton, Winchester Cathedral and Wonston, Henry Woodyer at Easton, George Edmund Street at Headbourne Worthy and Upham, William Butterfield at Sparsholt, the Hospital of St Cross (St Faith's Church) and St Michael's, Winchester, and Alfred Waterhouse at Twyford (a near-complete rebuild retaining some older fragments). Also prolific locally were father and son John and John Barnes Colson of Winchester, who were in partnership as architects and who worshipped at All Saints Church in Compton; between them at various times they restored that church and Durley, Kings Worthy, Martyr Worthy, Micheldever, Morestead, Old Alresford, Tichborne, Warnford, and St Bartholomew and St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate at Winchester. John senior also designed new churches at Newtown (1847–50; the first church he designed anywhere), Woodmancott (1854–56), Ovington (1865–67, replacing an older building on the site), St Paul, Winchester (1872–89) and Shedfield (1875–80), and in 1860 added to the church at Swanmore which had been designed by Benjamin Ferrey 14 years earlier. Other entirely new churches of the Victorian era, some of which (like Swanmore) were by nationally recognised architects, include Otterbourne (1837–38, by Owen Browne Carter); Beauworth (1838); Colden Common (1842–44); West Meon (1843–46, by George Gilbert Scott); Denmead (1880, by James Fowler); and Curdridge, East Stratton and Northington, all designed by Thomas Graham Jackson in the late 1880s. As well as the Colson-designed St Paul, the growth of Winchester prompted the construction of Holy Trinity in 1853–54, Christ Church in 1859–61 and All Saints in 1885 to the designs of Henry Woodyer, Ewan Christian and John Loughborough Pearson respectively. Much more modest were the tin tabernacles erected on Bramdean Common in 1883 and at South Wonston, replaced in the 1990s by a new church. Other 20th-century Anglican churches were built to cater for Winchester's continued suburban growth: at Oliver's Battery a prefabricated Reema Construction hall was bought and erected in 1956, a church opened in 1962 on the Stanmore estate, and a large brick church was completed in Weeke five years later.

The Roman Catholic faith was largely suppressed throughout England after the Reformation in the 16th century but survived in Winchester, albeit largely hidden. A house was used for the secret celebration of Mass, and in 1583 "much evidence [was] discovered to show it was a major Mass centre". A resident priest was appointed by a later owner of the house, Roger Corham, around 1674, and a shed in the priest's garden was used as a chapel from c. 1740. Later extended and dedicated, it became the first consecrated post-Reformation Catholic church in England. It was used until the present St Peter's Church opened in 1926. As the city grew, additional Catholic chapels were built at Weeke (1957; no longer extant) and Oliver's Battery (1969; still in use as St Stephen's Church). Another place nearby where Catholicism "appears to have enjoyed a little-persecuted existence since the Reformation" was Tichborne near Alresford. A chapel at Tichborne House was used for Masses for many years, certainly by 1633, and in the new (1803) house one survives in occasional use; it was superseded by a large Modernist church, St Gregory the Great, in Alresford in 1968. Further south, in Bishop's Waltham, Mass was celebrated from 1906 at an inn, then the chapel of the nearby seminary was used until the present Church of Our Lady Queen of Apostles was built. Nearby, at Wickham, the Park Place Catholic retreat and pastoral centre has a chapel which is open for public Masses.

The Methodist Church of Great Britain documented all the chapels it owned as of 1940 in a statistical return published in 1947. Within the boundaries of the present City of Winchester district at that time, there were 27 chapels representing the denomination's three historic strands: Wesleyanism, Primitive Methodism and the United Methodist Church. There were chapels of Wesleyan origin at Durley, Longwood Dene (near Cheriton) and Winchester; United Methodist chapels at Colden Common, Kings Worthy, Soberton, Sparsholt, Twyford and Upham; and former Primitive Methodist chapels at Baybridge, Bishop's Waltham, Curdridge, Droxford, East Stratton, Easton, Hambledon, Meonstoke, the neighbouring villages of Micheldever and Micheldever Station, New Alresford, Shirrell Heath, Sutton Scotney, Swanmore, Swarraton, Waltham Chase, West Meon and Winchester. Most of these closed in the late 20th or early 21st century: for example Meonstoke (demolished) closed in 1962, West Meon in 1990, Curdridge in 2004 and Soberton in 2009. Two of Winchester's chapels were still open in 1973, but they amalgamated with Winchester United Reformed Church in the latter's building to form Winchester United Church. In contrast, population growth in the Waltham Chase area led to that village's 19th-century chapel being expanded twice in the late 20th century.

Historically, Congregationalism was strong in Hampshire, and many chapels (now part of the United Reformed Church) can trace their origins back to 17th- or 18th-century Presbyterian or Independent causes. This is the case with the present Winchester United Church, built in 1852–53 and "striking in its originality" but founded on a different site in the late 17th century. The present chapel was built into the walls of the old County Jail, which had been closed in 1850: it "oddly separates" the north wing and the main façade of the former jail, both of which are now in alternative use. The only other surviving cause is at Bishop's Waltham, though, where a chapel of 1862 was succeeded by the present building in 1910. Like Winchester it is a joint Methodist and United Reformed church. Similarly, the only Baptist chapels in the district are in Winchester: a building of 1865 for General Baptists and the Hyde Street Chapel, serving Reformed Baptists. Quakers had a burial ground in Winchester in the 18th century but only restarted their regular meetings in 1940 and moved to their current building in 1973. The Salvation Army registered a building in the city in 1889 and replaced it in 1995. The Winchester Soldiers' Home and Mission was founded in the late 19th century and had Evangelical mission chapels at Shawford and in Winchester city centre; the latter is now a Gospel hall of Open Brethren.

Religious affiliation
According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, 127,444 lived in the City of Winchester district. Of these, 48.61% identified themselves as Christian, 0.74% were Hindu, 0.71% were Muslim, 0.62% were Buddhist, 0.17% were Jewish, 0.15% were Sikh, 0.53% followed another religion, 42.18% claimed no religious affiliation and 6.3% did not state their religion. The proportions of Christians, Buddhists and people who followed no religion were higher than the figures in England as a whole (46.32%, 0.46% and 36.67% respectively). Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Sikhism had a lower following in the district than in the country overall: in 2021, 6.73% of people in England were Muslim, 1.81% were Hindu, 0.92% were Sikh and 0.48% were Jewish.

Anglican churches
The district lies across the boundary of the Anglican dioceses of Winchester, which is based at Winchester Cathedral, and Portsmouth, whose seat is Portsmouth Cathedral. The parish churches of Bishop's Waltham, Boarhunt, Corhampton, Curdridge, Droxford, Durley, Exton, Hambledon, Meonstoke, Newtown, Shedfield, Soberton, Southwick, Swanmore, Upham and Wickham are administered by the Bishop's Waltham Deanery of Portsmouth diocese; All Saints Church at Denmead is within the Havant Deanery of the same diocese; and the Petersfield Deanery administers the churches at Warnford and West Meon. In the Diocese of Winchester, Alresford Deanery administers the churches at Alresford, Avington, Beauworth, Bighton, Bishop's Sutton, Bramdean, Bramdean Common, Cheriton, Easton, Hinton Ampner, Itchen Abbas, Kilmeston, Martyr Worthy, Northington, Old Alresford, Ovington and Tichborne; Crawley, Littleton and Sparsholt's churches are in Andover Deanery; Farley Chamberlayne is part of Romsey Deanery; and Winchester Deanery looks after the churches at Chilcomb, Colden Common, Compton, East Stratton, Headbourne Worthy, Hunton, Hursley, King's Worthy, Micheldever, Morestead, Otterbourne, Owslebury, South Wonston, Stoke Charity, Twyford, Wonston and Woodmancote and those in Winchester itself (All Saints, Christ Church, Holy Trinity, St Bartholomew, St Faith, St John the Baptist, St Lawrence, St Paul and St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate) and its suburbs of Oliver's Battery (St Mark), Stanmore (St Luke) and Weeke (St Barnabas and St Matthew). The former parish church of St Michael, now Winchester College Chapel, is also formally within this Deanery.

Roman Catholic churches
The Catholic churches at Alresford, Bishop's Waltham, Oliver's Battery, Tichborne House and Winchester are part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth, whose seat is the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist in Portsmouth. The Church of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles at Bishop's Waltham is one of the six churches in St Swithun Wells parish, which is part of the Three Rivers Pastoral Area of Deanery 4 in the Diocese. The parish covers a large area of mostly rural land in West Hampshire, from the villages of the Meon Valley in the east to the county boundary with Wiltshire in the west, and the northern suburbs of Southampton in the south to the A30 road and villages around Winchester to the north. The churches of St Gregory the Great at Alresford, St Stephen at Oliver's Battery, St Margaret of Scotland at Tichborne House and St Peter at Winchester are in the five-church Hampshire Downs parish in the Hampshire Downs Pastoral Area of the same deanery.

Other denominations
Alresford Methodist Church, Colden Common Methodist Church, Twyford Methodist Chapel, Wesley Methodist Church at Weeke and Winchester United Church, a joint Methodist and United Reformed congregation, are administered by the Winchester, Eastleigh & Romsey Methodist Circuit. Hedge End Methodist Church is in the Southampton Methodist Circuit. The chapels at Hambledon, Shirrell Heath, Swanmore and Waltham Chase, and the joint Methodist and United Reformed church at Bishop's Waltham, are part of the Meon Valley Methodist Circuit. Winchester United Church and Bishop's Waltham United Free Church are also part of Wessex Synod of the United Reformed Church. Winchester Baptist Church belongs to the Southern Counties Baptist Association. Winchester Evangelical Church belongs to two Evangelical groups: the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), a pastoral and administrative network of about 500 churches with an evangelical outlook, and Affinity (formerly the British Evangelical Council), a network of conservative Evangelical congregations throughout Great Britain. Winchester Baptist Church belongs to the Southern Counties Baptist Association. Hyde Street Chapel in Winchester is part of GraceNet UK, an association of Reformed Evangelical Christian churches and organisations.

Listed status
In the City of Winchester district, 22 churches have Grade I-listed status, 27 (including three former churches) are listed at Grade II* and 30 (including six former churches) have Grade II listed status. As of February 2001, there were 2,219 listed buildings in the district: 64 with Grade I status, 118 listed at Grade II* and 2,037 with Grade II status.