Winchester College Publication Winchester College War Cloisters Architecture | Page 3

on the western side of the College grounds. Above all, Rendall wished this to
be here so that future generations of young Wykehamists coming down to
lessons from the Commoner Boarding Houses, would walk through this “Via
Sacra”. The walls are flint faced and knapped, but a number of the old
bonding stones in these flint walls are from the original Meads wall, with
dates on them such as 1792. Some of the bonding stones on the external
walls have “temples” among them for candles. During the Illumina event held
in December every year, lit candles are placed in these “temples” as dusk
settles. To approach War Cloister from Meads through Angel Gate, with
Wheeler’s Madonna and Gleadowe’s bronze sculpted angels above, is to
approach the low wall at the cemetery entrance to Tyne Cot in the Ypres Salient.
They are remarkably similar and deliberately so.
The War Cloister has four
ranges corresponding to the
directions of the compass.
These surround the central
garth, with four walkways of
London paving slabs leading
inwards to Turner’s central
cross with the Greek
inscription Christos Anesti –
Christ Arisen. A small sculpted
cross set in a circular stone
lozenge sits atop, guarded by
two Crusader Knights facing
east and west. From above this
produces a square shape with
the cross in the centre.
To return to the inner and
outer walls, one sees both
below and above Rendall’s
inscription knapped flint. The
style of the lettering in the
inscription is Lombardic.
Flint knapping is regarded as a
particularly difficult masonry
skill, only acquired by long
Turner’s central cross and octagon.
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experience. It is more typical of East Anglian
ecclesiastical architecture than that of
Hampshire. It involves shaping the flints
and settling them into masonry dust to a
depth of two to three inches. The Hampshire
masons learnt the craft ably and quickly.
Most of the flints came from the nearby
village of Shawford.
Star of India on black marble
Each range finishes in a corner known
paving slab.
architecturally as an ashlar-faced dome.
There are therefore four. Once again to produce the dome demands skilful
masonry techniques, where squared or dressed stone is finely jointed towards
the central key-stone of the dome. Each corner represents the contributions
of the Empire towards the great struggle. This starts with the Indian dome in
the north east corner, moving to the African dome in the south east corner,
along to Australia and New Zealand in the south west, and finishing with
Canada, Newfoundland, and Jamaica in the north west.
Shields of the provinces of India.
Standing in the Indian corner, when one looks up to the key-stone, one sees
a carved star of India and the lotus, or sun disk, surrounded by a wreath of
lotus flowers. Looking to the ground one stands upon a paving slab of black
marble from Budh-Gaya in the state of Bihar, on which is set another Star of
India. At the time of construction of War Cloister this marble was being used
in many of the buildings of New Delhi. The marble paving inlay was given
and transported free of charge to Winchester College. This applies also to
the other three Empire and Dominion domes, and their respective stones.
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