Prehistory
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St. Swithun's Shrine at Winchester Cathedral Before its destruction in 1538, the Shrine of St. Swithun in Winchester Cathedral was perhaps the second most popular place of pilgrimage in Medieval England. However, despite its popularity in times gone by, no illustrations or detailed descriptions of the shrine have survived. The form, style and even site of this holy relic remain contraversial even today. The pious Swithun, Bishop of Winchester in the mid 9th century was originally buried (862) in a humble grave in the open between the tower of St. Martin and the Cathedral Church of the Old Minster in Winchester. This original grave, along with the minster itself, was excavated by Martin Biddle in the 1960s. St. Swithun, however, was long gone. Popular legend insists that the monks tried to move Swithun inside the Old Minster, some nine years after his death. The saint, however, did not approve of his removal from exposure to the elements. There was a clap of thunder and it began to rain for forty days and forty nights!
St. Swithun's head was taken to Canterbury Cathedral by (St.) Alphege when he was elevated from Bishop of Winchester to Archbishop of Canterbury in 1006. An arm was also taken to Peterborough Abbey (now Cathedral).
With the arrival of the Normans and the building of the present Winchester Cathedral to the south of the Old Minster, St. Swithun was on the move once more. On his feast day in 1093, his feretory was carried into the, still incomplete, new building and, the very next day, Bishop Walkelin ordered the demolition of the Old Minster.
Construction of the retrochoir, within which this area is housed, was begun by Bishop Godfrey Lucy around 1202 and completed about thrity-three years later. At the same time It has often been supposed that it was built specifically as a large open area to accommodate both a new shrine and the vast numbers of pilgrims which were by that time flocking to St. Swithun's side. The pilgrims are known to have entered through a door in the north transept and one theory has them being barred from the choir and nave which were reserved for the monks only.
In the early 14th century, the old eastern apse was finally removed and replaced by the present decorated screen below the feretory platform and facing into the retrochoir. The coffered remains of the Saxon Kings were placed along its top edge and (possibly wooden) representations of them placed in the paired niches below, along with identifying inscriptions. But what of the great St. Swithun?
The last of St. Swithun's Shrines (panels from
which are displayed in the Triforium Gallery) is
well recorded as having been inaugurated during
much celebrating on the Saint's feast day in
1476. In the retrochoir, "a marble tomb
had been constructed to the glorious saint, upon
which a silver and gilt reliquary had previously
been placed". This was the climax of
some twenty-five years of building work at the
Cathedral. Prior to the death of Bishop
(Cardinal) Beaufort in 1447, he had arranged for
the building of his magnificent chantry chapel.
It's site, in the favoured position immediately
south of St. If this were so, Le Couteur and Carter's mid-13th century shrine, would have stood on the feretory platform out of reach of pilgrims and would have no need for niches into which they could thrust their diseased limbs. Crook identifies these probable shrine fragments as part of an apertured 'tomb-shrine' similar to that of St. Osmund still extant at Sailsbury. As at several other pilgrimage centres around the country, St. Swithun would have been venerated, not only at the shrine where his body lay, but also at a second shrine above his original grave. The apertures would allow pilgrims to get closer to the ground where the saint had lain for so long. Swithun's grave outside the cathedral, is known to have been protected by a small chapel and excavation has revealed a 'memorial court' (probably the 'lowly place' from where the Saxon Kings were exhumed) around this area which was not finally demolished until the reformation.
Sources John Adair (1978) The
Pilgrims' Way |
About
a hundred years later, however, Swithun appears
to have changed his mind. For various visions are
said to have led a subsequent bishop, (St.)
Aethelwold, to successfully transfer his body
inside the Old Minster, on 15th July 971. Screens
were placed round the grave and St. Swithun was
ceremonial exhumed: the bishop himself taking up
the spade. At around the same time, Bishop Aethelwold instigated an ambious
plan to turn the Old Minster into a shrine-church
centred around St. Swithun's relics. He extended
the building and enclosed the saint's original
grave beneath a huge crossing tower. In 974, King
Edgar donated a magnificent gold and silver
feretory in which to enshrine St. Swithun's body.
It was studded with precious jewels and depicted
scenes of Christ's Passion, Resurrection and
Ascension. On 30th October, therefore, Swithun
was translated once more. His head was removed to
a seperate head shrine kept in the sacristy upon
the altar "in a space with a locked
door, which could be described as a 'chamber' or
vestibule, and was guarded by a watcher or
sacrist". The main shrine is believed
to have been placed on an altar over the original
grave. Three years later, Aethelwold had this
area of the Minster completely rebuilt with a
massive westwork fit to recieve the many
pilgrims not only visiting St. Swithun's Shrine,
but those of St. Birinus and St. Birstan too.
St. Swithun's feretory was probably
placed behind the High Altar. In the mid-12th
century, Bishop Henry (of
Blois) elevated St. Swithun onto a large
platform built into the eastern apse of the
Norman Cathedral especially for his veneration. Much remodelled, this area is
still known as the Feretory or Feretory
Platform. Beneath it is the 'Holy Hole':
a small (originally larger) passage which enabled
pilgrims to crawl from outside the cathedral to
right beneath St. Swithun's Shrine! Bishop Henry
also surrounded Swithun with the bones of various
Saxon Kings and Bishops in lead coffers, which he
had removed from their 'lowly place' of
burial. But for how long did the new shrine
remain in this position? Here the controversy
begins. 
Today, a modern shrine stands in the
usual spot reserved for a saint's relics behind
the High Altar: sandwiched between the chantry
chapels of Bishops Waynflete and (Cardinal)
Beaufort. This was certainly the site of St.
Swithun's Shrine at the time of its demolition in
1538, though it is not known when exactly the
move from the feretory platform occurred.
Several
pieces of beautifully sculptured purbeck marble
stonework in the cathedral's possession (and now
on display in the Triforium Gallery) were
identified in 1924 as part of this retrochoir
shrine. Le Couteur and Carter proposed a
reconstruction of this as being of the common
arcaded-niche type dating from around 1250-60 (see
illustration). They further suggested that
the shrine may have been rebuilt after being
damaged by a weathervane which is 
recorded to have fallen on it from
one of the cathedral turrets in 1241. However,
recent re-analysis of these findings by John
Crook, Winchester Cathedral's Archaeological
Consultant, suggests a very different story.
Swithun's
Shrine, indicates that it was not until this late
period that the saint was moved down from his
Feretory Platform. The retrochoir had welcomed
Swithun's visitors, but only now did the saint
himself enter within its walls. The cathedral
authorities had received a large bequest from the
Cardinal's estate and decided to use their new
found wealth to construct the present great
screen behind the High Altar. This,
unfortunately, would have blocked the view of St.
Swithun's Feretory, had it still been standing on
the platform, thus necessitating the move
envisaged by the late Bishop. The feretory is
known to have been melted down, presumably for
recasting, in 1451.