In the Restoration period, Winchcombe was noted for cattle rustling and other lawlessness, attributed in part to poverty. Local people seeking a living took to growing tobacco as a cash crop, although the practice had been outlawed since the Commonwealth period. Soldiers were sent in at least once to destroy the illegal crop.[7]
Fragments of the Winchcombe Meteorite originating from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, fell on a house driveway on 28 February 2021.[8] The meteorite is a rare carbonaceous chondrite, offering pristine material from the beginnings of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. This was preserved by its prompt collection by a local resident about 12 hours after falling to Earth.[9] Another fragment was found by researchers on a local farm.[10] Some of the meteorite fragments were put on display at the town museum.[11]
Attractions
Winchcombe started life as a Roman hamlet, rising to prominence as an Anglo-Saxon walled town containing Winchcombe Abbey, where a Mercian king and his saintly son were buried. Although the town wall has long vanished, Winchcombe retains much of its medieval layout, with a mixture of timber-framed and Cotswold limestone buildings along its High Street, some dating back to the 15th century.[12]
Winchcombe had a railway opened in 1906 by the Great Western Railway from Stratford-upon-Avon to Cheltenham as part of a main line from Birmingham to the South West and South Wales. Winchcombe railway station and most others on the section closed in March 1960.[17] Through passenger trains continued until March 1968 and goods until 1976, when a derailment caused damage and it was decided to close the section.[18] By the early 1980s it had been dismantled. The length between Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse via Winchcombe has been reconstructed as the heritage Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.[19] It was extended to Broadway in spring 2018. The new station building that opened at Winchcombe on its original site was brought from the former Monmouth Troy railway station.[20] Nearby is the 693-yard (634 m) Greet Tunnel, the second longest on a British preserved line.
Winchcombe has a secondary school – Winchcombe School in Greet Road, east of the town centre. Winchcombe Abbey Church of England Primary School lies near the town centre in Back Lane, next to Winchcombe Library and Cowl Lane.
The community station Radio Winchcombe began broadcasting in April 2005 for 20 days a year.[27] Full-time broadcasting was approved in December 2011 and began on 18 May 2012.[28]
Winchcombe has a Michelin selected restaurant at 5 North Street. From 2004 to 2017, it held a one star rating.[29][30] There are several other frequented eating places.[31]
Clement Barksdale (1609–1687), born in Winchcombe, became a religious author, polymath and Anglican priest.
Christopher Merret (1614/1615–1695), born in Winchcombe, a naturalist, produced the first lists of British birds and butterflies.
Richard Eedes (died 1686), a Presbyterian minister and religious author with royalist sympathies, died at Winchcombe.
Emma Dent (1823–1900), antiquarian, collector and author of The Annals of Winchcombe and Sudeley, restored Sudeley Castle with her husband and built or improved many houses in the town, including the Dent Almshouses.[33]
George Backhouse Witts (1846–1912), a civil engineer and archaeologist who specialized in the barrows of Gloucestershire, was born in Winchcombe.
Michael Cardew (1901–1983), master potter, moved to Winchcombe to revive a derelict pottery and 17th-century English slipware tradition.
John Kingsley Cook (1911–1994), a prominent wood engraver, was born in Winchcombe.
Ray Finch (1914–2012), master potter, bought Michael Cardew's pottery in 1939, and after the Second World War worked there for the rest of his life making stoneware.
Colin Pearson (1923–2007), master potter, worked at Winchcombe under Ray Finch until 1954.
Seth Cardew (1934–2016), a master potter born in Winchcombe, was the son of Michael Cardew and brother of the composer Cornelius Cardew.
Cornelius Cardew (1936–1981), composer, was born in Winchcombe, the son of Michael Cardew.
