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The Royal Garrison Church is the only remaining part of a hospital, known as Domus Dei, founded by the Bishop of Winchester in c1212. The buildings were gradually removed after the Reformation, leaving the church behind. Charles II married Catherine of Braganza here in 1662. On 10th January 1941 it was partially destroyed during a devastating German air raid. The nave remains roofless; the nave is fascinating.

St Giles' Horsted Keynes is one of the most picture-perfect Norman -medieval churches you will ever see. Its wealth is evident from the stonework. The church actually has Saxon origins - though it is also thought to be built on a pagan site, and possibly within a stone circle. Among its many interesting features is the tomb of the 'Little Crusader' in the chancel; what looks like the effigy of a child is that of a crusader knight and it is thought this marks the burial place of a crusader's heart, brought home from the Holy Land. Famous burials include Robert Leighton (1611-84), Bishop of Dunblane and Archbishop of Glasgow, who retired to the village. Also in the churchyard are Harold and Dorothy Macmillan. Macmillan (1894-1986), later Lord Stockton, was Prime Minister from 1957-63.

St Cyriac was a boy saint and St Cyriac's in Lacock is one of the few churches in Britain dedicated to him. It is a very large parish church, mostly 15th century, on an earlier site and with features from 16th - 20th centuries. The Lady Chapel c1420 is exceptional and the Renaissance memorial of 1566 to Sir W Sharington of Lacock Abbey definitely worth a look. There are some particularly fine carvings, too.

The The Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty was founded as a hospital for the poor between 1132 and 1136 by Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, grandson of William the Conqueror and younger brother of King Stephen.  Endowments enabled it to prosper and provide. In 1445, another powerful Bishop of Winchester, Cardinal Henry Beaufort, created the Order of Noble Poverty, and added the almshouses to the existing Hospital buildings. It continues to provide homes to twenty five brothers, who wear distinctive black or claret coloured robes.  Visitors are able to see the  Norman style church, Master’s Garden – and there is a teahouse and shop.  The Hospital of St Cross is famous for the  Wayfarer’s Dole - a horn of beer or ale with a piece of white bread given to any traveller that asks for it.

By far the best way to visit the Hospital of St Cross is on foot from Winchester Cathedral Close, through ancient gateways, past No 8 College Street, where author Jane Austen finished ‘Persuasion’, and died, turning right by Winchester College to the water meadows alongside the River Itchen.  The path is wide, well trodden and wonderful.  Keats enjoyed the same walk – it apparently inspired the ode ‘To Autumn’, written in 1819.  To the right are the immaculate playing fields of Winchester College, founded in 1382 by William of Wykeham, Henry Beaufort’s predecessor as Bishop of Winchester.  Its pupils are known as Wykehamists and the college motto is 'Manners Makyth Man' – the same as New College, Oxford, which was also founded by Wykeham.  To the left are the water meadows, cattle-grazed and seeming to lap against the contours of St Catherine’s Hill, site of an ancient univallate Iron Age hillfort and medieval chapel.  It is an immensely peaceful pathway, steeped in history and, somehow, very English. On a still, warm, June day, with the rich earthy scent of the riverbank wafting upward and the water sparkling and lapping nearby, it is almost heavenly. And, eventually, you will glimpse the hospital, like a scene from the past across a field.

St Paul's church Knightsbridge is an elaborate Victorian church, the first in London to champion the ideals of the ‘Oxford Movement’ – the so-called ‘Tractarians’ who sought to restore a sense of Catholicism to the established Church of England. The building was consecrated in 1843, and its features include iron columns and balcony supports, a striking rood screen and reredos and an unusual series of tiled panels around the walls of the nave.

During WW2, the church was used by the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). A memorial on the outside of the north wall commemorates 52 FANYs who died on active service in World War II, carrying out secret intelligence work for the Special Operations Executive in occupied countries as well as providing transport drivers for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).