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Winchester's Big Ideas

Big Idea - FactShare

The University of Winchester submitted the following pieces of knowledge as part of its support for Universities Week. To see submissions from us and other universities visit the 'Big Idea - FactShare' generator on the Universities Week website.

Winchester's Big Ideas:

• Between 1868 and 1939 more than 1300 women from the Cambridge Women’s Colleges (Girton and Newnham) went overseas for employment and over 800 international students studied at the two Colleges (Faculty of Education, Health and Social Care, University of Winchester).
• Archaeological evidence suggests that Winchester was the home of Britain's first hospital (Department of Archaeology, University of Winchester).
• The Battle of Cheriton, 1644, was the only pitched battle fought on Hampshire soil, the others were all sieges (Department of Archaeology, University of Winchester).
• Winchester probably has the oldest High Street in the country. In Prehistoric times it was a track that led to a ford across the River Itchen. In the Roman, Saxon and Medieval periods it became the city's high street and still is today (Department of Archaeology, University of Winchester).
• The opening of Winchester's main railway line was such a major undertaking the work involved more excavations than the building of the pyramids (History Department, University of Winchester).
  Only 15.5% of the UK population say they hold no form of religious belief (Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Winchester).
• Research on international rugby union players shows that, surprisingly, those players with dual nationalities often express more meaningful emotional bonds with their (adopted sporting) nation than their team-mates (Department of Sports Studies, University of Winchester).
• During the 18th century Speightstown in Barbados was one of the wealthiest settlements in the British Empire and was known as Little Bristol owing to its commercial links with that city (Department of Archaeology, University of Winchester).
• Lalibela in Ethiopia contains the largest concentration of wholly rock-cut medieval churches in Africa (Department of Archaeology, University of Winchester).
• Tintagel in north Cornwall is a so-called Dark Age/early Medieval site which contains the most extensive evidence in the UK for long-distance ceramic trade with the eastern Mediterranean in the 6th century AD (Department of Archaeology, University of Winchester).