"Winchester Guildhall is on the site of an estate granted by Alfred the Great to his wife Ealswith probably as a coronation gift in AD 871. After his death she retired there and founded a nunnery known as Nunnaminster.
Known in the later medieval ages as St. Mary's Abbey, it was one of the foremost nunneries in England.
In 1539 Henry VIII dissolved the abbey and the site passed to the crown. The land came into the city's hands to help defray its costs for hosting the wedding of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain in Winchester Cathedral in 1554."
When I'm in Winchester and look up at the Guildhall I have to remind myself that I am in England.
