Near the church at one time was an open space called the Square, where were situated the Pillory and Whipping Post.  The palace of William I is said to have occupied this site, and St. Lawrence’s Church may possibly have been the private chapel of the royal residence.  A fragment of Norman masonry gives a certain amount of probability to the supposition, while at the beginning of last century some workmen excavating in Market Street came across the foundations of an ancient tower, of great thickness and strength.  The present arched and narrow entrance from High Street leads to the fine avenue of limes that forms the principal approach to the west front of the Cathedral, begun by Edington circa 1360, the severe simplicity of which has been much criticized, Ruskin assailing it furiously in the Stones of Venice.  On the apex of the gable is a canopied niche containing a statue of Wykeham.

The present edifice is thought to stand approximately on the site of the earlier Saxon church restored by Ethelwold in 980, in which Queen Emma underwent the “fiery ordeal” by walking blindfold and barefooted over nine red-hot plough-shares, thus proving her innocence of the charges brought against her, and furnishing her accusers with an example of what female chastity is able to accomplish.  The main portion of the structure as seen to-day was begun by Bishop Walkelin about 1079, and completed some fourteen years later.  It is the longest of English churches, measuring externally 566 feet, and internally 562-1/2 feet, being a few feet longer than St. Alban’s, which has the same plan; although we must remember that when the nave of Winchester terminated at the west in two large towers the whole mass was 40 feet longer than at present.

The vista of the whole block of masonry, with its stumpy tower and heavily buttressed walls, conveys the idea of immense strength rather than of gracefulness; while its situation at the bottom of a hill, and near the bank of the river, is one of great charm.

It is when the nave is entered that the full beauty and vast proportions of the Norman church are revealed, for this is in essence a Norman building encased with Perpendicular details and additions.  As Wykeham’s alterations were merely added to the original piers, the stateliness of the whole remains.  Full credit, of course, must be given to Wykeham for the wonderful skill he showed in this work of transformation, and in removing the heavy triforium, although the grandeur of the nave as a whole is due to the combined work of Walkelin and Wykeham.  This alteration of styles in the nave was begun by Edington, continued by Wykeham, and completed by his successors in the see—­Cardinal Beaufort and Bishop Waynflete—­who built the stone vaulting of the roof.  The tower at the intersection of the transepts is the second of its kind, the first, built by Walkelin, having fallen in 1107, owing, says tradition, to the wicked Red King having been buried beneath it.  Of its rebuilding there are no records.