In Winchcombe and the immediate vicinity can be found Sudeley Castle and the remains of Hailes Abbey, which was one of the main places of pilgrimage in Britain, due to a phial possessed by the monks that was said to contain the Blood of Christ. There is nothing left of the former Winchcombe Abbey. St Peter's Church in the centre of the town is noted for its grotesques. The Michelin star restaurant 5 North Street is in Winchcombe. Several buildings around Sudeley Hill are Grade II listed.
Notable people
In birth order:
Saint Kenelm, a martyred boy king of Mercia, was interred at Winchcombe, which became a major centre for his medieval cult.
Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos, an English courtier in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, was born and was buried at Sudeley Castle in Winchcombe.
Clement Barksdale, born in Winchcombe, became a religious author, polymath and Anglican priest.
Christopher Merret, born in Winchcombe, was a naturalist who produced the first lists of British birds and butterflies.
Richard Eedes, a Presbyterian minister and religious author with royalist sympathies, died at Winchcombe.
Emma Dent, antiquarian, collector and author of The Annals of Winchcombe and Sudeley, who with her husband restored Sudeley Castle and built or improved many houses in the town included the Dent Almshouses.
George Backhouse Witts, a civil engineer and archaeologist who specialized in the barrows of Gloucestershire, was born in Winchcombe.
Edward Griffiths played cricket for Gloucestershire in 1885–1889.
William Yiend, born in Winchcombe, was an international rugby unionforward.
John Alfred Valentine Butler, born in Winchcombe, was a physical chemist who contributed to developing electrode kinetics through the Butler–Volmer equation.
Michael Cardew, master potter, moved to Winchcombe to revive a derelict pottery and the 17th-century English slipware tradition.
John Kingsley Cook, a prominent wood engraver, was born in Winchcombe.
Ray Finch, 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, master potter, worked at Winchcombe under Ray Finch until 1954.
Seth Cardew, a master potter born in Winchcombe, was the son of Michael Cardew and brother of the composer Cornelius Cardew.
Cornelius Cardew, composer, was born in Winchcombe, the son of Michael Cardew.
Walks
Winchcombe is crossed by seven long-distance footpaths: The Cotswold Way, the Gloucestershire Way, the Wychavon Way, St Kenelm's Trail, St Kenelm's Way, the Warden's Way and the Windrush Way. Winchcombe became a member of the Walkers are Welcome network of towns in July 2009 and now holds a walking festival every May.
Public transport
A bus service connects the town to Cheltenham, Broadway, Willersey and further afield on special services. Winchcombe was once served by a railway line, which was opened in 1906 by the Great Western Railway. It ran 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. Through passenger services continued on the line until March 1968 and goods until 1976, when a derailment at Winchcombe damaged the line and it was decided not to bring the section back into use. By the early 1980s it had been dismantled. The stretch between Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse, including Winchcombe, has since been reconstructed and reopened as a heritage railway, the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. It was extended to Broadway in spring 2018. A new station has been erected at Winchcombe on its original site, the building being the former railway station. Nearby is the 693-yard/634 m Greet Tunnel, the second longest on any preserved line in Britain.
Governance
An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches from Alderton in the north to Hawling in the south. The total ward population at the 2011 census was 6,295.
