11:45am Monday 15th March 2010
By Warwick Payne
THEY came in cloaks, crowns and crucifixes to salute Winchester’s most famous son.
Hundreds of people dressed up to recreate the arrival of the remains of King Alfred the Great and his wife and their son at Hyde Abbey.
Many wore historical dress for the 900th anniversary of the abbey’s foundation and reburial of Alfred on the site.
The procession started at Winchester Cathedral to retrace the path from the Saxon king’s initial resting place. The crowds gathered before following three coffins draped in red that signified the royal reburial party.
Leaving the cathedral, they headed up the High Street, past scores of Saturday shoppers, then into Parchment Street where the crowd faced a new obstacle that was not present in the 12th century – crossing Winchester’s one way system.
They regrouped in St Peter’s car park before winding through Hyde to the remains of the abbey, which was demolished in the 1530s.
The arrival was greeted with horns, beating drums and shouts of “Heads up – Alfred!”
The Mayor of Winchester, Councillor Dominic Hiscock, himself a resident of Hyde, took the starring role as King Henry I. The event was organised by Hyde900, which is behind a year-long celebration of Alfred’s reburial.
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