Tag Archives: Easter

Win Guide to April

April is going to be a great month in Winchester.  Easter is upon us, and the city is gloriously decorated with vibrant spring flowers.  Here’s our Win Guide to some of the events to enjoy this month:

William the Conquerer is coming to the Railway Inn, 8 April.  This isn’t a lazarus moment for the Norman King, but the Americana band whose album Proud Disturber of the Peace and will be out on 4th August.  There’s plenty to look forward to at Winchester’s music venue, including the longest running Open mic night, Roots every Monday at 8.30pm and a Poetry Platform, 4 April at 8.30pm. For full listings and details, visit the Railway website here.

There’s a treat at the Chesil Theatre this month in the form of the classic Victorian thriller ‘Gaslight’ by Patrick Hamilton, running 1 – 8 April. Tickets are available to book here and this is the trailer:

The Corner House have set up a Jazz night in collaboration with the Winchester Jazz Festival team.  There will be live music on a Thursday evening from 7.30pm.  The Richard Abrahams Duo will be playing on 13 April.  For more details, visit here.

The fabulous John Godber Company and Theatre Royal Wakefield present The Empty Nesters’ Club at the Theatre Royal, 6-8 April.  If your children have left home and the nest is empty, this is the group for you! There’s lots of Young Theatre Royal projects to enjoy this month too.  Keep an eye out for Sasha Regan’s all male ‘The Mikado‘ by W.S Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, 24 – 29 April.  It’s a timely chance to have a giggle at British Institutions with the G&S brand of musical wit. 

Dulwich Opera Company will be visiting St Paul’s Church on 29 April for ‘A Night at the Opera’, evening of operatic arias, duets, and trios, including music by Mozart, Bizet, and Rossini.  Visit here to book tickets online and the evening starts at 7.30pm. The company brings professional artists to smaller venues in an annual season of touring work, and it sounds like a rare opportunity to experience opera in an intimate space, close to home.

So, there are some egg-celent events to look forward to this month.  But we must not forget the Easter festivities.  There will be several egg hunts taking place throughout the city and at nearby attractions.  The National Trust will be continuing its annual Cadbury’s easter egg trail at local venues including the Winchester City Mill, 14 – 17 April.  The Easter bunny hop will be taking place throughout the city, 8 – 23 April.  This is an annual event where families can crack a code by exploring local participating venues to win a treat. Pick up your form from the Winchester Tourist information centre.  The Westgate Museum will be running its annual egg hunt, with clues hidden among the museum displays.  It’s a free hunt with a treat for egg-splorers.

Finally, don’t miss Sparsholt College’s Easter Bunny weekend, 14 – 17 April.  Find Humpty Dumpty on an Easter Trail, meet the Easter Bunny and Animal Characters from Nursery Rhymes. Enjoy lots of craft activities including Easter baskets and make your own pea-green boat. There will also be plants for sale grown by the Horticulture department, refreshments, face painting and pony rides.  For more details and to buy tickets, visit here.

We’ll be bringing you more tweets and tips @Win_Guide throughout the month.  Enjoy the sunshine one and all.

Win Guide to Easter

king_alfred_perfectEaster greetings, “practically perfect” Wintonians.  Our secret is out, Winchester has been recognised by the Sunday Times as the number one place to live in Britain.  We are an “historic, cultured, foodie city”, with a strong sense of community, great restaurants and schools. With this extra spring in our step, here’s our Winchester guide to what’s on this Easter.

Chococo Chococo milk chocolate C181 robot eggLooking to buy THE egg?  Chococo’s C181 Chocholate Robot Egg has been featured in the BBC Good Food 2016 great taste test. Alternatively, the Milk chocolate Heavenly Honeycombe Easter Egg has been featured in Hello Magazine’s ‘Ultimate Easter Egg & chocolates gift guide’. And just to make the dilemma a little more perplexing, the Studded milk chocolate Butterfly Egg has been featured in Great British Chefs – ‘The best chocolate Easter eggs for 2016‘ and the Woman & Home’s Easter Collection 2016. 

Easter BrioThe Easter bunny hop returns over the Easter weekend.  Pick up a trail sheet from the Tourist Information Centre or from Chococo and search the city for egg-shaped clues in order to crack the bunny hop clue. Participating locations include Chococo, The Entertainer, Childhood’s Dream, Winchester Discovery Centre, The Old Fashioned Sweetie Shop and Creative Crafts.  Aside from the trail there will be Montezuma’s goody bags (while stocks last) and a Brio Play Event in The Brooks shopping centre offering children the chance to play with wooden railways 31st March – 2nd April. Watch out too for some singing Eggs on Legs and Egg Decoration on Saturday 26th March 10am – 4pm. Finish the trail at Chococo to claim an Easter treat whilst entering a draw for the chance to win a celebrated Chocolate Dinosaur egg.

National Trust Cadbury's Egg HuntWinchester’s Museums also have some Easter activities planned for some egg-ducational bunny and chick related activities.  The Westgate Museum will be holding an Easter spotter quiz throughout the easter holidays.  There will be some bunnies hiding throughout the museum and children can win a small tasty prize if they spot them all.  The museum is open 10am – 5pm, Monday to Saturday and 12pm – 5pm on Sundays. The Gurkha Museum will be offering an Easter chick hunt with a treat for explorers and normal admission fees apply. Winchester City Mill will be offering a Cadbury’s Easter egg hunt with clues hidden around the 17th-century working corn mill, part of a UK National Trust Cadbury’s egg hunt.

Marwell egg huntFor egg-splorers willing to travel that little bit further, Hinton Ampner will be inviting young Indiana Jones’s to hunt for giant eggs in the grounds with a Cadbury’s Egg head as their egg-grail.  There will be free face painting on offer over the easter weekend too. Marwell Zoo is advertising its Wild Egg Hunt for a chance to meet the Easter Bunny in his burrow and enjoy a free chocolate egg. Again, normal admission fees apply.

Cathedral Easter Buscuits
Cathedral Easter Buscuits

For a guide to Easter holy week at Winchester Cathedral, please visit here. Aside from the services on offer, the Cathedral have also hidden ten giant eggs for ‘eggspert’ egg hunters to find, with a chocolate prize to collect from the gift shop at the end.  The trail is available during normal visitor opening hours, Monday to Saturday 9.30am – 5pm and on Sunday 12.30pm – 3pm. Cathedral entry fees apply. Free for annual pass holders (£7.50 adult annual pass, free entry for children under 16 visiting with family). The Cathedral refectory will be offering a ‘drop-in’ easter biscuit decorating session, Sat 26, Sun 27, Mon 28 and Sat 2 and Sun 3 Apr. There is no need to book in advance with a suggested donation of £1 offering exploring adults the chance to sit down with a cup of something whilst the sugar-seekers get creative.

Henry-VFor some theatrical tonic to relieve the easter overload, and while you are visiting the Cathedral, don’t forget to book your tickets to see Antic Disposition’s Henry V by William Shakespeare on 18 April at 7.30pm.  The play marks both the centenary of the First World War and the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare.

Travels with my AuntFor another evening of entertainment, book tickets to see Creative Cow’s Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene, adapted by Giles Haverga at the Theatre Royal.  The production, directed by Amanda Knott, takes us on a journey with Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager with a penchant for dahlias, in a madcap dash around the world. Our Win Guide editor will be bringing you some more details soon on the production, running 28 March – 2nd April.

Enjoy the bountiful easter experiences our number one city has to offer, city folk, and stock up on toothpaste.

Win Guide to Easter

Egg-cellent news! It’s Easter time and there’s lots of egg-citing things on offer! Here’s the Win Guide to Easter.

Highclere Castle
Highclere Castle

Highclere Castle is well worth a visit this weekend. Built on the foundations of the medieval palace of the Bishops of Winchester (who owned the estate in Newbury from the 8th century), since 1679 the castle has been home to the Earls of Carnarvon. Never a retiring lot, the  Carnarvons have been noted for Egyptology (the 5th Earl was present at the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb), for an association with HRH Elizabeth II’s race horses (the 7th Earl was racing manager for her majesty) and now synonymous with the thespian equivalent of royalty in the form of Dame Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville et al. as the filming location for Downton Abbey. This weekend, Sunday 5th April, the Highclere team will be holding an Easter Egg Hunt  event to raise funds for local charity Naomi House and Jacksplace. Lady Carnarvon herself will be judging an Easter bonnet parade. Spider-Man and Elsa from ‘Frozen’ will be wandering the grounds, and there will be market stalls, a vintage car display, a climbing wall and zip wire, a petting farm and birds of prey on offer to boot! Tickets are a steal at £5 on the door.

Closer to home, Sparsholt College will be holding an ‘Easter Bunny and Chick’ weekend from Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th April. It’s an Alice In Wonderland – themed affair with a Mad Hatter’s tea party, Easter egg hunt and classic craft activities such as egg painting.  Not forgetting the newly-hatched chicks and young bunnies on display, it sounds like a must visit for families.

Winchester Cathedral - Easter Egg Trail
Cathedral – Easter Egg Trail

Winchester Cathedral will be holding its own ‘Easter Egg Trail’ between the 5th – 19th April.   Ten decorative eggs will be hidden amongst the stunning architecture for ‘eggsplorers’ to discover, and free chocolate prizes can be claimed in the Cathedral gift shop.  Services on Easter Day itself (5 April) will be 8am Holy Communion, 10am Choral Mattins (Preacher: The Bishop), 11.15am Festal Eucharist (Preacher: The Dean) and 3.30 Choral Evensong.

Winchester Bunny Hop
Winchester Bunny Hop

The Winchester Bunny Hop will be celebrating its sixth birthday this year.  It’s a great initiative on the part of Winchester City Council, Winchester Bid and, this year, Chococo the chocolate shop and cafe have rightly got in on the action.  The quiz allows children to hunt for egg-shaped clues hidden in participating shops in Winchester and rearrange them into an Easter themed word to claim a Chococo prize. And if that’s not incentive enough, the Chococo team have recently been hailed as experts in the field of Easter chocolates. Their ‘Robot’ egg was dubbed by the Telegraph as ‘best egg for children’ on 28th March 2015. Even better news: they will be open every day over the Easter weekend. Quiz sheets can be collected from the Winchester Tourist information centre or downloaded here: http://www.visitwinchester.co.uk/winchester-bunny-hop-2015.

Cornflowers Gift Shop
Cornflowers Gift Shop

A spring-time stroll to Kingsgate Village is always worthwhile to walk off the chocolate and browse for an Easter gift, curtesy of Cornflowers Gift Shop, Kingsgate Books and Prints, P&G Wells Booksellers, Kingsgate Wines and of course a visit to the Wykeham Arms for rest and refreshment awaits. Finally, don’t forget to visit to the 17th Century City Mill who will be offering hot cross bun baking on Friday 3rd April, and a Cadbury Eggsplorer Easter Egg trail over the weekend.

Have fun, and stock up on Gaviscon…