Foreign pilgrims coming from Normandy and Brittany, on their way to the
shrine of St. Swithun, or to that of St. Thomas of Canterbury, would
land, many of them, at Southampton, and journey to Winchester, there
to await other bands of pilgrims bound for the great Kentish shrine.
This was the route taken by Henry II when he did penance before the tomb
of the murdered Becket, in July, 1174. Although clearly seen in the wold
of Surrey and the weald of Kent at the present time, it must be
confessed that but faint traces of the Pilgrims' Way remain in
Hampshire, although early chroniclers speak of an old road that led
direct from Winchester to Canterbury. The great concourse of pilgrims to
St. Swithun's shrine caused Bishop Lucy to enlarge much of the church,
and in the reign of the first Edward the building still known as the
Strangers' Hall was erected by the monks of St. Swithun for the poorer
class of pilgrims, who here found food and shelter for the night. On
their departure they repaired to the doors of the Prior's lodging--the
three beautiful arches of which now form the entrance to the
Deanery--where they were given alms and fragments of food to sustain
them on their journey.

The associations of Alfred with this ancient Wessex capital are many and
various. He founded the famous Abbey of Hyde, situated without the city
gates, known for long as the New Minster, and first removed from its
original site near the cathedral in the twelfth century. That Alfred's
remains were laid to rest somewhere within, or just without, the walls
is beyond question, although the exact spot has not yet been
definitely located. When the Benedictine monks of Hyde obtained a
charter from Henry I in 1110, giving them leave to erect a new convent
and church in the green meadows outside the north gate, they are said to
have taken to their new home the wonder-working shrine of St. Josse, the
silver cross given by Canute, and the bones of Alfred.