Winchester Castle Winchester Castle Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1067. Only the Great Hall still stands; it houses a museum of the history of Winchester. Around AD70 the Romans constructed a massive earth rampart long and wide. On top of this they built a fort to protect the city of Venta Belgarum. This site was chosen by William the Conqueror as the site of one of the first Norman castles in England. The castle was built in 1067 and for over one hundred years it was the seat of Government of the Norman Kings.
Venta Belgarum east. Excavations of the cemetery were carried out by British archaeologist Julian Richards in 1998, and again in 2013, as part of the BBC television "Meet the Ancestors" series. From the mid-4th century, new development at Venta halted. Houses fell into disrepair and the drainage system collapsed. The population concentrated itself in the higher and drier areas of the town. The defences were however strengthened and the cemeteries remained in use, notably with burials of males wearing so-called military-style mercenary belts. Historian David Nash Ford identifies the community as the ("Fort Venta") listed by Nennius among the 28 cities of