A unique research tool for historians and enthusiasts interested in the city's cathedral has been put online.

The Friends of Winchester Cathedral have published The Winchester Cathedral Record annually since1931.

Every edition has now been scanned and placed online in a new open access as part of the Friends’ 90th anniversary celebration next year.

“The archive is a valuable resource of articles and pictures on all aspects of the Cathedral’s history and of the Friends’ social history”, said Tom Watson, the Friends’ trustee who led the archive project.

“Articles and reports start in the early 1930s and cover the war years and all decades since then. The 88 editions offer a remarkable panorama of the Cathedral and the city’s life.”

The Friends of Winchester Cathedral has made the archive website fully open access so that everyone can search it for information about the Cathedral’s history and architecture, local events over nearly nine decades and information about personalities connected with Winchester and the Cathedral.

The archive was developed with advice from senior Winchester Cathedral guides, and staff from the Hampshire Record Office, Winchester College and the University of Winchester’s History Department.

The scanning and website preparation was done by SDS of Christchurch, a specialist digital archiving firm.

The Friends will be expanding the online archive during 2020. More than 20 publications about aspects of the Cathedral, ranging from Jane Austen, William Walker the diver and St Swithun to art, architecture, decoration, history and memorials are being added in this second phase.

To search the records, go to wincathrecord.org.