In 1901 a statue of King Alfred was erected to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of his death. (Historians now believe Alfred actually died in 899).

In 1908 a riot occurred in Winchester. A Russian gun, captured in the Crimean war stood in the Broadway. The mayor decided to remove the railings around it, which gave rise to a rumour that the gun was going to be removed. The result was a riot during which many windows were smashed.

In 1914 the first cinema opened in Winchester A war memorial was erected in 1921. In the 1920's a council house estate was built at Stanmore. By 1939 the council had built 1,200 houses. A new by pass was built in the 1930's. It opened in 1938 and closed in 1994 when the M3 was completed.

In 1939 hundreds of schoolchildren from Portsmouth and Southampton were evacuated to Winchester (although most soon returned home). In 1940 and 1941 some people from heavily bombed Southampton slept at night in cellars and tunnels under a brewery depot in Hyde Street.

In the 1950's and 1960's Winchester town centre was redeveloped. In 1956-57 St Georges Street was widened. In 1956 the junction of Jewry Street and High Street was widened. At the same time parts of Lower Brook Street and Middle Brook Street were demolished and a car park was built. The inhabitants were re-housed in council houses. In 1959 a road was built around the Westgate and in the early 1960's the county council offices were built nearby. Some of the buildings in Colebrook Street were demolished and replaced by the Wessex Hotel in 1962-64.

More council houses were built in Winchester after 1945. By 1955 about 1200 had been built. A new council estate was built on the western side of the A27 Stockbridge Road on the site of Weeke Manor farm. Council houses were also built in Highcliffe. Many private houses were also built including ones at Harestock in the 1950's and Teg Down in the early 1960's. In 1963 the first multi storey flats in Winchester were built. Four 8 storey flats were built at Winnall Manor.

Winall industrial estate began in 1948 when Brazils sausages bought land from the church commissioners and relocated there from the town centre. The industrial estate grew rapidly in the 1950's.

In 1966 a new police Headquarters was built. Also in 1966 Winchester Art College moved to the present building. A new post office opened in Middle Brook Street in 1966. In 1974 the High Street was pedestrianised. In 1986 the Royal Hampshire County Hospital was extended with the Nightingale building. In 1992 Briton Wing was built. In 1988 River Park Leisure Centre opened. In 1989 Winchester cattle market closed. It had been going since 1588.

The army left Peninsula barracks in 1985. In the 1990's military museums opened there, the Royal Greenjackets, the Royal Hussars, Royal Hants. Regiment, the Gurkhas and the Light Infantry. In 1991 the Brooks Centre, a shopping mall, opened. In 1993 a new public records office opened. The same year the Cathedral Visitor's Centre opened. Today the population of Winchester is 35,000.

The "New Forest" is an English medieval deer hunting area created in 1079 by William the Conqueror - his "Nova Foresta". It is still largely in the possession of the Crown.

It is a nationally important environment of woodland pasture, heaths, bogs and the remains of 17th, 18th & 19th century coppices and timber plantations;

grazed by the ponies, cattle and pigs of the local "Commoners" - one of the "Rights" extracted from the Crown by the locals centuries ago, and guarded vigorously to this day;

the vestiges of the ancient Forest Law courts that controlled the local population and their animals (to ensure they did not interfere with the deer and its food) still administer the Forest.