Winchcombe is a Cotswold community in the local authority area of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England. Its population according to the 2011 census was 4,538. During the Anarchy of the 12th century, a motte-and-bailey castle was erected in the very early 1140s by Roger Fitzmiles, 2nd Earl of Hereford for the Empress Matilda, although the exact site of this is unidentified;. It has actually been suggested nevertheless, that it was to the south of St Peter's Church. In the Restoration period, Winchcombe was noted for livestock rustling and various other lawlessness, created in part by destitution. In an attempt to make money, local people expanded tobacco as a cash crop, regardless of this technique having been banned considering that the Commonwealth. Soldiers were sent out in on a minimum of one celebration to destroy the illegal crop. In Winchcombe and the prompt location can be located Sudeley Castle as well as the remains of Hailes Abbey, which was just one of the major centres of pilgrimages in Britain due to a phial had by the monks claimed to have the Blood of Christ. There is absolutely nothing left of the previous Winchcombe Abbey. St Peter's Church in the centre of the community is noted for its grotesques.