Winchcombe is a Cotswold town in the neighborhood authority district of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England. Its population according to the 2011 census was 4,538. Throughout the Anarchy of the 12th century, a motte-and-bailey castle was erected in the early 1140s by Roger Fitzmiles, second Earl of Hereford for the Empress Matilda, although the specific site of this is unknown;. It has been recommended nonetheless, that it was to the south of St Peter's Church. In the Restoration period, Winchcombe was kept in mind for cattle rustling and other lawlessness, triggered in part by hardship. In an effort to make money, local people grew tobacco as a cash crop, regardless of this method having actually been disallowed considering that the Commonwealth. Soldiers were sent know at least one event to damage the illegal plant. In Winchcombe as well as the instant area can be located Sudeley Castle and 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 include the Blood of Christ. There is nothing left of the previous Winchcombe Abbey. St Peter's Church in the centre of the community is kept in mind for its grotesques.