Winchcombe is a Cotswold community in the regional 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 very early 1140s by Roger Fitzmiles, 2nd Earl of Hereford for the Empress Matilda, although the precise site of this is unidentified;. It has actually been recommended nevertheless, that it was to the south of St Peter's Church. In the Restoration period, Winchcombe was noted for livestock rustling and other lawlessness, created in part by destitution. In an attempt to make money, neighborhood individuals grew cigarette as a cash crop, regardless of this technique having actually been forbidden because the Commonwealth. Soldiers were sent out know at the very least one event to damage the prohibited plant. In Winchcombe as well as the instant area can be found Sudeley Castle and the remains of Hailes Abbey, which was among the main centres of trips in Britain due to a phial had by the monks claimed to consist of the Blood of Christ. There is nothing left of the former Winchcombe Abbey. St Peter's Church in the centre of the community is noted for its grotesques.