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, second Earl of Hereford for the Empress Matilda, although the precise 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 noted for livestock rustling as well as other lawlessness, triggered partially by hardship. In an attempt to work, local people grew tobacco as a cash crop, despite this technique having been forbidden considering that the Commonwealth. Soldiers were sent know at the very least one occasion to destroy the prohibited crop. In Winchcombe and also the immediate vicinity can be discovered Sudeley Castle and also the remains of Hailes Abbey, which was one of the primary centres of trips in Britain because of a phial had by the monks claimed to have 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.