Winchcombe is a Cotswold community in the local authority district 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 kept in mind for livestock rustling and other lawlessness, caused in part by hardship. In an effort to earn a living, neighborhood individuals expanded cigarette as a cash crop, regardless of this method having actually been outlawed given that the Commonwealth. Soldiers were sent out in on at the very least one event to ruin the prohibited plant. In Winchcombe as well as the immediate vicinity can be discovered Sudeley Castle and the remains of Hailes Abbey, which was among the major centres of trips in Britain due to a phial possessed by the monks stated 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 town is kept in mind for its grotesques.