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 early 1140s by Roger Fitzmiles, second Earl of Hereford for the Empress Matilda, although the exact site of this is unidentified;. It has been suggested nonetheless, that it was to the south of St Peter's Church. In the Restoration period, Winchcombe was kept in mind for cattle rustling as well as other lawlessness, created in part by hardship. In an effort to earn money, neighborhood individuals expanded cigarette as a cash crop, regardless of this practice having actually been forbidden considering that the Commonwealth. Soldiers were sent out know a minimum of one celebration to damage the illegal crop. In Winchcombe as well as the prompt area can be located Sudeley Castle and also the remains of Hailes Abbey, which was just one of the primary centres of trips in Britain due to a phial had by the monks said 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 town is kept in mind for its grotesques.