WINCHCOMBE

village (parish), Tewkesbury borough, administrative and historic county of Gloucestershire, England, on the River Isbourne, near the Cotswolds. The site was first settled when Cenwulf, king of Mercia (reigned 796821), founded a Benedictine abbey there in the 8th century; it was twice rebuilt before the dissolution of the monasteries (153638). The parish church of St. Peter, standing on the site of a former church, is Perpendicular in style. The Cistercian abbey (1246) at Hailes, now a National Trust property, is 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast. Belas Knap, an important restored Stone Age burial mound, lies southeast. Pop. (1991) 4,243.