Built by a wealthy merchant in the Middle Ages, The Chesil Rectory dates back to between 1425-1450, and is one of Winchester’s best preserved Medieval buildings.  In fact it is now the oldest commercial property in Winchester.  The building was owned by Henry VIII during the 1500’s when he disbanded many religious buildings in England and Wales, during the ‘dissolution of the monasteries’.  He gave the Chesil Rectory to his daughter, Queen Mary, known as Mary Tudor.  Queen Mary’s lavish wedding to King Philip of Spain in 1554 at Winchester Cathedral almost bankrupted the city so she bequeathed the Chesil Rectory to the City of Winchester as part payment for the wedding.  In the late 1700’s the house was divided into two tenements, with a family living in each side.  One family was a shoemaker who, in the large upstairs room, started Winchester’s first Sunday School.