Winchcombe is a Cotswold town in the regional 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, 2nd Earl of Hereford for the Empress Matilda, although the precise site of this is unidentified;. It has actually been recommended nevertheless, 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 various other lawlessness, caused partly by destitution. In an attempt to make money, neighborhood individuals grew cigarette as a cash crop, in spite of this method having been outlawed because the Commonwealth. Soldiers were sent out know at the very least one celebration to destroy the illegal crop. In Winchcombe and also the immediate vicinity can be located Sudeley Castle and the remains of Hailes Abbey, which was one of the primary centres of pilgrimages in Britain because of a phial possessed by the monks said to contain 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.