Take part in Spooky Winch this October – A city-wide Halloween-themed Spooky Letter Hunt!
This October and during the school half-term week, Winchester Business Improvement District (BID) is organising a free, fun-filled, Halloween-themed trail around the city. This year it’s time to hunt the letters to make a spooky word, a slight tweak to the traditional word hunt.
The SpookyWinch Letter Hunt runs from Saturday 17 October to Sunday 1 November 20256. Enjoy taking part in the trail and once completed enter a prize draw to win a Halloween-inspired hamper. Spot the plot twist. This trail is for ‘letters’ that need to be unscrambled to create a 9 lettered spooky related word.
Before heading out across the city, collect a copy of the Spooky Winch trail sheet from The Visitor Information Centre, The Arc or Winchester City Museum, or click here to download a trail sheet at home. Hard copies of the trail sheets will be available to collect at these venues from Saturday 17 October 2026.
The city centre will be split into nine areas and each area will have its own coloured pumpkin sign. Using the map on the trail sheet, explore the mysterious and eerie cobbled streets of Winchester and seek out all nine Halloween-themed letters, hidden in pumpkin signs displayed in the windows of local businesses. Find all 9 and unscramble them to find the Spooky related word.
Once you’ve found all nine letters, write them down and discover the spooky word. Return your completed trail sheet to either of these three locations – The Visitor Information Centre, The Arc or Winchester City Museum, to collect a Halloween-themed treat and be entered into the prize draw to win a Halloween-inspired hamper.
Suzy Dierckx, Marketing and Social Media Manager at Winchester BID, said: “Halloween in Winchester would not be the same without Spooky Winch, with many local businesses getting involved in this Halloween-themed seasonal activity. This is a great opportunity for us to work with local businesses and other local partner organisations to help promote everything that Winchester has to offer this October. We see dozens of families exploring the different areas of the city, many of whom come back year after year. It is a free, fun activity, which fills the lungs with lots of fresh air, gets your step-count up and is centred around the heart of our beautiful heritage city. There is always something new to explore on the route too.”
The Spooky Winch Letter Hunt is open to all ages and Winchester BID invites you to make a day of it and enjoy some of Winchester’s shops, cafes, restaurants and other local businesses along the way. You can get involved in fancy dress if you would like to and don’t forget to tag @WinchesterBID and use #SpookyWinch on social media with your spooky selfies and adventures, so we can keep up with all the spooktacular fun. The trail is open to all.
Good luck and we hope you enjoy exploring Winchester this Halloween.
For more information please follow #SpookyWinch and Winchester BID on Facebook, Instagram and X.
*T&Cs apply – To be entered into the prize draw to win a Halloween-inspired hamper, your trail sheet must be fully completed and returned to either the Visitor Information Centre, The Arc or Winchester City Museum. Winners will be drawn after 2 November 2026 and will be contacted accordingly. Please check the latest opening times for the Visitor Information Centre, The Arc and Winchester City Museum before travelling. Winners will be contacted using the details on the trail sheet, please make sure these are clear.
Winchester BID members: for further details, please see here.
Thank you to all the local businesses who contribute towards the Halloween-inspired hamper.
