The Wessex Tour – sort of! Day twelve in Salisbury

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We 'gorge' on all things historical

Old Sarum proves to be extraordinary. We stroll out of the campsite and cross the extensive playing fields carpeted in a fine dew. Its literally a ten-minute walk.

The first moat is impressive (built around 400BC to protect livestock and residents) but it doesn’t prepare you for what comes next. Another moat within the outer one and then the castle ruins. All on a hilltop which afford splendid views in all directions for several miles. It is a fantastic piece of ancient geographical location.

Somewhat disconcerting are the small airplanes that fly low overhead. One catches us off guard as it comes past a mere 60’ or so above us. The small airfield lies a mile away. After a few minutes, a loud fluttering noise in the clouds above announces the arrival of several parachutists, all spiralling downwards in ever decreasing loops, all heading for the small airport. The sound of these landing planes and fluttering parachutists provides our soundscape for the rest of the morning.

The bailey beyond the immediate castle ruins is large and holds the foundation low walls of the original Cathedral. It was dismantled and all the stone went to form the walls of Salisbury when the new Cathedral was being built.

English Heritage own and maintain the site and it is one of the most interesting places we have visited. There isn’t much there in all honesty but what it represents historically is immense. An ancient, once visible, thriving town – Old Sarum. A Royal Castle high on the Motte. An old Iron Age hill fort. Two thousand years of history. A place used by Romans, Normans and Saxons.

So, an Iron Age hill fort settlement sometime around 400BC, which was then occupied by the Romans shortly after their conquest in AD43, when it became known as Sorviodunum. Two sizeable Romano-British settlements grew outside the ramparts and it is thought a fort was set up within the earthworks.

Why Sorviodunum ended is unknown by historians. The fort was replaced for a time with a temple precinct before it was all taken over by the Anglo-Saxons. Artefacts for this period are thin on the ground although historians believe a mint was sited on the hilltop in 1003 and an old Anglo-Saxon settlement outside the ramparts.

We can thank William The Conqueror for the Castle. Soon after his invasion, a motte was built on the centre of the hillfort to create an inner set of fortifications. And then, he had built a huge outer Bailey that wrapped around this inner core area; one of such size it could accommodate a large group of soldiers.

Old Sarum’s position, its hilltop location and its access to an ancient Roman road network. Of course, it was the perfect place for a castle with troops in the first years after the conquest.

Over time, the inner area grew; towers, halls, apartments. On the north west corner of the bailey, a Cathedral was built. Old Sarum’s administrative importance was secure. The Sheriffs of Wiltshire were based here and the Cathedral provided learned clerks for all manner of projects.

The oldest surviving stone structure, the Keep, was probably built early in the reign of Henry 1^st (1100 – 1135). From 1130 the castle was given to Roger Bishop of Sarum and Regent for Henry 1^st during the king’s absences in Normandy. It is thought that Roger added the courtyard house residence.

Between 1171 and 1189 the gatehouse was refurbished, a new drawbridge added, the inner bailey masonry wall built and a treasury added to the keep basement. It is extraordinary to realise that during this period Eleanor of Aquitane, Queen to Henry II was kept under house arrest here for having incited her sons to rebel against their father.

And what of the first cathedral I hear you ask?

It was created after 1075; moved from Sherborne to Old Sarum in effect. Bishop Osmond (1078 – 1099) did most of the building work and shaped the character of the building. Bishop Roger (1102 – 1139) extended it eastwards and his successor Bishop Jocelyn (1142 – 1184) furnished and fitted it out as a large cathedral. By now there was a precinct for canons, a bishop’s palace and a cloister.

But all was not well. Dissatisfaction with the site, poor relations with the garrison of soldiers – it all led to the Cathedral being moved to its present site in Salisbury (New Sarum) in the 1220’s. The tombs of Osmund, Roger and Jocelyn were moved as well and after this the old cathedral was slowly dismantled.

Abandoned by the clergy, royal interest in the castle also waned. It was still used and £700 was spent on its repair and maintenance during the reign of Edward III (1327 – 1377). It continued as an administrative centre up to around 1514 when Henry VIII gave the castle and its stones to Thomas Compton, along with the right to ‘carry away materials’.

People moved away from the vicinity of the castle and the bailey suburbs although Old Sarum retained its borough status. Despite its lack of population, it continued to send MP’s to parliament until the Reform Act 1832 formally disenfranchised such ‘rotten boroughs’.

Tim passes quickly when we are head down engaged in history. We spend nearly three hours wandering the site before heading back across the fields and along the cycle routeway into Salisbury town Centre.

The Campsite gives you instructions on how to walk into the city. It is a thirty-minute amble alongside the River Avon country park via national cycle route 45.

Salisbury has many fine medieval buildings. Most impressive. We stroll the shopping centre streets and grab a lunch at a local café. We discover that it is at the confluence of five different rivers.

And then we discover the Cathedral! It is a magnificent 13^th century building of Early English Gothic architecture built in just 38 years. It has the tallest spire in the country (123m) and the oldest working clock in Europe (AD 1386). Throw in the best-preserved original Magna Carta (AD 1215) and the largest cathedral cloisters in Britain.

It is then, an exquisite building; stunning architecture that takes your breath away. A testimony to the amazing skills of all those medieval craftsmen who built it. We amble the cloisters and chapels before heading into the chapter house to see that one of only four remaining original copies of the 1215 Magna Carta. I am in ‘history teacher heaven’.