Old Sarum
Template:Short description Template:For multi Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox UK place
Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about Template:Convert north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest records in the country. It is an English Heritage property and is open to the public.
The great stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury were erected nearby and indications of prehistoric settlement have been discovered from as early as 3000 BC. An Iron Age hillfort was erected around 400 BC, controlling the intersection of two trade paths and the Hampshire Avon. The site continued to be occupied during the Roman period, when the paths were made into roads. The Saxons took the British fort in the 6th century and later used it as a stronghold against marauding Vikings. The Normans constructed a motte and bailey castle, a stone curtain wall, and a great cathedral. A royal palace was built within Old Sarum Castle for Template:Nowrap and was subsequently used by Plantagenet monarchs. This heyday of the settlement lasted for around 300 years until disputes between the Sheriff of Wiltshire and the Bishop of Salisbury finally led to the removal of the church into the nearby plain. As New Salisbury grew up around the construction site for the new cathedral in the early 13th century, the buildings of Old Sarum were dismantled for stone and the old town dwindled. Its long-neglected castle was abandoned by Template:Nowrap in 1322 and sold by Template:Nowrap in 1514. Edward Rutherfurd's 1987 novel Sarum traces the history of the town.
Although the settlement was effectively uninhabited, its landowners continued to have parliamentary representation into the 19th century, making it one of the most notorious of the rotten boroughs that existed before the Reform Act 1832. Old Sarum served as a pocket borough of the Pitt family.
Old Sarum is also the name of a modern settlement north-east of the monument, where there is a grass strip airfield and business parks, and large 21st-century housing developments at Old Sarum and Longhedge.
NameEdit
{{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}} The present name seems to be a ghost word or corruption of the medieval Latin and Norman forms of the name Salisbury, such as the Sarisburie that appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086.<ref>Template:OpenDomesday</ref> (These were adaptions of the earlier names Searoburh,<ref name=wilt193>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Searobyrig,<ref name=Leeds/> and Searesbyrig,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> calques of the indigenous Brittonic name with the Old English suffixes Template:Nowrap and Template:Nowrap, denoting fortresses or their adjacent settlements.) The longer name was first abbreviated as Sar̅, but, as such a mark was used to contract the Latin suffix -um (common in placenames), the name was confused and became Sarum sometime around the 13th century. The earliest known use was on the seal of the Template:Nowrap hospital at New Salisbury, which was in use in 1239. The 14th-century Bishop Wyvil was the first to describe himself as episcopus Sarum.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref>
The addition of "old" to the name distinguished it from Sarum or New Sarum, names used in some contexts for the newer settlement.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HistoryEdit
PrehistoryEdit
There is evidence that early hunters and, later, farming communities occupied the site. A protective hill fort, named Sorviodunum, was constructed by the local inhabitants around 400 BC<ref name=beeb /> during the Iron Age by creating enormous banks and ditches surrounding the hill. The hillfort is broadly oval shaped, measuring Template:Convert in length and Template:Convert in width. It consists of a double bank and intermediate ditch with an entrance on the eastern side.
Numerous other hillforts of the same period can be found locally, including Figsbury Ring to the east and Vespasian's Camp to the north. The archaeologist Sir R. C. Hoare described it as "a city of high note in the remotest periods by the several barrows near it, and its proximity to the two largest stone circles in England, namely, Stonehenge and Avebury."Template:Efn
Roman periodEdit
At the time of the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, the area of Old Sarum seems to have formed part of the territory of the Atrebates,<ref name=sub>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a British tribe apparently ruled by Gaulish exiles. Although the dynasty's founder Commius had become a foe of Caesar's, his sons submitted to Augustus as client kings. Their realm became known as the Regni and the overthrow of one of them, Verica, was the casus belli used to justify the Emperor Claudius's invasion. The settlement appeared in the Welsh Chronicle of the Britons as Template:Nowrap<ref name=Roberts-1811/>Template:Rp or Gradawc (Template:Langx<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) and as Caer-Wallawg.<ref name=Roberts-1811>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Bishop Ussher argued for its identification with the Template:Nowrap<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> listed among the 28 cities of Britain by the History of the Britons traditionally ascribed to Nennius.<ref name=shusher>Template:Cite book</ref>
Saxon periodEdit
Cynric, king of Wessex, captured the hill in 552.<ref name=Leeds>Template:Cite journal</ref> It remained part of Wessex thereafter<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp but, preferring settlements in bottomland like nearby Wilton,<ref name=wilt193 /> the Saxons largely ignored Old Sarum<ref name=ush/> until the Viking invasions led Template:Nowrap to restore its fortifications.<ref name=wilt193 /> In the early part of the 9th century, it was a frequent residence of Egbert of Wessex and, in 960, Template:Nowrap assembled a national council there to plan a defence against the Danes in the north.<ref name="brompton">Brompton, Twysd, 866.Template:Clarify</ref><ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp Along with Wilton, it was abandoned by its residents to be sacked and burned by the Dano-Norwegian king Sweyn Forkbeard in 1003.<ref>Hunt, William. "Sweyn (d. 1014)" in the Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. LV. Smith, Elder, & Co. (London), 1898. Hosted at Wikisource. Accessed 3 Jan 2014.</ref> It subsequently became the site of Wilton's mint.<ref name=wilt193 />
Norman periodEdit
A motte-and-bailey castle was built by 1069, three years after the Norman Conquest.<ref name=wilt193 /> The castle was held directly by the Norman kings; its castellan was generally also the sheriff of Wiltshire. In 1075, the Council of London established Herman as the first bishop of Salisbury ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}),<ref name=bho>British History Online. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300, Vol. IV, "Salisbury: Bishops". Institute of Historical Research (London), 1991.</ref> uniting his former sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury into a single diocese which covered the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, and Berkshire. He and Saint Osmund began the construction of the first Salisbury cathedral but neither lived to see its completion in 1092.<ref name="bho" /> Osmund was a cousin of William the Conqueror<ref>Sarum Charters, 373.</ref> and Lord Chancellor of England; he was responsible for the codification of the Sarum Rite,<ref>Bergh, Frederick T. "Sarum Rite" in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIII. Robert Appleton Co. (New York), 1912. Hosted at New Advent. Accessed 28 Dec 2014.</ref> the compilation of the Domesday Book, and—after centuries of advocacy from Salisbury's bishops—was finally canonized by Pope Template:Nowrap in 1457.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Domesday Book was probably presented to William I at Old Sarum in 1086,<ref name=wilt193 /> the same year he convened the prelates, nobles, sheriffs, and knights of his dominions there to pay him homage<ref name=hoveden>Roger of Hoveden</ref> by the Oath of Salisbury. Two other national councils were held there: one by William Rufus in 1096<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp and another by Henry I in 1116, which has sometimes been described as the first English Parliament.<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp William Rufus confirmed its bishop in various additional sources of income, which were later confirmed by Henry II.<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp
The cathedral was consecrated on 5 April 1092 but suffered extensive damage in a storm, traditionally said to have occurred only five days later.<ref>The Ecclesiologist, p. 60.Template:Full citation</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bishop Roger was a close ally of Template:Nowrap who served as his viceroy during the king's absence to Normandy<ref name=rogereb>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> and directed the royal administration and exchequer along with his extended family.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He refurbished and expanded Old Sarum's cathedral in the 1110s.<ref name=rogereb/> This work ultimately doubled the cathedral's length and involved the large-scale levelling of the ecclesiastical district in the northwest quadrant of the town.<ref name=EH-2014-OS-sched/> He began work on a royal palace during the 1130s, prior to his arrest by Henry's successor Stephen.<ref name=rogereb/> This palace was long thought to have been the small structure whose ruins are located in the small central bailey; it may, however, have been the large palace recently discovered in the southeast quadrant of the outer bailey.<ref name=stratigraphy /> This palace was Template:Convert, surrounded a large central courtyard, and had walls up to Template:Convert thick. A Template:Convert room was probably a great hall and there seems to have been a large tower.<ref name=stratigraphy/> At the time of Roger's arrest by Template:Nowrap, the bishop administered the castle on the king's behalf;<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp it was thereafter allowed to fall into disrepair but the sheriff and castellan continued to administer the area under the king's authority.<ref name=Storer-1819>Template:Cite book</ref>
Angevin periodEdit
Template:See also Medieval Sarum also seems to have had industrial facilities such as kilns and furnaces.<ref name=beeb/> Residential areas were principally located in the two southern quadrants, built up beside the ditch protecting the inner bailey and Norman castle.<ref name=ush/> Henry II held his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, prisoner at Old Sarum. In the 1190s, the plainTemplate:Clarify between Old Sarum and Wilton was one of five specially designated by Template:Nowrap for the holding of English tournaments.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
An early 12th-century observer, William of Malmesbury, called Sarum a town "more like a castle than city, being environed with a high wall", and noted that "notwithstanding that it was very well accommodated with all other conveniences, yet such was the want for water that it sold at a great rate".<ref name=Baldwin-1774>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Holinshed denied this and noted that the hill was "very plentifully served with springs and wells of very sweet water";<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp excavation has discovered numerous wells (including one within the Norman keep) but suggests that they were so deep as to make their use more cumbersome than carting water uphill from the rivers. The issue was presented to kings Richard and John as the prime reason to relocate the cathedral<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp but seems to have only been part of the issue.
The late 12th-century canon Peter of Blois<ref name=pbj>Robinson, J. Armitage. "Peter of Blois" in Somerset Historical Essays, pp. 128 f. Oxford University Press (London), 1921.</ref> described his prebendary as "barren, dry, and solitary, exposed to the rage of the wind" and the cathedral "as a captive on the hill where it was built, like the ark of God shut up in the profane house of Baal."<ref name=blesensis>Peter of Blois, Epistle No. 105.</ref> Holinshed records that the clerics brawled openly with the garrison troops.<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp Bishop Herbert received permission for the move from Richard I, who was agreeably disposed towards the diocese after discovering it held Template:Nowrap in coin in trust for his father, in addition to jewels, vestments, and plate,<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp but was forced to delay the change after John's succession.
By papal order, Herbert's brother Richard Poore was translated from Chichester to succeed him in 1217; the next year, Sarum's dean and chapter presented arguments to Rome for the cathedral's relocation.<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp The investigation of these claims by the papal legate Cardinal Gualo verified the chapter's claims that the site's water was both expensive and sometimes restricted by the castellans; that housing within the walls was insufficient for the clerics, who were required to rent from the laity; that the wind was sometimes so strong that divine offices could not be heard and the roof was repeatedly damaged; and that the soldiers of the royal fortress restricted access to the cathedral precinct to the common folk during Ash Wednesday and on other occasions for providing the Eucharist and the clerics felt imperilled by their circumstances.<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp Template:Nowrap thereupon issued an indulgence to relocate the cathedral on 29 March 1217 or 1218.<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp The chapter voted unanimously for the move and agreed to pay for it by withholding various portions of their prebends over the next seven years.<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp On Easter Monday, 1219, a wooden chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary was begun near the banks of the Hampshire Avon; on Trinity Sunday, Bishop Poore celebrated mass there and consecrated a cemetery.<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp On Template:Nowrap Day, April 28, 1220, the foundation of the future stone cathedral was begun.<ref name=Baldwin-1774/>Template:Rp
The settlement that grew up around it was called New Salisbury, then (at least formally) New Sarum, then finally Salisbury. The former cathedral was formally dissolved in 1226.<ref name=EH-2014-OS-sched/> The inhabitants of the new city gradually razed the old, constructing Salisbury Cathedral and other buildings from the materials at Old Sarum. Evidence of quarrying into the 14th century shows some continued habitation,<ref name=ush/> but the settlement was largely abandoned and Template:Nowrap ordered the castle's demolition in 1322.<ref name=EH-2014-OS-sched/>
Modern periodEdit
The castle grounds were sold by Template:Nowrap in 1514.<ref name=beeb/> From the reign of Edward II in the 14th century, the borough of Old Sarum elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons despite having, from at least the 17th century, no resident voters. One of the members in the 18th century was William Pitt the Elder. In 1831, Old Sarum had eleven voters, all of whom were landowners who lived elsewhere, making Old Sarum the most notorious of the rotten boroughs. The Reform Act 1832 subsumed the Old Sarum area into an enlarged borough of Wilton. The fortified site<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was an extra-parochial area<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and became a civil parish in 1858, but the civil parish was abolished in 1894<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and merged with Stratford sub Castle.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1891 the parish had a population of 13.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The site and surrounding area is now the northernmost part of Salisbury civil parish.<ref name="boundaries">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The site of the castle and cathedral is considered a highly important British monument: it was among the 26 English locations scheduled by the 1882 Ancient Monuments Protection Act,<ref>Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1882 [45 & 46 Vict. Ch. 73], reprinted in Robert Hunter's The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty, App. A: "The Ancient Monument Protection Acts", p. 37. University Press (Manchester), 1907. Hosted at Wikisource. Accessed 3 Jan 2014.</ref> the first such British legislation. That protection has subsequently continued, expanding to include some suburban areas west and south-east of the outer bailey.<ref name=EH-2014-OS-sched>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref> It was also listed as a Grade I site in 1972.<ref name=EH-2014-OS-CC>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
Between 1909 and 1915, W.H. St J. Hope, W. Hawley, and D.H. Montgomerie excavated the site for the Society of Antiquaries of London.<ref name=EH-2014-OS-sched/> A second excavation occurred in the 1950s under John W. G. Musty and Philip Rahtz.<ref name="EH-2014-OS-sched" />
In 2014, an on-site geophysical survey of the inner and outer bailey by the University of Southampton revealed its royal palace,<ref name="stratigraphy">Template:Cite news</ref> as well as the street plan of the medieval city.<ref name="beeb">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="ush">Template:Cite press release</ref> The survey made use of soil resistivity to electric current, electrical resistivity tomography, magnetometry, and ground-penetrating radar.<ref name="beeb" /><ref name="ush" /> The team planned to return in 2015 to complete a similar survey of the Romano-British site to the south of the hillfort.<ref name="ush" />
20th and 21st centuriesEdit
The Old Sarum monument is now administered by English Heritage, and non-members are charged for admission.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A paved carpark and grass overflow carpark are provided in the eastern area of the outer bailey.
In 1917, during World War I, farmland about Template:Convert north-east of Old Sarum, along the Portway, was developed as the 'Ford Farm' aerodrome. That became Old Sarum Airfield, which remained in operation with a single grass runway until at least 2019<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with a small business park which developed along the north edge of the airfield. As of January 2023 the airfield is still operational, but only by prior arrangement.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Around 800 homes were built on the north side of the Portway between 2008 and 2016,<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and this area (which includes Old Sarum Primary School)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is also called Old Sarum. From 2018, further housing called Longhedge Village, around 750 homes accessed from the A345, was built immediately north of the earlier development.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These areas all fall within Laverstock civil parish, while the monument itself – separated from modern development by about Template:Convert of farmland – is within the Salisbury City area.<ref name="boundaries" />
- Old Sarum Salisbury drone footage.webm
Drone view of Old Sarum
- Old Sarum Cathedral with motte.JPG
The present ruins: the exposed foundations of the cathedral in the foreground and the Norman central motte behind
See alsoEdit
FootnotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
- Passionate Enemies by Jean Plaidy