Old Sarum

We visited Old Sarum, an English Heritage property. We have been to Salisbury itself several times and were interested to see where it started from!

We were extremely lucky in going on a lovely summer’s day, with a gentle breeze, which was ideal, as the walk from the car park is a fair way and uphill!

It seems the reason for moving this place was the difficulty of obtaining fresh drinking water, as the wells were deep and could prove expensive. There was an Iron Age fort and it could have been settled even before this time. The Saxons had a settlement here. It became part of Wessex in Saxon times. The Romans also had a presence here before leaving Britain for good.

Old Sarum had a cathedral and was a place of prayer. When it came to the time of William Conqueror it was decided to move the two miles down to Salisbury. This could have been about the water situation and being on a hill Old Sarum was a very windy place.

The stones from the old cathedral were taken to make the new cathedral in Salisbury itself.

We wandered around Old Sarum, across the fields to where the first cathedral had been, looked over the fence to view the medieval ditch. We went to the highest point, looked down on the main roads with the tiny cars travelling along, saw the fields some very yellow from the planting of oil seed rape.

We had a very pleasant day.