History of Salisbury

between 1075 and 1092. A larger building was built on the same site circa 1120. However, deteriorating relations between the clergy and the military at Old Sarum led to the decision to re-site the cathedral elsewhere.

The logic of this was inescapable, and in 1219 Richard Poore, the then Bishop of Sarum, decided to establish a new town and cathedral on an estate in his possession (confusingly known as Veteres Sarisberias — Old Salisburys) in the valley, on the banks of the River Avon. In 1220 the city of New Sarum, now known as Salisbury, was founded on a great meadow called 'Myrifield'. *

The town was laid out in a grid pattern, and work started in 1220, with the cathedral commencing the following year. The town developed rapidly, and by the 14th century was the foremost town in Wiltshire. The city wall surrounds the Close and was built in the 14th century.

There are five gates in the wall; four are original, known as the High Street Gate, St Ann's Gate, the Queen's Gate, and St Nicholas's Gate. A fifth was created in the 19th century to allow access to Bishop Wordsworth's School located inside the Cathedral Close. A room located above St Ann's Gate is where the composer Handel stayed, writing several works while there. During the Great Plague of London, Charles II held court in the Close.

The building of the new cathedral was begun by Bishop Richard Poore in the same year. The main body was completed in only 38 years and is a masterpiece of Early English architecture. Some stones which make up the cathedral came from Old Sarum, others from the Chilmark Quarries from where they were most likely moved to the cathedral building site by ox-cart. The existence of many water-mills and weirs probably prevented transport via boats on