The city's origins go back to the Iron Age, and the Romans called it "Sorviodunum". There was a battle between the West Saxons and the Britons here, after which the place was called "Searoburh". The Normans built a castle and called it "Searesbyrig or Seresberi". By 1086, in the Domesday Book, it was called Salesberie. The site of the castle is now known as Old Sarum and is uninhabited. The bury element is a form of borough, which has cognates in words and place names in virtually every Indo-European and Semitic language, as well as others. For a fuller explanation, see under borough.

The name "Sarum", which is often mistakenly taken to be the Roman or Norman name for the old city and castle, came into use when documents were written in contracted latin and it was easier to write Sar with a stroke over the "r", than write the complete word "Saresberie". That mark of contraction was also the common symbol for the latin termination "um". Hence "Sar" with a stroke over the r was copied as "SarUM". One of the first known uses of "Sarum" is on the seal of Saint Nicholas Hospital, Salisbury,which was in use in 1239. Bishop Wyville (1330 - 1375) was the first Bishop to describe himself "episcopus Sarum". (A full description of this is given in "The Victoria History of Wiltshire", Vol VI pages 93 to 94).

It is at the confluence of five rivers: the Avon, Nadder, Ebble, Wylye (pronounced 'Why-lee') and Bourne. The resultant river is the Avon (old Welsh for 'river'), which flows to the south coast and out into the sea at Christchurch, Dorset. This Avon is sometimes referred to as the Hampshire Avon, in order to distinguish it from the River Avon which enters the sea at Avonmouth.

The first cathedral was built at Old Sarum by St Bishop Osmund between 1075 and 1092. A larger building was subsequently built on the same site in c.1120. However, deteriorating relations between the clergy and the military at Old Sarum led to the decision to resite the cathedral elsewhere. Thus the city of New Sarum, known as Salisbury, was founded in 1220, and the building of the new cathedral begun by Bishop Richard Poore in 1220. The main body was completed in only 38 years and is a masterpiece of Early English architecture, the stones which make up the cathedrel came down from Old Sarum. The spire, which is 404 feet (123 metres) tall, was built later and is the tallest spire in the UK. The cathedral is built on a gravel bed with unusually shallow foundations of 18 inches upon wooden faggots: the site is supposed to have been selected by firing an arrow from Old Sarum, although this is clearly legend due to the distance involved (although it is sometimes claimed the arrow hit a white deer, which continued to run and died on the spot where the Cathedral now exists).

The cathedral's library contains the best surviving of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta.

In 1386, a large mechanical clock was installed at Salisbury Cathedral. It is the oldest surviving mechanical clock in Britain and probably anywhere.

The novel Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd, is an imaginary retelling of the history of Salisbury.

This page was last updated: 24 August 2005

Town history extracts are taken from Wikipedia and are licensed under GFDL