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Salisbury (pronounced 'Solsbree' or 'Sauls-bree') is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England. The city itself forms the largest part of the Salisbury district. It is also sometimes called New Sarum to distinguish it from the original site of settlement at Salisbury, Old Sarum.
Salisbury railway station serves the city, and is the crossing point between the West of England Main Line and the Wessex Main Line making it a regional interchange. It is also at the confluence of several main roads. The city is located in the south-east of Wiltshire, at the edge of Salisbury Plain.
It is at the confluence of five rivers: the Nadder, Ebble, Wylye and Bourne are tributary to the Avon (Celtic for 'river'), which flows to the south coast and out into the sea at Christchurch, Dorset.
Salisbury holds a market on Tuesdays and Saturdays and has held a regular markets since 1227. In the 15th century the Market Place was dotted with stone crosses marking the centres for certain trades and goods. Today only the Poultry Cross remains, although the addition of flying buttresses was made in 1852.
In 1226, King Henry III granted the Bishop of Salisbury a charter to hold a fair lasting 8 days from the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August). Over the centuries the dates for the fair have moved around, but in its modern guise, a funfair is now held in the Market Place for three days from the 3rd Monday in October. However, there is still an ancient law stating that the fair can be held in the Cathedral Close.
The world famous Stonehenge site adds greatly to the local economy. Stonehenge is about 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Salisbury. Around the time of the summer solstice, new age travellers often stay in the city. The travellers are seen by many in the city as being a nuisance. There has been a history of sites being left littered and damaged though this has been greatly reduced in recent years. The remains of Old Sarum and the original cathedral also attract visitors. During the summer months especially there is a huge influx of tourists from all over the world. Walking down the High Street it is not unusual to overhear many different languages.
Salisbury has many unique shops in the city centre. Shopping centres include The Old George Mall, The Maltings, and Winchester Street. The BBC conducted a survey in 2006 of towns around the country and Salisbury was among the 40% and shrinking number of "home towns" as opposed to "clone towns".
Major employers include: Salisbury General Hospital, Friends Provident and Pains Wessex.
 CULTURE OF SALISBURY
Salisbury has a strong artistic community, with galleries situated in the city centre, including one in the public library. In the 18th century, John Constable made a number of celebrated landscape paintings featuring the cathedral spire and the surrounding countryside. Salisbury's annual International Arts Festival, held in late May to early June, provides a varied programme of theatre, live music, dance, public sculpture, street performance and art exhibitions.
Due to the age and mysticism of the city, many buildings are reputed to be haunted. Ghost tours are very popular with locals and visitors. One such building is the local Odeon cinema which is located in the House of John Halle, an example of Salisbury's historic architecture. It is the oldest building in the UK to contain a cinema.
GEOGRAPHY OF SALISBURY
Salisbury is located in a valley. The geology of the area, like much of South Wiltshire and Hampshire, is largely chalk. The rivers that flow through the city have been redirected and along with landscaping have been used to feed into public gardens. They are popular in the summer, particularly Queen Elizabeth Gardens as the water there is shallow and slow-flowing enough to enter quite safely. Close to Queen Elizabeth Gardens are water meadows, the water is controlled by weirs. Because of the low-lying land, the rivers are prone to flooding particularly during the winter months. The Town Path, a walkway that links Harnham with the rest of the city is at times unpassable.
A frequent cause of concern to the people of Salisbury is the lack of adequate roads. There is no motorway that links the ports of Southampton and Bristol meaning that all traffic must pass through the city. Though there is a dual carriageway Ring Road, most of the way, the road is single lane only.
The closest town, Wilton, very nearly meets up with Salisbury. Wilton is the ancient capital of the former county and kingdom of Wessex. Other places to the west of the city include Barford St Martin, Tisbury and Gillingham (Dorset). To the east can be found the garrison town of Tidworth, and slightly further lies Andover. Alderbury and Romsey are to the south, as is Salisbury's largest neighbour, Southampton. Finally to the north are Warminster and Westbury.
To the north and east is a large flat expanse known as Salisbury Plain. This area is used a great deal by the military for praticing manoeuvres and weaponry testing. There is a military aviation base at Middle Wallop, a civil airfield at Thruxton and another airfield at Old Sarum where the experimental aircraft the Optica was developed and tested.
HISTORY OF SALISBURY
It is because of the abundance of water that the location was originally chosen for a settlement. 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 throughout the Germanic languages. 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, pp. 93-94).
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 that year.
The main body was completed in only 38 years and is a masterpiece of Early English architecture, the stones which make up the cathedral came down from Old Sarum. The spire, which is 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.
The city wall surrounds the close and was built in the 14th Century. There are five gates in the wall, four are original a fifth was created in the 19th Century to allow access to Bishop Wordsworth's School located inside the Cathedral Close. They are known as the High Street Gate, St Ann's Gate, the Queen's Gate, and St Nicholas's Gate. A room located above St Ann's Gate is where the composer Handel is known to have stayed, and whilst there wrote several works. During the Great Plague of London, Charles II held court in the Close.
The novel Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherfurd, is an imaginary retelling of the history of Salisbury.
From Wikipedia.org, the Free Encyclopedia
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