Old Sarum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Old Sarum is the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury, England, with evidence of human habitation as early as 300 BC. It sits on a hill about two miles (3km) north of modern Salisbury on the west side of the road that leads to Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain.
Old Sarum was initially a hill fort strategically situated on the conjunction of two trade routes and the River Avon, Hampshire. The hill fort is broadly oval in shape and measures ≈1300 feet (405m) in length and ≈1200 feet (360m) in width, consisting of a single circuit of bank and ditch with an entrance in the eastern end.
Among the earliest records, Old Sarum is described as a city of the Belgae, and its historical details have proved a boon for the researches of topographical illustrators.
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History
Sir R.C. Hoare describes it as "a city of high note in the remotest periods by the several barrows near it, and its proximity to the two largest Druidical temples in England, namely, Stonehenge and Avebury." [1]
The Romans held it as a strong military station, and it was admitted to the privileges of the Latin law, under the name of Sorbiodunum. [2]
Cynric, King of Wessex, was said to have captured the place in 552. Under the Saxons it ranked among the most considerable towns of the West Kingdom, and possessed ecclesiastical establishments soon after the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity. [3]
In the early part of the 9th Century it was the frequent residence of Egbert; and in 960, Edgar assembled there a national council to devise the best means of repelling the Danes in the north. [4]
In 1086, William the Norman convened in this city the prelates, nobles, sheriffs, and knights of his new dominions, there to receive their homage; [5] and probably, within its walls was framed the feudal law, as the Domesday Book was commenced in the same year. Two other national councils were held there; one by William Rufus, in 1096, and another by Henry I in 1116.
Peter of Blois, an early ecclesiastical writer, described Old Sarum as "barren, dry, and solitary, exposed to the rage of the wind; and the church (stands) as a captive on the hill where it was built, like the ark of God shut up in the profane house of Baal." [6]
After the Norman Conquest, the town was renamed Salisberie after the Earl who received the area. He built a wooden castle with a ditch, and in 1067 started a cathedral and bishop's palace. He completed it in 1092 (it burned down five days later), and in 1100 built a stone keep. A replacement cathedral was completed in 1190.
Space eventually ran out and the water supply was taxed on the hilltop, and with cathedral and castle sitting in close proximity, and their respective chiefs in regular conflict, relocation was inevitable. In 1219 the bishop started construction on a new cathedral on the banks of the Avon, and a new settlement grew up around it, called New Sarum— eventually taking the name of Salisbury for the use solely for the new town. Old Sarum was slowly abandoned and fell into ruin. Nothing is still standing there, but visitors may easily trace the outlines of the old castle and cathedral.
There appears to have been but one entrance to the castle, on the east. There were five wells, four in the city and one in the castle, designed chiefly to support the garrison and inhabitants in time of war, or during a siege.
Decline
The decline of (Old) Sarum, rested principally on the disagreement between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Once New Sarum was developed, abandonment was virtually inevitable. By 1217, the inhabitants of Old Sarum had removed their residence, and constructed their new habitations with the materials they razed from their old.As one city increased in population and extent, so the other almost as rapidly decayed. Hence the establishment of New Sarum, or Salisbury. Old Sarum lives on, however as its long history makes it a popular location for historical reenactments.
Legislative infamy (As a rotten borough)
From the reign of Edward II Old Sarum elected two members to the House of Commons, despite the fact that from at least the 17th century it had no resident voters at all. One of the members in the 18th century was William Pitt the Elder. In 1831 it had eleven voters, all of whom were landowners who lived elsewhere. This made Old Sarum the most notorious of the rotten boroughs. The Reform Act 1832 completely disenfranchised Old Sarum.
Read about Salisbury and Sarum
Several books of historical fiction capture the flavour of life in medieval England with specific attention to Salisbury. Among them:
- Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd.
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
- Passionate Enemies by Jean Plaidy
References
- ^ "Ancient Wilts," --Sir R.C. Hoare, speaking of Stonehenge, expresses his opinion that "our earliest inhabitants were Celts, who naturally introduced with them their own buildings customs, rites, and religions ceremonies, and to them I attribute the erection of Stonehenge, and the greater part of the sepulchral memorials that still continue to render its environs so truly interesting to the antiquary and historian." Abury, or Avebury, is a village amidst the remains of an immense temple, which for magnificence and extent is supposed to have exceeded the more celebrated fabric of Stonehenge; Some enthusiastic inquirers have however, carried their supposition beyond probability, and in their zeal have even supposed them to be antediluvian labours! Many of the barrows in the vicinity of Sarum have been opened, and in them several antiquarian relics have been discovered. In short, the whole county is one of high antiquarian interest, and its history has been illustrated with due fidelity and research.
- ^ Richard of Cirericesler, p. 31, 68, 113.
- ^ Cott. Coll. Faustina, b. 3, MSS. Brit Mus.
- ^ Brompton Twysd. 866.
- ^ Dodsworth's History of Salisbury Cathedral.
- ^ Roger de Hoveden.
- ^ Petrus Blesensis, Epist, 105.
