Stories from the past that raise questions to which we still don’t have answers are very tantalising! This week, Chris Daniell, Senior Historic Building Advisor at UK Government, gave us an excellent online talk about his searching for answers to questions about “New and Old Salisbury”.
First some background from Chris. Wilton had been attacked in AD1003. and Old Sarum had become the region’s centre by the time a decision was taken to move the Cathedral to there (Old Sarum) from Sherborne in AD1075. The difficulties that followed that decision are fairly well known. The hill is somewhat exposed, windy, cold; as the community grew it became overcrowded; there were water shortages. And there were tensions between the clergy and the armed forces who shared the cramped space.
Matters apparently reached a head when one Rogationtide the clergy were returning from St Martin’s, in the village of Milford, and were (temporarily) refused re-entry into Old Sarum. By AD1218 the Pope had given permission for Bishop Poore to “transfer the church to another, more suitable place”*
Why they chose the place that they did is debatable, clouded by gossip and politics, and legend, but by the following year, AD1219, a wooden chapel had gone up in the area of the present Close. The rest, as they say, is History.
What about “Old Salisbury”? John Chandler suggests it was the name by which Milford became known while New Salisbury (the site of the new Cathedral) began to grow. Chandler mentions “A recent survey…” which identified hamlets already in the area by AD1200, Milford, Stratford sub Castle, and somewhere around the area of the present Market Place. And they may have been called, collectively, “the Salisburies”. Chris referred to a document of AD1220 which recorded the Cathedral moving to Old Salisbury…
In his talk, Chris took us through the research he has done into what existed before the move (and so may have contributed to the present site being chosen). There is a theory that it was at the junction of two important roads, the lines of which may have run along the line of modern day Castle Street, the other east/west across Fisherton Bridge.
Bishop Poore is quoted in a document as having “recently constructed” a mill in the area. Where was that? Did that influence the choice of site?
The whole talk was very well illustrated with maps and references to early documents, theories, and counter-theories carefully discussed, and perhaps most interesting was the theory that the site may have already been the meeting place of the old Hundred. Hundreds were the division of a shire for administrative, military and judicial purposes under the common law. Originally, when introduced by the Anglo-Saxons, a hundred had enough land to sustain approximately one hundred households headed by a hundred-man or hundred eolder.
This would take the history of Salisbury back into the Anglo-Saxon period.