• Practicalities
• Explore
Salisbury
SALISBURY , huddled below Wiltshire's chalky
plain in the converging valleys of the Avon and Nadder, looks
from a distance very much as it did when Constable painted his
celebrated view of it from across the water meadows. Prosperous
and well-kept, Wiltshire's only city is designed on a pleasantly
human scale, with no sprawling suburbs or high-rise buildings
to challenge the supremacy of the cathedral's immense spire.
The town sprang into existence
in the early thirteenth century, when the bishopric was moved
from Old Sarum , an ancient Iron Age hillfort settled by the
Romans and their successors. The deserted remnant of Salisbury's
precursor now stands on the northern fringe of the town, just
a bit closer in than Wilton House to the west, one of Wiltshire's
great .
Begun in 1220, Salisbury
Cathedral (June-Aug Mon-Sat 7.15am-8.15pm, Sun 7.15am-6.15pm;
Sept-May daily 7am-6.15pm; £3.50 suggested donation) was
mostly completed within forty years and is thus unusually consistent
in its style, with one extremely prominent exception - the spire
, which was added a century later and at 404ft is the highest
in England. Its survival is something of
a miracle, for the foundations penetrate only about six feet
into a gravel bed in the middle of the floodplain, and when Christopher
Wren surveyed it he found the spire to be leaning almost two
and a half feet out of true. The tie-rods inserted by Wren helped
to arrest the problem for good.
The interior is over-austere
after James Wyatt's brisk eighteenth-century tidying, but there's
an amazing sense of space and light in its high nave, despite
the sombre pillars of grey Purbeck marble, which are visibly
bowing beneath the weight they bear. Monuments and carved tombs
line the walls, where they were neatly placed by Wyatt, and in
the north aisle there's a fascinating clock dating from 1386,
one of the oldest functioning clock mechanisms in Europe. Other
features not to miss are the vaulted colonnades of the cloisters
, and the octagonal chapter house (June-Aug Mon-Sat 9.30am-7.45pm,
Sun noon-5.30pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun noon-5.30pm),
which displays the best preserved of only four surviving original
editions of the Magna Carta, and whose walls are decorated with
a frieze of scenes from the Old Testament. On most days, you
can join a free 45-minute tour of the church leaving two or more
times a day, and there are also tours to the roof and spires.
Surrounding the cathedral
is the Close , the largest and most impressive in the country,
a peaceful precinct of lawns and mellow old buildings. Most of
the houses have seemly Georgian facades, though some, like the
Bishop's Palace and the deanery, date from the thirteenth century.
Mompesson House (April-Oct Mon-Wed, Sat & Sun noon-5.30pm;
£3.90; garden only 80p; NT), built by a wealthy merchant
in 1701, is a fine example of a Queen Anne house and contains
some beautifully furnished eighteenth-century rooms and a superbly
carved staircase, as displayed to great effect in the film Sense
and Sensibility ; the entry price includes a thirty-minute guided
tour. The other building to head for in the Close is the King's
House , in which you'll find the Salisbury and South
Wiltshire Museum
(July & Aug Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 2-5pm) - an absorbing account
of local history. It includes a good section on Stonehenge and
also focuses on the life and times of General Pitt-Rivers, the
father of modern archeology, who excavated many of Wiltshire's
prehistoric sites, including Avebury.
The Close's North Gate
opens onto the centre's older streets, where narrow pedestrianized
alleyways bear such names as Fish Row and Salt Lane, indicative
of their trading origin. Many half-timbered houses and inns have
survived all over the centre, and the last of four market crosses,
Poultry Cross , stands on stilts in Silver Street, near the Market
Square. The market, held on Tuesdays and Saturdays, still serves
a large agricultural area, as it did in earlier times when the
city grew wealthy on wool. Nearby, the church of St Thomas -
named after Thomas à Becket - is worth a look inside for
its carved timber roof and "Doom painting" over the
chancel arch, depicting Christ presiding over the Last Judgement.
Dating from 1475, it's the largest of its kind in England.
Lastly, to best appreciate
the city's inspiring silhouette - the view made famous by Constable
- take a twenty-minute walk through the water meadows southwest
of the centre to HARNHAM ; the Old Mill here serves drinks and
modestly priced meals.
OTHER POPULAR
DESTINATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
ENGLAND
CHANNEL ISLANDS
GUERNSEY
JERSEY