City of Salisbury [antikvár]

CITY OF SALISBURYMichael St John ParkerT^HE Salisbury of today is the second city of that name. The site of its predecessor, still known in medieval Latin style as Old Sarum, can be clearly seen even now, a steep hill just beyond the limits of modern building, off the road running north to Amesbury. This natural strongpoint was fortified in prehistoric timesmost probably during the Early Iron Ageand acted as a focus for an important Roman road network. Subsequently it appears to have been fought over by Britons and Saxons; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 552 records a battle at "the place called Searoburh"the name itself meant the town of battle. The later Saxon kings had a mint there, one of the earliest coins from which is preserved in Sweden; its inscription shows that it was minted by the moneyer Goldus at Serebrig, about the year 1000.The Normans made this ancient fortress more important still; a powerful castle rose to dominate the already formidable earthworks, with an imposing cathedral in uneasy proximity on the next level downhill. Only the foundations of these buildings survive, but their scale bears witness to the scope of Norman power and achievement.Even in its present desolate state, however, Old Sarum is a place where turbulence and violence seem to have left their echoes. When one stands there on a darkling winter's evening, with the wind from the plain gusting bleakly around, it is not hard to sympathise with Samuel Pepys, when, sensitive as ever to the nuances of his surroundings, he wrote that it wouldleft: Old Sarum, fortified in turn by Celts, Saxons and Normans; around these earthworks once clustered a busy dty. The Norman cathedral ground-plan shows clearly, dominated by the massive central citadel; disagreements between clergy and royal garrison led to the founding of a new town in the plain below."affright" him to be alone there at night. Indeed, life in the hilltop stronghold was never tranquil or comfortable, and a series of bishops clashed angrily with the royal garrison, who probably enjoyed making life difficult for the clergy. In periods of dynastic troubles major questions of loyalty could arise, and when the nation was at peace such matters as water supplies and locked gates provided ample material for internal strife.Eventually, in 1219, Bishop Richard Poore succeeded in gaining permission from both king and pope to abandon the contentious hilltop and build afresh in the peaceful valley below. The scholar Peter of Blois, who was a canon of Sarum, was enthusiastic in his support for such a move: "Let us in God's name descend into the plain. There are rich champaign fields and fertile Valleys, abounding in the fruits of the earth, and watered by the living stream. There is a seat for the Virgin Patroness of our church, to which the world cannot produce a parallel." In fact the move was the product of a long process. Peter of Blois probably wrote his letter in 1198/9, but as early as 1187 we find the hill-city referred to as Vetus (Old) Saresberie, which implies that settlement was already well advanced in the freer land below. Nonetheless, the formal establishment of the second city and its cathedral was a great step, and when Bishop Poore laid the foundation stone of his new church on 28th April 1220 he also laid his claim to be the founder of the modern city of Sahsbury.The old cathedral stood derelict until 1331, when it was demoUshed and its stones were used for building a wall around the Close in New Sarum. Over the same period the site was progressively deserted by the citizenry, apart from a reduced settlement connected with the castle; by 1540, however, the antiquary Leland was able to write that not a single house remained. The castle itself was kept as a royal stronghold for as long as itwas useful, but seems to have been abandoned about the close of the Middle Ages. The last-lingering vestiges of the glory that had been Old Sarum were the two M.P.s whom the cityor, in later times, the owner of the sitereturned to Parliament by ancient right, until 1832 when this rottenest of rotten boroughs was abolished. One of the members under this dubious dispensation was William Pitt the Elder, whose family owned the place during the 18th century.The city founded by Bishop Poore in 1220 received its first royal charter of liberties in 1227, and boasted a mayor from 1261; but it remained in the control of the bishops of Salisbury until 1611. In that year the repeated petitions of the citizens finally succeeded in their object, with the help of the great Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State and later Earl of Salisbury, who had lived in the Close and whose crest may still be seen in a room at No. 17. The town was granted a charter of incorporation, which meant that the citizens were effectively freed from ecclesiastical control, and long years of conflict were brought to an end.For most of its life, however, Salisbury has been dominated by the power of the Church, and this influence has shaped it in the form we see today. The directing force is thus to be found in the Close, and this very special community within the greater community deserves separate treatment.The pattern of the Close was laid down almost from the beginning by the fact that the cathedral establishment was based not on a monastery (as was the case among a great many of the English cathedrals after the Norman Conquest) but on a chapter of secular canonsthat is, ordinary priests who had not taken monastic vows. This arrangement dated back to St. Osmund's episcopate (1078-99), and was not affected by the move. It meant that the Close grew up not so much as a tight complex of communal buildings (dining-hall, dor-