For this week’s post, I am visiting Old Sarum in Wiltshire, one of the places photographed by my father whilst on cycling tours of the country, with friends from National Service.
Just to the north of Salisbury, Old Sarum is a fascinating historical site, comprising an Iron Age hill fort, with at the centre, the remains of a medieval cathedral and royal castle.
Whilst these medieval structures have been reduced to low walls, the earth works are really impressive, and the views of the surrounding countryside show why this was such an important location.
Old Sarum also had a strange role in the 18th and early 19th centuries, a role that led to much criticism and parody.
I shall start my exploration of Old Sarum, with the first of my father’s photos, from his visit in 1949:
This is looking across the central part of the medieval motte that was raised in the centre of the iron age hill fort just after the Norman Conquest, and where fortifications and a castle were built. The site was important as it overlooked the meeting point of three main roads, Roman in origin, and as the Iron Age builders of the fort had recognised, the height of the land also provided a viewpoint over a wide surrounding area.
The photo below is the same view as the above photo, 77 years later, in July 2026:
In both of the above photos, there are people to the centre left of the photo looking at a feature on the ground. This was the main source of water for the castle:
The sign on the right states that the well was probably over 230 feet in depth when built:
It must have been an horrendous job excavating a narrow well of that depth.
Whilst the majority of the medieval castle was demolished in the 16th century, the size of the remaining walls, and number of rooms show that this was a substantial fortification.
A look across the site towards the place where the first photo in the post was taken:
And a similar view today. I could not get to exactly the same spot as some places have been fenced off:
The castle on the central mound was a complex of defensive walls, towers, store rooms, halls, apartments, and a chapel, along with all the other features needed to maintain and run a medieval castle.
The following 1949 photo, is looking across some of these rooms. The outer wall is on the right, with a deep ditch behind:
The place where my father was standing to take the above photo is inaccessible today, so for the following photo I am standing on the opposite side of the rooms in the foreground. The common feature in both photos is the place where there are two curved ridges of the outer walls:
Standing in the heart of the medieval castle, it is hard to appreciate the complexity and size of Old Sarum, and how the place dominates the surrounding countryside. An aerial view really helps with this appreciation, and the following photo from the Britain from Above archive was taken in 1947, just two years before my father’s visit:
The feature is roughly circular, and the outer ditch forms the boundary of the iron age hill fort, which originally had a flat interior.
The Norman motte, or earthen mound in the centre, was constructed in the 11th century, and within the motte the Norman castle was built.
It is not exactly clear when the hill fort was first built, but it may be from around 400 BC.
The centre would have been occupied by a small community, with wooden huts for living and storage, all surrounded by the large defensive ditch.
It is not known for how long the site was occupied, whether it was permanent or sporadic, and very few artifacts have been found to confirm periods of occupation.
There was some occupation during the Roman period, although again there is very little evidence to confirm how it was occupied and for how long. There may have been Roman British settlements outside of the hill fort, with a military structure within, but again there is very little evidence.
The site became known as Sorviodunum during the Roman period.
Again, there is very little evidence of occupation during the Anglo-Saxon period, possibly down to the lack of any systematic excavation below the levels of the medieval castle. There probably was some occupation, and in the early 11th century, a mint for the production of coins was established at Old Sarum.
The physical record of occupation and buildings at Old Sarum really starts in the later part of the 11th century, when the central motte was built after the Norman conquest.
In the above aerial photo, a track can be seen running up from the outer ditch up towards the central mound. This joins with the A345, which runs from Salisbury, about a mile to the south and northwards towards Amesbury, where it joins with the A303, not far from where the A303 passes Stonehenge.
The track shown in the 1947 aerial photo appears to be the same track as used today. After running across the outer ditch, there is a car park within the hill fort, and a short walk continuing along the track takes you to the entrance to the castle, where the steep earth walls of the motte can be seen:
After the site was deserted in the 16th century, the size of the earthworks and history of the place made it a well known landmark, and the subject of the paintings and prints.
The following print is from 1772, and shows the earthworks on Old Sarum, with the central motte. A man driving some pack horses can be seen in the foreground:
© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
And this print from 1801 shows the easterly view and the entrance to Old Sarum:
© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
The size of the ditches surrounding Old Sarum is remarkable, even though over the centuries they must have been softened by gradual erosion.
The following is a 1949 photo looking along the outer ditch of the original iron age hill fort:
I could not find exactly where the above photo was taken, however the following photo of the outer ditch today illustrates their size. The outer bank is to the right and the bank leading up to the inner part of the hill fort is to the left:
This is the ditch surrounding the central Norman motte. The bridge provides the access route into the central area. The size of the bank on the right gives an idea of the height of the motte:
It is possible to walk along the edge of the interior of the motte, and signs warn of the drop down the edge of this earthen mound:
The walkway along the edge of the motte:
From where there is a good view of Salisbury just to the south, with the spire of Salisbury Cathedral standing clear above the rest of the city:
The centre of the Norman motte was occupied by a castle. It could be classed as a motte and bailey castle, however the castle complex built on top of the mound was much larger than the typical castle and fortified structure of a motte and bailey.
The land outside the motte, part of the much larger iron age hill fort also had a rather magnificent Norman building. A cathedral of which the footprint can still be seen today, as shown in this 1948 photo from the Britain from Above archive:
The outline of the cathedral foundations can be seen. To the upper left of the cathedral there is the outline of the cloisters, and below the cloisters and to the left of the cathedral are the remains of the cathedral’s library and treasury.
The cathedral was built by Bishop Osmund, and consecrated on the 5th of April,1092. Not long after consecration, the cathedral was badly damaged by lightning during a storm, following which, it was rebuilt by Roger of Caen.
It was originally a relatively small building, but between 1110 and 1135, Bishop Roger doubled the size of the cathedral, and 50 years later a large new west front, along with corner towers was added by Bishop Jocelyn de Bohun. In the above aerial photo, this west front is the three rectangles surrounded by foundations to the bottom of the cathedral.
Surrounding the cathedral, there were cloisters, gardens, the Bishops Palace, along with the other buildings needed to maintain the running of such an important place.
Having a cathedral within the grounds of a Royal Castle caused a degree of friction with the garrison and also with the monarch, particularly during the reign of King John who was known for a lack of piety and religious conviction. Wars with the Barons, the loss of lands in France, and conflict with the Pope over who had the right to appoint the Bishop of Canterbury all made life within Old Sarum difficult.
The church started to look at moving out of Old Sarum into the plains below. The Pope gave approval for the move, and an initial wooden church was built close to the site of the current cathedral, and on Trinity Sunday of 1219, Bishop Richard Poore celebrated the first Mass in the new church.
Construction of Salisbury Cathedral started in 1220. The cathedral was consecrated in 1258 and the rest of the cathedral (with the exception of the spire) completed by 1266.
The tower and spire were built between 1300 and 1320, and the spire is the highest cathedral spire in England at 404 feet. The spires of Lincoln Cathedral and St. Paul’s Cathedral were originally higher, but as both these buildings have since lost their spires, Salisbury Cathedral now holds the record.
The move from Old Sarum to the new cathedral in Salisbury also included the move of the bodies of the three bishops who had been involved with the construction of the first cathedral, Bishops Osmund, Roger and Jocelyn.
Those who occupied the castle continued to make use of a chapel in the old cathedral, but eventually a dedicated chapel was built within the castle, and in 1331 the Bishop and Chapter of Salisbury were given permission to use the stone from the old cathedral for repairs to the new cathedral and to build the wall around the new cathedral precinct.
The foundations of the cathedral were then left to decay, and were eventually overgrown, and they only became visible again in 1834 when the outline of the cathedral became visible in the grass during a dry summer.
Excavations between 1912 and 1914 revealed the extent of the foundations, and they were exposed and marked out so that the full size and layout of the cathedral can still be seen today.
The aerial view in the Britain from Above photo is the best way to appreciate the cathedral, but at ground level we can walk where the Bishops and congregation once walked and prayed 900 years ago.
The view of the cathedral site from the top of the mound around the castle:
Looking along the full length of the cathedral towards the west:
Looking along the nave of the cathedral. Just past the information panel in the centre of the photo, to left and right can just be seen the base of the columns that once supported the roof over the nave:
Looking across the cathedral to the motte of the castle:
At the edge of the site is a part of a stone wall:
Which can still be seen today:
My father’s photo looking across the remains of the Treasury, which occupied the lower part of this building, with the Library above:
My photo of the same building, although it was only after I got home and looked at the photos that I realised I had taken it from the opposite end of the building to where my father was standing:
The move of the cathedral from Old Sarum to Salisbury started the decline of Old Sarum.
Salisbury started to expand around the new cathedral, but Old Sarum continued to be occupied and retain a role as an administrative centre.
It cannot have had much significant use by the start of the 16th century, as in 1514, Henry VIII granted the stone of the old castle to Thomas Compton, along with the right to carry away these materials.
From this point, Old Sarum started the transformation to the ruins we see today, as well as a scenic part of the Wiltshire countryside as illustrated by the prints shown earlier in the post.
The site continued to be owned by the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral, and in the late 20th century, they transferred Old Sarum to the State, and in 1892, it was managed by the Office of Works, and via various changes in government departments, it became part of English Heritage.
Although Henry VIII gave permission for the stone of the castle to be carried away, Old Sarum continued with a key role in national politics. It had long held the role of a Borough, and for long after the loss of the castle and any occupation of Old Sarum, it continued to be a Borough, and therefore returned a member of Parliament.
Old Sarum was one of the boroughs known as a Rotten Borough, a constituency that had very few voters, but still returned an MP, often under the influence of a patron. It was one of the most notorious as it returned two MPs, and a newspaper report in 1823 claimed that the Borough of Old Sarum had a total of two voters.
One of the MPs for Old Sarum was William Pitt (the elder, not the younger Pitt), who served as MP for the old hill fort between 1735 and 1747.
There are many newspaper references to the MPs for Old Sarum, and with William Pitt, one from the 28th of December 1744 records that “His Majesty has been pleased to appoint Will Pitt, member of Parliament for Old Sarum, to be Secretary of War”.
There had long been issues with Rotten Boroughs due to the way in which a very limited number of votes could elect an MP, patronage of chosen MPs and the considerable benefits that could be obtained.
In the following print from 1831, reformers are attacking Rotten Boroughs in the form of the old rotten tree, with those who benefit from the Rotten Boroughs attempting to hold up the tree.
The names of the Rotten Boroughs are written along the branches of the tree, with Old Sarum being on the lower left branch:
In the following print, also from 1831, titled “The System that Works so Well”, the House of Commons is the decaying building on the left, out of which pours a golden stream of public money which is being taken up by those who with Government, Church and Crown preferment and jobs. On the left, under the building, arethe bodies of the dying or despairing victims of the system.
To the left of the building is a water wheel which is powering this rush of money, and the slats on the wheel have the names of the Rotten Boroughs which support the system, with Old Sarum being one of those named:
The above prints must have been made to support the campaign to abolish rotten boroughs as this was achieved the following year through the 1832 Reform Act.
The madness of rotten boroughs where one or two voters could elect an MP was illustrated perfectly in an episode of Blackadder the Third:
From an iron age hill fort to a rotten borough, Old Sarum has had a fascinating history, and must have been a remarkable place when the castle and cathedral was occupied and in use. It continues to be a commanding landmark in the Wiltshire countryside.
