22136 - a photo on Flickriver

22136

            Looking out from the walls of the Grade I Listed remains of Old Sarum a former Iron Age fort, 2 miles north of Salisbury in Wiltshire. 

The great monoliths of Stonehenge and Avebury were erected nearby and indications of prehistoric settlement have been discovered from as early as 3000 BC. An Iron Age hillfort was erected around 400 BC, controlling the intersection of two native trade paths and the Hampshire Avon. The site continued to be occupied during the Roman period, when the paths became roads. The Saxons took the British fort in the 6th century and later used it as a stronghold against marauding Vikings. The Normans constructed a motte and bailey castle, a stone curtain wall, and a great cathedral. A royal palace was built within the castle for King Henry I and was subsequently used by Plantagenet monarchs. This heyday of the settlement lasted for around 300 years until disputes between the Wiltshire sheriff and the Salisbury bishop finally led to the removal of the church into the nearby plain. As New Salisbury grew up around the construction site for the new cathedral in the early 13th century, the buildings of Old Sarum were dismantled for stone and the old town dwindled. Its long-neglected castle was abandoned by Edward II in 1322 and sold by Henry VIII in 1514.

The castle grounds were sold by Henry VIII in 1514. Although the settlement was effectively uninhabited, its landowners continued to have parliamentary representation into the 19th century, making it the most notorious of the rotten boroughs that existed before the Reform Act of 1832. Most famously, Old Sarum served as a pocket borough of the Pitt family.

From the reign of Edward II in the 14th century, the 'borough' of 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, Old Sarum had eleven voters, all of whom were landowners who lived elsewhere. This made Old Sarum the most notorious of the rotten boroughs. The 1832 Reform Act completely disfranchised Old Sarum. Old Sarum was an extra-parochial area and became a civil parish in 1858. The civil parish was abolished in 1894.

The site of the castle and cathedral is considered a highly important British monument: it was among the 26 English locations scheduled by the 1882 Ancient Monuments Protection Act, the first such British legislation. This protection has subsequently continued, expanding to include some suburban areas west and southeast of the outer bailey. 

W. H. St J. Hope, W. Hawley, and D.H. Montgomerie excavated the site between 1909 and 1915 for the Society of Antiquaries of London. In 1917, during World War I, a site just northeast of Old Sarum along the Portway was developed as the 'Ford Farm' aerodrome. This became Old Sarum Airfield, which remains in operation with a single grass runway. A second excavation occurred in the 1950s under John W G Musty and Philip Rahtz.

In 2014, an on-site geophysical survey of the inner and outer bailey by the University of Southampton revealed its royal palace, as well as the street plan of the medieval city. The survey made use of soil resistivity to electric current, electrical resistivity tomography, magnetometry, and ground-penetrating radar. The team planned to return in 2015 to complete a similar survey of the Romano-British site located south of the hillfort.

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Stratford Sub Castle (show map)

Taken on: June 23, 2015

Tags:

Wiltshire

South West England

English

Britain

British

Great Britain

United Kingdom

Salisbury

Old Sarum

English Heritage

Grade I Listed

Grade I Listed Building

Grade I

Listed Building

ruin

rust

abandoned

A345

prehistoric settlement

Iron Age hillfort

Castle

Roman

Viking

Saxon

Norman

King Henry I

Plantagenet monarchs

Edward II

Henry VIII

Pitt family

1882 Ancient Monuments Protection Act « less

Sets appears in: • Old Sarum • Wiltshire

Groups appears in: • Wiltshire • English Heritage (please read posting rules) more » • Views: 400 • Salisbury • South West England • Lovely villages, fields, meadows, swamps & countryside • Summer's shots • Wiltshire Views • Old Sarum • WALKING LANDSCAPES • GREAT PANOS • (A) BEAUTIFUL VILLAGE RETREAT • The Very Great Outdoors • Wiltshire Photography Group « less

Camera: Nikon D7100, f/9.0, 1/320 sec, 30mm (=45mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7100
Aperture:	f/9.0
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	30mm (35mm equivalent: 45mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	+0.747 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	ViewNX 2.9 W
Show full info

Stats: 2,349 views / 3 comments