SALISBURY, a city and municipal borough, and the county town of Wiltshire, England, 23 m. W. of Winchester, with sta tions on the S.R. and G.W.R. Pop. (1931) 26,456. The city lies among flat meadows mainly on the north bank of the river Avon, which is here joined by tributaries. The cathedral stands out above the city whose streets are in part laid out in squares called the "Chequers." To the north rises the bare upland of Salisbury Plain. The neighbourhood of Salisbury was one of the most important areas in prehistoric England. It seems to have been a meeting place of early cultures, e.g., of the people who made beakers and the people who built megaliths ; 6 m. N. is Stonehenge (q.v.). The Blackmore museum in the city has ex hibits of almost every age from the neighbourhood. Most inti mately associated, however, with the origins of Salisbury is the great prehistoric fortress of Old Sarum. It is about 2 m.. N. of the present city. The great mound has a fosse and earthwork, while the summit is hollowed out like a crater and its rim sur mounted by a rampart. It was certainly an important site in Romano-British times and especially in the period immediately preceding the arrival of the Romans. It was known to the Romans as Sorbiodunum. In 552 it was taken by Cenric, who named it Searesbyrig ("dry town") and it became the home of the kings of Wessex. Alfred strengthened the castle, and it was selected by Edgar as a place of national assembly to devise means of checking the Danes. About 1075 Old Sarum became the seat of a bishopric. Osmund, the second bishop, compiled a missal which forms the groundwork of the celebrated "Sarum Use." The "Sarum Breviary" was printed at Venice in 1483, and upon this, the most widely prevalent of English liturgies, the prayer-books of Edward VI. were mainly based. Osmund also built a cathedral, in the form of a plain cross. The garrison and priests, confined within a small space, were at perpetual feud; and after a licence had been granted by Pope Honorius III., it was decided to move down into the fertile Avon valley. In 1102 Bishop Roger Poore obtained a comprehensive charter from Henry I. With the build ing of New Sarum in the 13th century and the transference to it of i the see, Old Sarum lapsed to the crown. By the 16th century it was in ruins, and in 1608 it was ordered that the town walls should be demolished.
The new city, under the name of New Sarum (New Saresbury, Salisbury) immediately began to spring up round the cathedral close. A charter of Henry III. in 1227 recites the removal from Old Sarum, the king's ratification and his laying the f oundation stone of the church. In 161i the city obtained a charter of incor poration from James I. under the title of "mayor and common alty" of the city of New Sarum.
The cathedral church of St. Mary is a beautiful example of Early English architecture, begun and completed, save its spire and a few details, within one brief period (122o-1266). There is a tradition that Elias de Derham, canon of the cathedral (d.
was the principal architect. The building is 473 ft. in extreme length, the length of the nave being 229 ft. 6 in., the choir 151 ft., and the lady chapel 68 ft. 6 in. The width of the nave is 82 ft. and the height 84 ft. The spire, the highest in England, measures ft. (For plan, see GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE : Gothic Architec ture in England.) The cathedral consists of a nave of ten bays, with aisles and a lofty north porch, main transepts with eastern aisles, choir with aisles, lesser transepts, presbytery and lady chapel. The two upper storeys of the tower and the spire above are early Decorated. The wes front, the last portion of the origi nal building completed, bears in its rich ornamentation signs of the transition to the Decorated style. The perfect uniformity of the building is no less remarkable within than without. The frequent use of Purbeck marble for shafts contrasts with the delicate grey freestone which is the principal building material. An unhappy restoration of the cathedral (1782-1791) destroyed many magnif icent stained-glass windows which had escaped the Reformation, and also removed two Perpendicular chapels and the detached belfry which stood to the north-west of the cathedral. The lady chapel is the earliest part of the original building, as the west end is the latest. The cloisters, south of the church, were built directly after its completion. The fine octagonal chapter-house is of the time of Edward I. with a series of contemporary sculp tures. The library contains many valuable mss. and ancient printed books. The diocese covers nearly the whole of Dorsetshire, the greater part of Wiltshire and very small portions of Berk shire, Hampshire, Somersetshire and Devonshire.
There are three ancient parish churches : St. Martin's, with square tower and spire, and possessing a Norman font and Early English portions in the choir ; St. Thomas's (of Canterbury), founded in 1240 as a chapel to the cathedral, and rebuilt in the century; and St. Edmund's, founded as the collegiate church of secular canons in 1268, but subsequently rebuilt in the Per pendicular period. The residence of the college of secular priests is occupied by the ecclesiastical college of St. Edmund's, founded in 1873. St. John's chapel, founded by Bishop Robert Bingham in the 13th century, is occupied by a dwelling-house. There is a beautiful chapel attached to the St. Nicholas hospital. The poultry cross, or high cross, an open hexagon with six arches and a cen tral pillar, was erected by Lord Montacute before 1335. Among remaining specimens of ancient domestic architecture may be mentioned' the banqueting-hall of John Halle, wool merchant, built about 1470; and Audley House, belonging also to the 15th century, and repaired in 1881 as a diocesan church house.
Salisbury returned two members to parliament until 1885 when the number was reduced to one. Its representation has since been merged in that of one of the county constituencies.