Most English cathedral cities are much older than the cathedrals themselves, with histories reaching back into the Roman era or earlier. Salisbury is the exception that proves the rule: a medieval ‘new town’ laid out on a grid of streets alongside the cathedral in the 13th century.
But one of the best views of city and cathedral is from the ramparts of Old Sarum, on a hillside not quite two miles to the north. Once an Iron Age hillfort, it was later the site of a medieval castle and the original cathedral, until the 13th century, when Bishop Richard Poore led the clergy down into the valley to build the present cathedral. This windy hilltop, now home only to some picturesque ruins, is where the
