Old Sarum

Old Sarum, located just north of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England, is a historic site that offers a fascinating glimpse into Britain’s ancient past. This ancient hilltop settlement, with its impressive earthworks, has been a significant location for thousands of years, serving variously as a Neolithic settlement, an Iron Age hill fort, a Roman town, a Saxon stronghold, and a Norman castle.

The site’s history begins around 3000 BC when it was first used as a settlement. By the Iron Age, it had become a substantial hill fort, with massive defensive ditches and ramparts that are still visible today. After the Roman invasion, the site was known as Sorviodunum and continued to be of strategic importance.

In the early medieval period, Old Sarum became a Saxon stronghold and later a Norman castle. William the Conqueror recognized the site’s strategic value and constructed a motte-and-bailey castle here in 1070, which was later expanded with a stone keep and a cathedral. The cathedral, completed in the 12th century, was one of the largest in England at the time but was eventually dismantled when the new Salisbury Cathedral was built a few miles away.

Old Sarum was also notable for being a “rotten borough” in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the right to elect members of Parliament despite having very few residents. This peculiar situation was one of the reasons for the electoral reforms in the 19th century.