| Monday 27 May 1998
Old Sarum - if you know what it is you're looking for - always looks
magnificent as you approach it. It was chosen for its strategic position and commands a
view of the surrounding countryside for many miles.
It was a public holiday and we found that there was a visit by the "Roman Army" who were
drilling and displaying. This had two advantages for us: one, we were able to see the display
and two, when we took time out to explore the site, everyone else was watching the display! |
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We have a look at the Romans on the next page. Above, we are already standing within the site of the city and looking across to the inner sanctum, the site of the Norman castle.
To get this far there has been a steep climb and we have negotiated (by means of a modern road) the defensive ditches seen left. Imagine running up and down a couple of these, wearing a helmet and carrying sword, shield etc whilst the locals are pelting you with rocks, boiling water or oil, burning fleeces and nasty pointy things!
Before you get to the top you have been hurt and some of your friends are dead. |
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By the time you've got through that ditch the locals have all gone into the
inner sanctum, destroying or removing the bridge, and notching a fresh supply of arrows to their
bows.
Ditches fill up with time. This is still deep and treacherous enough to require fencing!
On the top of this green bank is a wall that must be climbed once the grassy bank has been climbed. The wall is lined with unfriendly people. You are starting to invent the term "Bugger this for a game of soldiers..." |
| Inside the inner sanctum is a Norman castle. Foundations are deep, the walls are thick and the ground floor rooms have been packed with earth to ceiling level to make the walls even more impregnable.
The tops of the walls and the narrow windows are full of people
shooting the remainder of their arrows and pouring out the heated contents of their plumbing.
If you get this far you are extremely brassed off... Your commander looks for the castle's
sewerage system and commands you to crawl through it so you can open the door from inside... |
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| Sounds fairly horrible doesn't it? Yet most castle seiges either ended
because of treachery from within, because the food (or more likely water) ran out in the castle,
or because someone had to worm through the sewerage outlet into the castle.
Once inside, they had to think of a way to either fight off all the gaurds at the door or
capture a hostage important enough to secure the obediance of the guards. |
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Sarum was abandoned in the 13th Century and the nearby city of Salisbury was
developed in its stead.
The once fine buildings were left to decay in the hilltop fortress, but some walls remain,
enabling us to form an accurate picture of how the fortress might have looked in its heyday.
In only one or two places are facing stones left. Elsewhere the walls are the rough undressed
stone and mortar, giving a somewhat false picture of how the buildings would have looked. |
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In only one or two places are facing stones left. Elsewhere the walls are the rough undressed
stone and mortar, giving a somewhat false picture of how the buildings would have looked.
It is extremely rare (if not unknown) for any monument, castle or ruin to be restored in
England. Policy seems to dictate that decay is arrested or retarded and any ground is grassed,
regardless of whether the appearance of the structure is known or whether the ground was
originally paved. |
| I remember as a child wondering how the grass could have grown inside a cathedral, and I remain unconvinced that the present policy is the correct one. Would you, for instance, wish to visit a railway or motor car museum only to look at piles
of rust?
Right: the foundations of Sarum's cathedral seen from the perimeter wall of the inner
sanctum. |
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