Old Sarum, you mutter. What in the dickens is old Sarum? From Google Earth, I have borrowed a picture. Here it is below. Looks kinda...er...under developed? Or resting from too much development, I suppose.
What you are looking at is a classic motte and bailey site.
Briefly: the motte (not moat) is the flattened mound in the center of the ditch you see. The bailey is an enclosed courtyard, usually adjacent to a fort or a castle built on the motte.
The term motte and bailey was not used during medieval times. (It would be sort of like me calling the house I grew up in mid-century modern while I was growing up in it. "Yes, I'm going to clean that bathrooms in my mid-century modern home." Not happening so much.
Instead, I'm guessing that people back then said that they were going to market up in Sarum. "Going to sell my chickens in t'market today." The castle that was built by the Normans was used by Henry II Plantagenet and the Plantagenet kings. (Recall the Lion in Winter or Becket, both of which starred Peter O'Toole as King Henry II, but at different times in his life. Abstruse and totally inconsequential trivia that.) The Plantagenets ruled England from 1154 through 1485.
Sarum saw a number of different societies over the centuries. And the first Salisbury cathedral was built at Sarum. If you look at the picture, you can see the ruins of the foundation just off to the upper left away from the motte.
But archaeological explorations have revealed the presence of humans on this site since at least 3000 BCE. The Romans built a town here (mostly because they could, I'm sure...the Romans were rather fond of building things, and they did a great job of it.)
I'm not going to go on and on about the history of the area, mostly because (and this startles me every time) people are not all agog to hear every little detail. Sooo...let's just get moved from Old Sarum to New Sarum.
New Sarum is a couple of miles from Old Sarum and the cathedral at Salisbury just happens to be built on a large anomoly - a wide bed of naturally occuring gravel provides drainage in an otherwise clay-y location. In addition, it is the one place in what is now Salisbury where the supports needed to keep the cathedral intact could be sunk.
Of course, there is a legend about it. (Homework - go see if you can find the legend).
By hook or by crook, the new cathedral located in New Sarum (soon to be called Salisbury) was begun in 1220.
Remember, however, that building a cathedral required vast resources in terms of money, raw materials and manpower. So, even though the cathedral was dedicated in 1258, major sections of the church itself as well as the cloisters and close and its wall were built over the next 250 years. The fortunes of the cathedral reflected the fortunes of the times themselves, and major renovation has been done several times in the past as well as being on-going today.
So what's all the fuss about?
Hmmm
Here -
This is one facade of the cathedral - off to the left you can see the scaffolding enclosing part of the cathedral that's being cleaned and restored. The major entrance to the cathedral is off to my right.
I DID however take a lot of pictures of the statuary on this entrance. Statues have been set into their niches over the centuries. Another proof that the church is a living thing is the fact that there are empty niches waiting for someone else to occupy them.
The last picture is the outside view of a stained glass window...heh...nothing much to look at until you get inside.
Which (since it's going on midnight) we'll do tomorrow! I leave you with some pretty flowers that were at one of the altars.
This arrangement was extremely tall and wide. But it was also gorgeous. Can't help it - loves the flowers!
Hasta manana, amigos!
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