114-656: Old Sarum , in Wiltshire , South West England , is the ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury . Situated on a hill about two miles (three kilometres) north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road , the settlement appears in some of the earliest records in the country. It is an English Heritage property and is open to the public. The great stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury were erected nearby and indications of prehistoric settlement have been discovered from as early as 3000 BC. An Iron Age hillfort
228-486: A castro is a fortified pre- Roman Iron Age village, usually located on a hill or some naturally easy defendable place. The larger hillforts are also called citanias , cividades or cidás (English: cities ). They were located on hilltops, which allowed tactical control over the surrounding countryside and provided natural defences. They usually had access to a spring or small creek to provide water; some even had large reservoirs to use during sieges . Typically,
342-586: A ghost word or corruption of the medieval Latin and Norman forms of the name Salisbury, such as the Sarisburie that appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086. (These were adaptions of the earlier names Searoburh, Searobyrig, and Searesbyrig, calques of the indigenous Brittonic name with the Old English suffixes - burh and - byrig , denoting fortresses or their adjacent settlements.) The longer name
456-566: A great cathedral . A royal palace was built within Old Sarum Castle for King Henry I and was subsequently used by Plantagenet monarchs. This heyday of the settlement lasted for around 300 years until disputes between the Sheriff of Wiltshire and the Bishop of Salisbury finally led to the removal of the church into the nearby plain . As New Salisbury grew up around the construction site for
570-453: A castro had one to five stone and earth walls, which complemented the natural defences of the hill. The buildings inside, most of them circular in shape, some rectangular, were about 3.5–15 m (11–49 ft) long; they were made out of stone with thatch roofs resting on a wood column in the centre of the building. In the major oppida there were regular streets, suggesting some form of central organization. Castros vary in area from less than
684-652: A centre at Corsham Court in Corsham , and Oxford Brookes University maintains a minor campus in Swindon (almost 50 km from Oxford). Swindon is the UK's second largest centre of population (after Milton Keynes ) without its own university. Service Children's Education has its headquarters in Trenchard Lines in Upavon , Wiltshire. The county registered a population of 680,137 in
798-447: A common list of castles, fortresses, forts, an hillforts. The Latvian word for hillfort is pilskalns (plural: pilskalni ), from pils (castle) and kalns (hill). Hillforts in Latvia offered not only military and administrative functions but they were also cultural and economic centres of some regions. Latvian hillforts generally were a part of a complex consisting of
912-646: A foe of Caesar 's, his sons submitted to Augustus as client kings . Their realm became known as the Regni and the overthrow of one of them, Verica , was the casus belli used to justify the Emperor Claudius 's invasion. The settlement appeared in the Welsh Chronicle of the Britons as Caer -Caradog or Gradawc ( Old Welsh : kaer gradaỽc ) and as Caer-Wallawg. Bishop Ussher argued for its identification with
1026-461: A golden great bustard , which had been extinct in England since 1832 but is now the subject of a breeding programme on Salisbury Plain . It is surrounded by a green and white circle, representing the stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury and also the six surrounding counties. The field consists of alternating green and white stripes, which reference the banner of arms of the council but also represent
1140-889: A hectare to some 50 hectare ones, and most were abandoned after the Roman conquest of the territory. Many castros were already established during the Atlantic Bronze Age period, pre-dating the Hallstatt culture . Many of the megaliths from the Bronze Age such as menhirs and dolmens , which are frequently located near the castros, also pre-date the Celts in Portugal, Asturias and Galicia as well as in Atlantic France, Britain and Ireland. These megaliths were probably reused in syncretic rituals by
1254-727: A league record points tally of 103. After Salisbury City went into liquidation in 2014, a new club, Salisbury , was formed in 2015 and will play in the National League South for the 24/25 season. Wiltshire County Cricket Club play in the Minor Counties league. Swindon Robins Speedway team, who competed in the top national division, the SGB Premiership , had been at their track at the Blunsdon Abbey Stadium near Swindon since 1949. In 2020 they stopped racing due to
SECTION 10
#17328451083941368-498: A military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and consequent pressure on agriculture. The dominant view, since the 1960s, has been that the increasing use of iron led to social changes in Britain. Deposits of iron ore were located in different places to the tin and copper ore necessary to make bronze and, as a result, trading patterns shifted and the old elites lost their economic and social status. Power passed into
1482-433: A proportion is caused orographically (uplift over hills). Autumn and winter are rainiest, caused by Atlantic depressions, which are then most active. Even so, any month can be the wettest or driest in a given year but the wettest is much more likely to be Oct-Mar, and the driest Apr-Sept. In summer, a greater proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. It
1596-449: A range of purposes and were variously tribal centres, defended places, foci of ritual activity, and places of production. Hillforts were frequently occupied by conquering armies, but on other occasions the forts were destroyed, the local people forcibly evicted, and the forts left derelict. For example, Solsbury Hill was sacked and deserted during the Belgic invasions of southern Britain in
1710-917: A refuge against attacking enemies. Ijang were first described by the English freebooter Captain William Dampier when he visited the island of Ivuhos in 1687. During the Spanish colonial era , ijang were abandoned during the Reducciones as the Ivatan population were moved into centralized towns in the lowlands. Among the Māori people , villages called pā were often built on raised ground, like volcanic hills, headlands, and small islands (including artificial islands ). The slopes were terraced into defensive ramparts that were usually further protected by palisades . Traditional pā took
1824-521: A result of elections held in 2021, Wiltshire Council comprises 61 Conservatives , 27 Liberal Democrats , seven Independents and three Labour members. Swindon Borough Council has 34 Conservative councillors and 23 Labour members. Until the 2009 structural changes to local government , Wiltshire (apart from Swindon) was a two-level county, divided into four local government districts – Kennet , North Wiltshire , Salisbury and West Wiltshire – which existed alongside Wiltshire County Council , covering
1938-473: A stone wall or earthen rampart or both. These would have been important tribal centres where the chief or king of the area would live with his extended family and support themselves by farming and renting cattle to their underlings. There are around 40 known hillforts in Ireland. About 12 are multivallate as distinguished by multiple ramparts, or a large counterscarp (outer bank). The imposing example at Mooghaun
2052-437: A village pond. When confronted by the excise men they raked the surface to conceal the submerged contraband with ripples, and claimed that they were trying to rake in a large round cheese visible in the pond, really a reflection of the full moon. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, allowing them to continue with their illegal activities. Many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but
2166-905: Is linnamägi (plural linnamäed ), meaning hillfort or hillburgh . There are several hundred hillforts or presumed ancient hillfort sites all over Estonia. Some of them, like Toompea in Tallinn or Toomemägi in Tartu, are governance centres used since ancient times up until today. Some others, like Varbola are historical sites nowadays. Most likely the Estonian hillforts were in pre-Christian times administrative, economic and military centres of Estonian tribes . Although some of them were probably used only during times of crisis and stood empty in peacetime (for example Soontagana in Koonga parish, Pärnu county ). List of Estonian fortresses [ et ] contains
2280-446: Is a type of fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late European Bronze Age and Iron Age . Some were used in the post- Roman period. The fortification usually follows the contours of a hill and consists of one or more lines of earthworks or stone ramparts , with stockades or defensive walls , and external ditches. If enemies were approaching,
2394-554: Is also home to a University Technical College , UTC Swindon , specialising in engineering. A second UTC, South Wiltshire UTC , was based in Salisbury but closed in August 2020. Wiltshire is one of the few remaining English counties without a university or university college; the closest university to the county town of Trowbridge is the University of Bath . However, Bath Spa University has
SECTION 20
#17328451083942508-422: Is broadly oval shaped, measuring 400 m (1,300 ft) in length and 360 m (1,180 ft) in width. It consists of a double bank and intermediate ditch with an entrance on the eastern side. Numerous other hillforts of the same period can be found locally, including Figsbury Ring to the east and Vespasian's Camp to the north. The archaeologist Sir R. C. Hoare described it as "a city of high note in
2622-402: Is defended by multiple stone walls. One must be careful to not confuse a hill-fort with a ' ringfort '—a medieval settlement—a common archaeological feature across the whole island of Ireland, of which over 40,000 examples are known; one source claims there may be 10,000 undiscovered ringforts. In Galicia , Asturias , Cantabria , Basque Country , province of Ávila and Northern Portugal
2736-403: Is distinctive in having a significantly higher number of people in various forms of manufacturing (especially electrical equipment and apparatus, food products, and beverages, furniture, rubber, pharmaceuticals , and plastic goods) than the national average. In addition, there is higher-than-average employment in public administration and defence , due to the military establishments around
2850-493: Is frequent. In the summer the Azores high pressure affects south-west England; however, convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours. In December 1998, there were 20 days without sun recorded at Yeovilton (Somerset). Most of the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by convection , though
2964-532: Is often the northern half of the county that sees most of the showers with south-westerly winds in summer, whereas in the south of the county, the proximity of a relatively cold English Channel often inhibits showers. In autumn and winter, however, the sea is often relatively warm, compared with the air passing over it and can often lead to a higher rainfall in the south of the county (e.g. Salisbury recorded over 200mm of rain in Nov 2009 and January 2014). Average rainfall for
3078-721: Is represented in the Football League by Swindon Town , who play at the County Ground stadium near Swindon town centre. They joined the Football League on the creation of the Third Division in 1920, and have remained in the league ever since. Their most notable achievements include winning the Football League Cup in 1969 and the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1970, two successive promotions in 1986 and 1987 (taking them from
3192-478: Is the largest amongst forts reoccupied following the end of Roman rule , to defend against pirate raids, and the Anglo-Saxon invasions. The cemetery outside Poundbury Hill contains east-facing Christian burials of the 4th century CE. In Wales, the hillfort at Dinas Powys was a late Iron Age hillfort reoccupied from the 5th-6th centuries CE; similarly at Castell Dinas Brân a hillfort of c. 600 BCE
3306-561: The " Cair Caratauc" listed among the 28 cities of Britain by the History of the Britons traditionally ascribed to Nennius . Cynric , king of Wessex , captured the hill in 552. It remained part of Wessex thereafter but, preferring settlements in bottomland like nearby Wilton , the Saxons largely ignored Old Sarum until the Viking invasions led King Alfred to restore its fortifications. In
3420-408: The 2011 Census . Wiltshire (outside Swindon) has a low population density of 1.4 persons per hectare, when compared against 4.1 for England as a whole. Historical population of Wiltshire county: At the 2016 European Union membership referendum , Wiltshire voted in favour of Brexit . Wiltshire is represented by eight Parliamentary constituencies . Seven are entirely within the county, while
3534-682: The Boer War , World War I and World War II. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry lives on as Y (RWY) Squadron, based in Swindon, and B (RWY) Squadron, based in Salisbury, of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry . Around 1800, the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway . Information on
Old Sarum - Misplaced Pages Continue
3648-606: The Bronze Age in the 1st millennium BC. The earliest examples in present-day Lithuania are found in the east of the country. Most of these forts were built or expanded between the fifth and fifteenth centuries, when they were used in the Dukes' Wars, and against the invasion of Teutonic Knights from the west. Most forts were located on the banks of a river, or a confluence where two rivers met. These fortifications were typically wooden, although some had additional stone or brick walls. The hill
3762-704: The Dorset Downs in the west to Dover in the east. The largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain , which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill – Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale , just to the north of Salisbury Plain, at 295 m (968 ft) above sea level. The chalk uplands run north-east into West Berkshire in
3876-838: The Fourth Division to the Second ), promotion to the Premier League as Division One play-off winners in 1993 (as inaugural members), the Division Two title in 1996, and their promotion to League One in 2007 after finishing third in League Two . Chippenham Town is the area's highest-ranked non-league football club; they currently play in the National League South after winning the Southern Premier League in 2016/17, with
3990-658: The Gazette and Herald and Wiltshire Times . Places of interest in Wiltshire include: Areas of countryside in Wiltshire include: Roads running through Wiltshire include The Ridgeway , an ancient route, and Roman roads the Fosse Way , London to Bath road and Ermin Way . National Cycle Route 4 and the Thames Path , a modern long distance footpath , run through the county. Routes through Wiltshire include: Hill fort A hillfort
4104-674: The Hill Forts of Rajasthan . In the Philippines , the Ivatan people of the Batanes Islands built ijang —fortified villages on top of natural hills and raised landforms near the coastlines. These were terraced into defensive ramparts with limited access points. Artifacts recovered from an ijang on the town of Savidug in Sabtang has been dated to around 1200 CE. These high rocky formations served as
4218-598: The Marlborough Downs ridge, and south-west into Dorset as Cranborne Chase . Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age and Bronze Age archaeology . The Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), a 1,730 km (670-square-mile) conservation area. In the north-west of the county, on the border with South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset ,
4332-874: The Neman River (against the Teutonic Order) and another along the border with Livonia . Two other lines started to form, but did not fully develop. One was to protect Vilnius , the capital, and the other line in Samogitia , was a major target for both orders. This territory separated the two Orders and prevented joint action between them and Pagan Lithuania. As of 2017 , according to the Atlas of Lithuanian Hillforts , there were 921 objects in Lithuania identified as piliakalniai . Most piliakalniai are located near rivers and are endangered by erosion: many have partly collapsed as
4446-709: The South Cotswolds constituency extends into southern parts of Gloucestershire. At the 2024 general election , the Conservatives won three seats ( East Wiltshire , Salisbury , and South West Wiltshire ); Labour two ( Swindon North and Swindon South ); and the Liberal Democrats three ( Chippenham , Melksham and Devizes , and South Cotswolds). The ceremonial county of Wiltshire consists of two unitary authority areas, Wiltshire and Swindon, governed respectively by Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council . As
4560-517: The Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles , which together are a UNESCO World Heritage Site , and other ancient landmarks. Much of the plain is a training area for the British Army . The city of Salisbury is notable for its medieval cathedral . Large country houses open to the public include Longleat , where there is also a safari park , and the National Trust 's Stourhead . The county, in
4674-426: The new cathedral in the early 13th century, the buildings of Old Sarum were dismantled for stone and the old town dwindled. Its long-neglected castle was abandoned by Edward II in 1322 and sold by Henry VIII in 1514. Edward Rutherfurd 's 1987 novel Sarum traces the history of the town. Although the settlement was effectively uninhabited, its landowners continued to have parliamentary representation into
Old Sarum - Misplaced Pages Continue
4788-500: The " M4 corridor effect", which attracts business, and the attractiveness of its countryside, towns and villages. The northern part of the county is richer than the southern part, particularly since Swindon is home to national and international corporations such as Intel , Motorola , Patheon , Catalent (formerly known as Cardinal Health ), Becton-Dickinson , WHSmith , Early Learning Centre and Nationwide , with Dyson located in nearby Malmesbury . Wiltshire's employment structure
4902-401: The 1190s, the plain between Old Sarum and Wilton was one of five specially designated by Richard I for the holding of English tournaments . An early 12th-century observer, William of Malmesbury , called Sarum a town "more like a castle than city, being environed with a high wall", and noted that "notwithstanding that it was very well accommodated with all other conveniences, yet such was
5016-469: The 14th century shows some continued habitation, but the settlement was largely abandoned and Edward II ordered the castle's demolition in 1322. The castle grounds were sold by Henry VIII in 1514. From the reign of Edward II in the 14th century, the borough of Old Sarum elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons despite having, from at least the 17th century, no resident voters. One of
5130-611: The 17th century, English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian . The Battle of Roundway Down , a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes . In 1794, it was decided at a meeting at the Bear Inn in Devizes to raise a body of ten independent troops of Yeomanry for the county of Wiltshire, which formed the basis for what would become the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry , who served with distinction both at home and abroad, during
5244-406: The 19th century, making it one of the most notorious of the rotten boroughs that existed before the Reform Act of 1832 . Old Sarum served as a pocket borough of the Pitt family . Old Sarum is also the name of a modern settlement north-east of the monument, where there is a grass strip airfield and a small business park, and large 21st-century housing developments. The present name seems to be
5358-436: The 1st century BC. Abandoned forts were sometimes reoccupied and refortified under renewed threat of foreign invasion, such as the Dukes' Wars in Lithuania , and the successive invasions of Britain by Romans , Saxons and Vikings . Celtic hillforts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC , and were used in many Celtic areas of central and western Europe until
5472-414: The 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available at Wiltshire Council's Wiltshire Community History website which has maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is " Moonrakers ". This originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in
5586-430: The 5th–8th centuries AD, when many new hillforts appeared, in most cases, along the main trades routes—rivers. During the 10th–11th centuries, some of the hillforts became military fortresses with strong fortifications (like hillforts in Tērvete , Talsi , Mežotne ). Some of them are considered important political centres of the local peoples, who in this period were subjects of serious social political changes. That period
5700-424: The 9th century written as Wiltunscir , is named after the former county town of Wilton . Wiltshire is notable for its pre- Roman archaeology . The Mesolithic , Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK. In the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire
5814-431: The Celtic Druids . The Celtiberian people occupied an inland region in central northern Spain, straddling the upper valleys of the Ebro , Douro and Tajo . They built hillforts, fortified hilltop towns and oppida , including Numantia . During the period of Late Antiquity or Migration Period a large number of hilltop settlements were established both on the Roman imperial territory and on Germanic soil. However,
SECTION 50
#17328451083945928-405: The Covid-19 Pandemic and subsequently announced in 2022 that they would not be returning. Swindon Wildcats compete in the English Premier Ice Hockey League , the second tier of British ice hockey, and play their home games at Swindon's Link Centre . A flag to represent Wiltshire, the "Bustard Flag", was approved by a full meeting of Wiltshire Council on 1 December 2009. It depicts in the centre
6042-447: The Finnish hillforts that while most of them are located these days within some distance from the sea, but earlier many of the forts were located by the sea, due to post-glacial rebound . Finland has around 100 hillforts verified by excavations, and about 200 more suspected sites. The largest hillfort in Finland is the Rapola Castle , other notable are the Old Castle of Lieto and the Sulkava hillfort. The Estonian word for hillfort
6156-444: The Iron Age were small, with perhaps no more than 50 inhabitants. Hillforts were the exception, and were the home of up to 1,000 people. With the emergence of oppida in the Late Iron Age, settlements could reach as large as 10,000 inhabitants. As the population increased so did the complexity of prehistoric societies. Around 1100 BC hillforts emerged and in the following centuries spread through Europe. They served
6270-440: The Iron Age were sometimes used for corralling animals in later periods. For example, see Coney's Castle , Dolebury Warren and Pilsdon Pen . However, it is difficult to prove that people definitely did not dwell there, as lack of evidence is not proof of absence. Bronze Age and Iron Age hillforts are widely found in Ireland. They are large circular structures between 1 and 40 acres (most commonly 5–10 acres) in size, enclosed by
6384-443: The Iron Age which may have had several functions. They are usually located on the crests of hills and mountains making use of precipices and marshes which worked as natural defences. The crests' more accessible parts were defended with walls of stone and outer walls in the slopes beneath are common. Round and closed, so-called ring forts are common even on flat ground. The walls often have remaining parts of stone, which were probably
6498-438: The Roman conquest. They are most common during later periods: The Hallstatt culture and La Tène culture originated in what is now southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The predominant form of rampart construction was pfostenschlitzmauer , or Kelheim-style . During the Hallstatt C period, hillforts became the dominant settlement type in the west of Hungary. Julius Caesar described
6612-823: The UK average in 1998, and was only marginally above the rate for South West England. Wiltshire has 30 county secondary schools, publicly funded, of which the largest is Warminster Kingdown , and eleven private secondaries, including Marlborough College , St Mary's Calne , Dauntsey's near Devizes , and Warminster School . The county schools are nearly all comprehensives , with the older pattern of education surviving only in Salisbury , which has two grammar schools ( South Wilts Grammar School and Bishop Wordsworth's School ) and three non-selective schools. There are four further education colleges, which also provide some higher education: New College (Swindon); Wiltshire College (Chippenham, Trowbridge and Salisbury); Salisbury Sixth Form College ; and Swindon College . Wiltshire
6726-446: The airfield is still operational, but only by prior arrangement. Around 800 homes were built on the north side of the Portway between 2008 and 2016, and this area (which includes Old Sarum Primary School) is also called Old Sarum. From 2018, further housing called Longhedge Village, around 750 homes accessed from the A345 , was built immediately north of the earlier development. These areas all fall within Laverstock civil parish, while
6840-440: The cathedral on 29 March 1217 or 1218. The chapter voted unanimously for the move and agreed to pay for it by withholding various portions of their prebends over the next seven years. On Easter Monday , 1219, a wooden chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary was begun near the banks of the Hampshire Avon ; on Trinity Sunday , Bishop Poore celebrated mass there and consecrated a cemetery . On St Vitalis 's Day, April 28, 1220,
6954-417: The cathedral's length and involved the large-scale levelling of the ecclesiastical district in the northwest quadrant of the town. He began work on a royal palace during the 1130s, prior to his arrest by Henry's successor Stephen . This palace was long thought to have been the small structure whose ruins are located in the small central bailey; it may, however, have been the large palace recently discovered in
SECTION 60
#17328451083947068-705: The chalk and grass of the county's downlands. The white can also represent peace, and the green joy, hope or safety. The flag has been registered in the flag registry of the vexillological charity the Flag Institute . Wiltshire has twenty-one towns and one city : A list of settlements is at List of places in Wiltshire . Local TV coverage is covered by BBC West and ITV West Country ; however, Swindon and Salisbury receive BBC South and ITV Meridian . The county's local radio stations are BBC Radio Wiltshire , Heart West , Greatest Hits Radio South West and Greatest Hits Radio South (covering Salisbury and surrounding areas). County-wide local newspapers are
7182-416: The chalk into Greensand and Oxford Clay in the centre of the county. In the south west of the county is the Vale of Wardour . The south-east of the county lies on the sandy soils of the northernmost area of the New Forest . Chalk is a porous rock, so the chalk hills have little surface water. The main settlements in the county are therefore situated at wet points. Notably, Salisbury is situated between
7296-433: The chalk of Salisbury Plain and marshy flood plains. The county has a green belt mainly along its western fringes as a part of the extensive Avon Green Belt . It reaches as far as the outskirts of Rudloe/ Corsham and Trowbridge, preventing urban sprawl particularly from the latter in the direction of Bradford-on-Avon , and affording further protection to surrounding villages and towns from Bath in Somerset. Along with
7410-408: The civilians would spot them from a distance. Prehistoric Europe saw a growing population. It has been estimated that in about 5000 BC during the Neolithic between 2 million and 5 million lived in Europe; in the Late Iron Age it had an estimated population of around 15 to 30 million. Outside Greece and Italy , which were more densely populated, the vast majority of settlements in
7524-421: The construction of the first Salisbury cathedral but neither lived to see its completion in 1092. Osmund was a cousin of William the Conqueror and Lord Chancellor of England ; he was responsible for the codification of the Sarum Rite , the compilation of the Domesday Book , and—after centuries of advocacy from Salisbury's bishops—was finally canonized by Pope Callixtus III in 1457. The Domesday Book
7638-506: The county is around 800 mm (31 in), drier parts averaging 700mm (28ins)and the wettest 900mm (around 35ins). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August have the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west. This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added (GVA) of Wiltshire at current basic prices with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. The Wiltshire economy benefits from
7752-579: The county, particularly around Amesbury and Corsham . There are sizeable British Army barracks at Tidworth , Bulford and Warminster , and the Royal School of Artillery is at Larkhill. Further north, RAF Lyneham was home to the RAF's Hercules C130 fleet until 2011; the MoD Lyneham site is now a centre for Army technical training. Wiltshire is also distinctive for the high proportion of its working-age population who are economically active (86.6% in 1999–2000) and its low unemployment rates . The gross domestic product (GDP) level in Wiltshire did not reach
7866-458: The county. The south-west is also downland, and contains the West Wiltshire Downs , the Vale of Wardour to their south, and part of Cranborne Chase in the far south of the county. The north-west of Wiltshire is part of the Cotswolds , a limestone area. The county's two major rivers are both called the Avon; the northern Avon enters the county in the north-west and flows in a south-westerly direction before leaving it near Bradford-on-Avon , and
7980-419: The early part of the 9th century, it was a frequent residence of Egbert of Wessex and, in 960, King Edgar assembled a national council there to plan a defence against the Danes in the north . Along with Wilton , it was abandoned by its residents to be sacked and burned by the Dano - Norwegian king Sweyn Forkbeard in 1003. It subsequently became the site of Wilton 's mint . A motte-and-bailey castle
8094-407: The eastern area of the outer bailey. In 1917, during World War I , farmland about 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of Old Sarum, along the Portway , was developed as the 'Ford Farm' aerodrome . That became Old Sarum Airfield , which remained in operation with a single grass runway until at least 2019 with a small business park which developed along the north edge of the airfield. As of January 2023
8208-701: The element sten / stein were usually hillforts. In Sweden, there are 1,100 known hillforts with a strong concentration on the northern west coast and in eastern Svealand . In Södermanland there are 300, in Uppland 150, Östergötland 130, and 90 to 100 in each of Bohuslän and Gotland . Norway has about 400 hillforts. Denmark has 26 hillforts. The Finnish word for hillfort is linnavuori (plural linnavuoret ), meaning fort hill or castle hill , or alternatively muinaislinna meaning ancient fort , as opposed to bare linna which refers to medieval or later fortifications. One special feature about
8322-583: The excavator to implicate the Cadbury population in a revolt in the 70's AD (roughly contemporary with that of Boudicca in the East of England), although this has been questioned by subsequent researchers. However, the presence of barracks on the hilltop in the decades following the conquest suggest an ongoing struggle to suppress local dissent. Maiden Castle in Dorset is the largest hillfort in England. Where Roman influence
8436-400: The flooded river has washed out the base of the hill. Now around 80 percent of piliakalniai are covered by forests and are hardly accessible to visitors. In Russia , Belarus and Poland Iron Age and Early Medieval hillforts are called gords . They were the residence of local rulers, and provided for refuge in times of war. Similar structures can be found elsewhere in the world, such as
8550-408: The foundation of the future stone cathedral was begun. The settlement that grew up around it was called New Salisbury, then (at least formally) New Sarum, then finally Salisbury . The former cathedral was formally dissolved in 1226. The inhabitants of the new city gradually razed the old, constructing Salisbury Cathedral and other buildings from the materials at Old Sarum. Evidence of quarrying into
8664-428: The garrison troops. Bishop Herbert received permission for the move from Richard I , who was agreeably disposed towards the diocese after discovering it held £ 90 000 in coin in trust for his father, in addition to jewels, vestments, and plate , but was forced to delay the change after John's succession. By papal order, Herbert's brother Richard Poore was translated from Chichester to succeed him in 1217;
8778-511: The hands of a new group of people. Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe believes that population increase still played a role and has stated "[the forts] provided defensive possibilities for the community at those times when the stress [of an increasing population] burst out into open warfare. But I wouldn't see them as having been built because there was a state of war. They would be functional as defensive strongholds when there were tensions and undoubtedly some of them were attacked and destroyed, but this
8892-471: The king's behalf; it was thereafter allowed to fall into disrepair but the sheriff and castellan continued to administer the area under the king's authority. Medieval Sarum also seems to have had industrial facilities such as kilns and furnaces. Residential areas were principally located in the two southern quadrants, built up beside the ditch protecting the inner bailey and Norman castle. Henry II held his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine , prisoner at Old Sarum. In
9006-507: The large late Iron Age hillforts he encountered during his campaigns in Gaul as oppida . By this time the larger ones had become more like cities than fortresses and many were assimilated as Roman towns. The reason for the emergence of hillforts in Britain, and their purpose, has been a subject of debate. It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe, sites built by invaders, or
9120-582: The main fortress, the settlement around it, one or more burial fields and nearby ritual sites. The first hillforts in Latvia, such as Daugmale hillfort, appeared during the Bronze Age . Some were continuously inhabited until the late Iron Age . During the Roman Iron Age, some of the Latvian hillforts (like Ķivutkalns ) were abandoned or became sparsely populated. A new period in hillfort development started during
9234-505: The members in the 18th century was William Pitt the Elder . In 1831, Old Sarum had eleven voters, all of whom were landowners who lived elsewhere, making Old Sarum the most notorious of the rotten boroughs . The 1832 Reform Act subsumed the Old Sarum area into an enlarged borough of Wilton . The fortified site was an extra-parochial area and became a civil parish in 1858, but the civil parish
9348-525: The monument itself – separated from modern development by about 0.6 miles (1 km) of farmland – is within the Salisbury City area. Wiltshire Wiltshire ( / ˈ w ɪ l t . ʃ ər , - ʃ ɪr / ; abbreviated to Wilts ) is a ceremonial county in South West England . It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to
9462-451: The name distinguished it from Sarum or New Sarum , names used in some contexts for the newer settlement. There is evidence that early hunters and, later, farming communities occupied the site. A protective hill fort , named Sorviodunum , was constructed by the local inhabitants around 400 BC during the Iron Age by creating enormous banks and ditches surrounding the hill. The hillfort
9576-404: The next year, Sarum's dean and chapter presented arguments to Rome for the cathedral's relocation. The investigation of these claims by the papal legate Cardinal Gualo verified the chapter's claims that the site's water was both expensive and sometimes restricted by the castellans; that housing within the walls was insufficient for the clerics, who were required to rent from the laity; that
9690-495: The outer bailey. It was also listed as a Grade I site in 1972. Between 1909 and 1915, W.H. St J. Hope , W. Hawley , and D.H. Montgomerie excavated the site for the Society of Antiquaries of London . A second excavation occurred in the 1950s under John W. G. Musty and Philip Rahtz . In 2014, an on-site geophysical survey of the inner and outer bailey by the University of Southampton revealed its royal palace, as well as
9804-564: The possession of the crown and the church. At the time of the Domesday Survey , the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural; 390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the succeeding centuries sheep-farming was vigorously pursued, and the Cistercian monastery of Stanley exported wool to the Florentine and Flemish markets in the 13th and 14th centuries. In
9918-409: The prime reason to relocate the cathedral but seems to have only been part of the issue. The late 12th-century canon Peter of Blois described his prebendary as "barren, dry, and solitary, exposed to the rage of the wind" and the cathedral "as a captive on the hill where it was built, like the ark of God shut up in the profane house of Baal ." Holinshed records that the clerics brawled openly with
10032-518: The remotest periods by the several barrows near it, and its proximity to the two largest stone circles in England, namely, Stonehenge and Avebury ." At the time of the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, the area of Old Sarum seems to have formed part of the territory of the Atrebates , a British tribe apparently ruled by Gaulish exiles. Although the dynasty's founder Commius had become
10146-590: The rest of South West England , Wiltshire has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than counties further east. The annual mean temperature is approximately 10 °C (50.0 °F). Although there is a marked maritime influence, this is generally rather less pronounced than it is for other south-western counties, which are closer to the sea. July and August are the warmest months with mean daily maxima of approximately 22 °C (71.6 °F). In winter mean minimum temperatures of 1 °C (33.8 °F) or 2 °C (35.6 °F) are usual and air frost
10260-459: The same area and carrying out more strategic tasks, such as education and county roads. However, on 1 April 2009 these five local authorities were merged into a single unitary authority called Wiltshire Council. With the abolition of the District of Salisbury, a new Salisbury City Council was created at the same time to carry out several citywide functions and to hold the city's charter. The county
10374-407: The south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to the west. The largest settlement is Swindon , and Trowbridge is the county town . The county has an area of 3,485 km (1,346 square miles) and a population of 720,060. The county is mostly rural, and the centre and south-west are sparsely populated. After Swindon (183,638), the largest settlements are the city of Salisbury (41,820) and
10488-404: The southeast quadrant of the outer bailey. This palace was 170 m × 65 m (560 ft × 210 ft), surrounded a large central courtyard, and had walls up to 3 m (10 ft) thick. A 60-metre-long (200 ft) room was probably a great hall and there seems to have been a large tower. At the time of Roger's arrest by King Stephen , the bishop administered the castle on
10602-622: The southern Avon rises on Salisbury Plain and flows through Salisbury, then into Hampshire. The far south-east contains part of the New Forest . Much of the county is protected: the Marlborough Downs; West Wiltshire Downs, Vale of Wardour, and Cranbourne Chase; and the Cotswolds are all part of designated national landscapes , and the New Forest is a national park . Salisbury Plain is noted for
10716-503: The story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes . Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a mostly rural county, lies on chalk , a kind of soft, white, porous limestone that is resistant to erosion, giving it a high chalk downland landscape. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and stretching from
10830-536: The street plan of the medieval city. The survey made use of soil resistivity to electric current , electrical resistivity tomography , magnetometry , and ground-penetrating radar . The team planned to return in 2015 to complete a similar survey of the Romano-British site to the south of the hillfort. The Old Sarum monument is now administered by English Heritage , and non-members are charged for admission. A paved carpark and grass overflow carpark are provided in
10944-489: The support of pales. They often have well delineated gateways, the gates of which were probably of wood. Hillforts with strong walls are often located beside old trade routes and have an offensive character, whereas others are reclusive and were weakly fortified, probably only for hiding during raids. Many forts, located centrally in densely populated areas, were permanently settled strongholds and can show traces of settlements both inside and outside. Older place names containing
11058-732: The term embraces a wide range of very different settlements in high locations. At least a few of the Germanic settlements were protected by fortifications. Unlike the Romans, however, the Germanii did not use mortar at that time for their construction. Among the best known hill settlements in Germany are the Runder Berg near Bad Urach and the Gelbe Bürg near Dittenheim. In Sweden, hillforts are fortifications from
11172-513: The towns of Chippenham (37,548) and Trowbridge (37,169). For local government purposes the county comprises two unitary authority areas, Swindon and Wiltshire . Undulating chalk downlands characterize much of the county. In the east are Marlborough Downs , which contain Savernake Forest . To the south is the Vale of Pewsey , which separates the downs from Salisbury Plain in the centre of
11286-620: The underlying rock is the resistant oolite limestone of the Cotswolds . Part of the Cotswolds AONB is also in Wiltshire, in the county's north-western corner. Between the areas of chalk and limestone downland are clay valleys and vales . The largest of these vales is the Avon Vale . The Avon cuts diagonally through the north of the county, flowing through Bradford-on-Avon and into Bath and Bristol . The Vale of Pewsey has been cut through
11400-473: The want for water that it sold at a great rate". Holinshed denied this and noted that the hill was "very plentifully served with springs and wells of very sweet water"; excavation has discovered numerous wells (including one within the Norman keep) but suggests that they were so deep as to make their use more cumbersome than carting water uphill from the rivers. The issue was presented to kings Richard and John as
11514-463: The wind was sometimes so strong that divine offices could not be heard and the roof was repeatedly damaged; and that the soldiers of the royal fortress restricted access to the cathedral precinct to the common folk during Ash Wednesday and on other occasions for providing the Eucharist and the clerics felt imperilled by their circumstances. Pope Honorius III thereupon issued an indulgence to relocate
11628-432: Was consecrated on 5 April 1092 but suffered extensive damage in a storm, traditionally said to have occurred only five days later. Bishop Roger was a close ally of Henry I who served as his viceroy during the king's absence to Normandy and directed the royal administration and exchequer along with his extended family. He refurbished and expanded Old Sarum's cathedral in the 1110s. This work ultimately doubled
11742-969: Was a new linear earthwork connected to the existing hillfort at Maes Knoll , which defined the Celtic-Saxon border in south-west England during the period 577–652 CE. Some hillforts were re-occupied by the Anglo-Saxons during the period of Viking raids. King Alfred established a network of coastal hillforts and lookout posts in Wessex , linked by a Herepath , or military road, which enabled his armies to cover Viking movements at sea. For example, see Daw's Castle and Battle of Cynwit . It has been suggested on reasonable evidence that many so-called hillforts were just used to pen in cattle, horses, or other domesticated animals. The large sprawling examples at Bindon Hill and Bathampton Down are more than 50 acres (20 ha ). Even those that were defensive settlements in
11856-522: Was abolished in 1894 and merged with Stratford sub Castle . In 1891 the parish had a population of 13. The site and surrounding area is now the northernmost part of Salisbury civil parish. The site of the castle and cathedral is considered a highly important British monument: it was among the 26 English locations scheduled by the 1882 Ancient Monuments Protection Act , the first such British legislation. That protection has subsequently continued, expanding to include some suburban areas west and south-east of
11970-567: Was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin , a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga , and King Wulfhere of Mercia . In 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest in 1066, large areas of the country came into
12084-570: Was built by 1069, three years after the Norman conquest . The castle was held directly by the Norman kings; its castellan was generally also the sheriff of Wiltshire . In 1075, the Council of London established Herman as the first bishop of Salisbury ( Seriberiensis episcopus ), uniting his former sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury into a single diocese which covered the counties of Dorset , Wiltshire , and Berkshire . He and Saint Osmund began
12198-512: Was erected around 400 BC, controlling the intersection of two trade paths and the Hampshire Avon . The site continued to be occupied during the Roman period , when the paths were made into roads . The Saxons took the British fort in the 6th century and later used it as a stronghold against marauding Vikings . The Normans constructed a motte and bailey castle, a stone curtain wall, and
12312-526: Was first abbreviated as Sar̅ , but, as such a mark was used to contract the Latin suffix -um (common in placenames), the name was confused and became Sarum sometime around the 13th century. The earliest known use was on the seal of the St Nicholas hospital at New Salisbury , which was in use in 1239. The 14th-century Bishop Wyvil was the first to describe himself as episcopus Sarum . The addition of 'old' to
12426-557: Was known for unrest and military activities, as well as power struggles between local aristocracy. Most of the Latvian hillforts were destroyed or abandoned during the Livonian Crusade in the 13th century, but some were still used in the 14th century. In total, there are about 470 hillforts in Latvia. The Lithuanian word for hillfort is piliakalnis (plural piliakalniai ), from pilis (=castle) and kalnas (=mountain, hill). Lithuania has hillforts dating from
12540-497: Was less strong, such as uninvaded Ireland and unsubdued northern Scotland, hillforts were still built and used for several more centuries. There are over 2,000 Iron Age hillforts known in Britain of which nearly 600 are in Wales. Danebury in Hampshire , is the most thoroughly investigated Iron Age hillfort in Britain, as well as the most extensively published. Cadbury Castle, Somerset
12654-593: Was not the only, or even the most significant, factor in their construction". Hillforts in Britain are known from the Bronze Age , but the great period of hillfort construction was during the Celtic Iron Age, between 700 BC and the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. The Romans occupied some forts, such as the military garrison at Hod Hill , and the temple at Brean Down , but others were destroyed and abandoned. Partially articulated remains of between 28 and 40 men, women and children at Cadbury Castle were thought by
12768-571: Was probably presented to William I at Old Sarum in 1086, the same year he convened the prelates , nobles , sheriffs , and knights of his dominions there to pay him homage by the Oath of Salisbury . Two other national councils were held there: one by William Rufus in 1096 and another by Henry I in 1116, which has sometimes been described as the first English Parliament . William Rufus confirmed its bishop in various additional sources of income, which were later confirmed by Henry II . The cathedral
12882-497: Was reused in the Middle Ages, with a stone castle built there in the 13th century CE. Some Iron Age hillforts were also incorporated into medieval frontier earthworks. For example Offa's Dyke , a linear earthwork generally dated to the 9th century CE, makes use of the west and south-west ramparts of Llanymynech hillfort. Similarly the hillfort at Old Oswestry was incorporated into the early medieval Wat's Dyke . The Wansdyke
12996-553: Was usually sculpted for defensive purposes, with the top flattened and the natural slopes made steeper for defence. During the early years of Grand Duchy of Lithuania piliakalniai played a major role in conflicts with the Livonian Order and the Teutonic Knights . During this period the number of piliakalniai in use decreased, but those that remained had stronger fortifications. Two main defence lines developed: one along
#393606