109-642: Martin Yeates (born 24 November 1953 in Salisbury , England) is a former motorcycle speedway rider from England. Yeates prominently rode for the Poole Pirates , Weymouth Wildcats and Oxford Cheetahs . In 1980 he signed for Weymouth from Poole for a National League record at the time of £7,000. In 1982, he won the National League Pairs , partnering Simon Wigg for Weymouth, during
218-556: A Novichok nerve agent. Salisbury is within the county of Wiltshire , and the administrative district of the same name. For local government purposes, it is administered by the Wiltshire Council unitary authority. Salisbury forms a civil parish with a parish council known as the Salisbury City Council . Since the local boundary review of 2020, two electoral wards – St Edmund and Harnham East – cover
327-430: A Scheduled Ancient Monument , as well as a World Heritage Site , in the latter capacity being seen as a part of the wider prehistoric landscape of Wiltshire known as Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites . About 480 people live in 235 homes in the village of Avebury and its associated settlement of Avebury Trusloe, and in the nearby hamlets of Beckhampton and West Kennett. At grid reference SU10266996 , Avebury
436-492: A grassland environment from damp, heavy soils and expanses of dense forest was mostly brought about by farmers, probably through the use of slash and burn techniques. Environmental factors may also have made a contribution. The long grassland area formed a dense vegetational mat which eventually led to the decalcification of the soil profile. In the Mesolithic period, woodland was dominated by alder, lime, elm and oak. There
545-697: A salient between the River Bourne and the Hampshire Avon , near a crossroads of several early trade routes. During the Iron Age , sometime between 600 and 300 BC, a hillfort ( oppidum ) was constructed around it. The Romans may have occupied the site or left it in the hands of an allied tribe. At the time of the Saxon invasions , Old Sarum fell to King Cynric of Wessex in 552. Preferring settlements in bottomland, such as nearby Wilton ,
654-466: A "religious revival" at the time, which led to huge amounts of resources being expended on the construction of ceremonial monuments. Archaeologist Aaron Watson highlighted the possibility that by digging up earth and using it to construct the large banks, those Neolithic labourers constructing the Avebury monument symbolically saw themselves as turning the land "inside out", thereby creating a space that
763-507: A 4-mile radius of the city centre and are listed in approximately clockwise order: The civil parish of Salisbury, which does not include some of the city's suburbs such as Laverstock, Ford , Britford and Netherhampton , had a population of 40,302 at the 2011 census . The urban zone , which contains the wards immediately surrounding the city, had a population of 62,216 at the 2011 Census. The wards included in this figure are Laverstock , Britford , Downton , Alderbury , Odstock and
872-657: A city charter in 1227 as New Sarum . This continued to be its official name until 2009 , when Salisbury City Council was established. Salisbury railway station is an interchange between the West of England Main Line and the Wessex Main Line . Stonehenge , a UNESCO World Heritage Site , is 8 miles (13 kilometres) northwest of Salisbury. Cair-Caratauc , one of 28 cities of the Ancient Britons listed in
981-430: A common theory to explain the positioning of the stones at Avebury. The relationships between the causewayed enclosure, Avebury stone circles, and West Kennet Long Barrow to the south, has caused some to describe the area as a "ritual complex"—a site with many monuments of interlocking religious function. Based on the scale of the site and wealth of archaeological material found in its ditches, particularly animal bone, it
1090-425: A huge scale could have been one of the purposes of the monument and would not necessarily have been mutually exclusive with any male/female ritual role. The henge, although clearly forming an imposing boundary to the circle, could have had a purpose that was not defensive as the ditch is on the inside (this is the defining characteristic of a henge ). Being a henge and stone circle site, astronomical alignments are
1199-466: A programme of theatre, live music, dance, public sculpture, street performance and art exhibitions. Salisbury also houses a producing theatre, Salisbury Playhouse , which produces between eight and ten plays a year, as well as welcoming touring productions. The Salisbury Museum is housed in the King's House , a Grade I listed building whose history dates back to the 13th century, opposite the west front of
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#17328025125871308-638: A strong artistic community, with galleries situated in the city centre, including the Young Gallery (incorporating the John Creasey Museum ), located in Salisbury Library. In the 18th century, John Constable made a number of celebrated landscape paintings featuring the cathedral's spire and the surrounding countryside. Salisbury's annual International Arts Festival, started in 1973, and held in late May to early June, provides
1417-725: A walkway that links Harnham with the rest of the city, is at times impassable. Water-meadows at Harnham, fed by two branches of the River Nadder , are first documented in the 17th century. East Harnham Meadows , in the floodplain of the Avon , is a Site of Special Scientific Interest . There are civil airfields at Old Sarum (where the experimental aircraft the Edgley Optica was developed and tested) and at Thruxton near Andover . Salisbury has many areas and suburbs, most of them being former villages that were absorbed by
1526-497: A week directing excavations in fourteen places, including around the Cove; they found no human bones. In 1894 Sir Henry Meux sponsored excavations which put a trench through the bank of the south-east sector, which gave the first indication that the earthwork was built in two phases. The site was surveyed and excavated intermittently between 1908 and 1922 by a team of workmen under the direction of Harold St George Gray , on behalf of
1635-455: Is John Glen ( Conservative ), who was first elected in 2010. Salisbury is approximately halfway between Exeter and London being 80 miles (128 km) east-northeast of Exeter , 78 miles (126 km) west-southwest of London and also 34 miles (55 km) south of Swindon , 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Southampton and 32 miles (51 km) southeast of Bath . The geology of the area, as with much of South Wiltshire and Hampshire ,
1744-535: Is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles , around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire , in south-west England. One of the best-known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans . Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BC, during
1853-405: Is a major decline in pollen around 4500 BC, but an increase in grasses from 4500 BC to 3200 BC and the first occurrence of cereal pollen. Pollen is poorly preserved in the chalky soils found around Avebury, so the best evidence for the state of local environment at any time in the past comes from the study of the deposition of snail shells. Different species of snail live in specific habitats, so
1962-560: Is evidenced by flint, animal bones, and pottery such as Peterborough ware dating from the early 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Five distinct areas of Neolithic activity have been identified within 500 m (1,600 ft) of Avebury; they include a scatter of flints along the line of the West Kennet Avenue —an avenue that connects Avebury with the Neolithic site of The Sanctuary . Pollard suggests that areas of activity in
2071-493: Is largely chalk. The rivers which flow through the city have been redirected, and along with landscaping, have been used to feed into public gardens. They are popular in the summer, particularly in Queen Elizabeth Gardens, as the water there is shallow and slow-flowing enough to enter safely. Because of the low-lying land, the rivers are prone to flooding, particularly during the winter months. The Town Path,
2180-641: Is respectively about 6 and 7 miles (10 and 11 km) from the modern towns of Marlborough and Calne . The monuments at the Avebury World Heritage Site cover about 8 + 3 ⁄ 4 square miles (23 square kilometres). Avebury lies in an area of chalkland in the Upper Kennet Valley that forms the catchment for the River Kennet and supports local springs and seasonal watercourses. The monument stands slightly above
2289-503: Is theorised that the enclosure on Windmill Hill was a major, extra-regional focus for gatherings and feasting events. In 1829, the foot of the Cove stone was dug to a 'yard' in depth, and in 1833 Henry Browne claimed to find evidence for 'burnt human sacrifices' also at the Cove in the north-east sector. in 1865, the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society supported A. C. Smith and W. Cunnington to spend
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#17328025125872398-698: The History of the Britons (9th century), has been identified with Salisbury. Alternative names for the city, in the Welsh Chronicle of the Britons (12th century) were Caer-Caradog , Caer-Gradawc , and Caer-Wallawg. By the Roman era, the name had become Sorbiodūnum ; the first part was of unknown origin, although the Brittonic suffix -dūnon meant "fortress". The name first recorded during
2507-501: The 1982 National League season . The following season he helped Weymouth retain the pairs title, but this time rode with Simon Cross . In 1984, he reached the 1984 Overseas final round of the Speedway World Championship , becoming the first National League rider to reach that stage. His involvement with Speedway continued with association with Swindon Robins as Team Manager and Co-Promoter. Retiring at
2616-454: The Barber surgeon of Avebury . Coins dating from the 1320s were found with the skeleton, and the evidence suggests that the man was fatally injured when the stone fell on him whilst he was digging the hole in which it was to be buried in a mediaeval "rite of destruction". As well as the coins, Keiller's team found a pair of scissors and a lancet , the tools of a barber-surgeon at that time, hence
2725-615: The Iron Age , the site had been effectively abandoned, with some evidence of human activity on the site during the Roman period . During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, eventually extending into it. In the late medieval and early modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley took an interest in Avebury during
2834-580: The Neolithic , or New Stone Age, the monument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony. The Avebury monument is a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow , Windmill Hill and Silbury Hill . By
2943-430: The River Nadder and the Hampshire Avon . It was first known as "New Sarum" or New Saresbyri . The town was laid out on a grid . Work on the new cathedral building, the present Salisbury Cathedral, began in 1221. The site was supposedly established by shooting an arrow from Old Sarum, although this is certainly a legend: the distance is over three kilometres (2 mi). The legend is sometimes amended to claim that
3052-479: The Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site . The monuments are preserved as part of a Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape for the information they provide regarding prehistoric people's relationship with the landscape. Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen and occasionally insects in buried soils have shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4250–4000 BC. During
3161-626: The 'cheese and milk cross', which indicated that market and was in the triangle between the HSBC bank and the Salisbury Library; a third cross near the site of the present war memorial, which marked a woollen and yarn market; and a fourth, called Barnwell or Barnard's Cross, in the Culver Street and Barnard Street area, which marked a cattle and livestock market. Today, only the Poultry Cross remains, to which flying buttresses were added in
3270-636: The 1110s and began work on a royal palace during the 1130s, prior to his arrest by Henry's successor, Stephen . After this arrest, the castle at Old Sarum was allowed to fall into disrepair, but the sheriff and castellan continued to administer the area under the king's authority. Bishop of Salisbury Hubert Walter was instrumental in the negotiations with Saladin during the Third Crusade , but he spent little time in his diocese prior to his elevation to archbishop of Canterbury . The brothers Herbert and Richard Poore succeeded him and began planning
3379-470: The 17th and 18th centuries, respectively, and recorded much of the site between various phases of destruction. Archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, with Harold St George Gray leading an excavation of the bank and ditch, and Alexander Keiller overseeing a project to reconstruct much of the monument. Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust . It has been designated
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3488-480: The 18th century. The remaining sections of its arc now lie beneath the village buildings. A single large monolith, 5.5 metres (18 ft) high, stood in the centre along with an alignment of smaller stones. In 2017, a geophysical survey by archaeologists from the Universities of Leicester and Southampton indicated 'an apparently unique square megalithic monument within the Avebury circles' which may be one of
3597-783: The 19th century. The Market Hall, later known as the Corn Exchange , was completed in 1859. In 1226, Henry III granted the Bishop of Salisbury a charter to hold a fair lasting eight days from the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August). Over the centuries the dates of the fair have moved around, but in its modern guise, a funfair is now held in the Market Place for three days from the third Monday in October. From 1833 to
3706-571: The Anglo-Saxon era was Searoburg ( dative Searobyrig ), around the end of the 9th century. This was a partial calque of the Roman name, with burg being the Old English word for "fort". Middle English Sarisberie was abbreviated as Sar , which in turn gave rise to the latinization "Sarum". The hilltop at Old Sarum lies near the Neolithic sites of Stonehenge and Avebury and shows some signs of early settlement. It commanded
3815-585: The British Association. The discovery of over 40 antler picks on or near the bottom of the ditch enabled Gray to demonstrate that the Avebury builders had dug down 11 metres (36 ft) into the natural chalk using red deer antlers as their primary digging tool, producing a henge ditch with a 9-metre (30 ft) high bank around its perimeter. Gray recorded the base of the ditch as being 4 metres (13 ft) wide and flat, but later archaeologists have questioned his use of untrained labour to excavate
3924-571: The EU. 62.49% of the civil parish's population declared their religion to be Christianity, while 27.09% stated "no religion" and 8.02% declined to state their religion. 0.79% of the population declared their religion to be Islam , 0.41% Buddhism , 0.40% Hinduism and 0.80% as another religion. 95.89% of the civil parish's population considered their "main language" to be English, while 1.12% considered it to be Polish , 0.28% considered it to be Bengali and 0.24% considered it to be Tagalog . 99.43% of
4033-661: The Neolithic became important markers in the landscape. "After over a thousand years of early farming, a way of life based on ancestral tombs, forest clearance and settlement expansion came to an end. This was a time of important social changes." Archaeologist and prehistorian Mike Parker Pearson on the Late Neolithic in Britain (2005) During the Late Neolithic, British society underwent another series of major changes. Between 3500 and 3300 BC, these prehistoric Britons ceased their continual expansion and cultivation of wilderness and instead focused on settling and farming
4142-419: The Neolithic period, argillic (clayey) brownearths reigned in the landscape formed by the acidifying conditions of a closed woodland, becoming more chalky as a result of clearance and anthropogenic (human-made) interference. The area was originally a mix of deep argillic brownearths on clay-rich areas along with calcareous (chalky) brownearths that were "predisposed" to transforming into grassland. The change to
4251-534: The Neolithic. Its monuments comprise the henge and associated long barrows , stone circles, avenues and a causewayed enclosure . These monument types are not exclusive to the Avebury area. For example, Stonehenge features the same kinds of monuments, and in Dorset there is a henge on the edge of Dorchester and a causewayed enclosure at nearby Maiden Castle . According to archaeologist Caroline Malone , who worked for English Heritage as an inspector of monuments and
4360-645: The North West sector of Avebury in 1937; the South West sector in 1938, and the South East sector in 1939. It can reasonably be said that "Avebury today is largely Keiller's creation", as Keiller directed his team to find and re-erect fallen or buried stones, and to build concrete ' pylons ' in the place of missing stones. Stuart Piggott co-directed excavations; local archaeologist William E. V. Young served as Foreman; Doris Emerson Chapman illustrated
4469-529: The Queen's Gate, and St Nicholas's Gate were original, while a fifth was constructed in the 19th century to allow access to Bishop Wordsworth's School, in the Cathedral Close. During his time in the city, the composer Handel stayed in a room above St Ann's gate. The original site of the city at Old Sarum, meanwhile, fell into disuse. It continued as a rotten borough : at the time of its abolition during
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4578-618: The Sanctuary, Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow had been intentional, commenting that "the Avenue carefully orchestrated passage through the landscape which influenced how people could move and what they could see, emphasising connections between places and maximising the spectacle of moving between these monuments." The purpose which Neolithic people had for the Avebury monument has remained elusive, although many archaeologists have postulated about its meaning and usage. Many suggest that
4687-625: The Saxons largely ignored Old Sarum until the Viking invasions led King Alfred (King of Wessex from 871 to 899) to restore its fortifications. Along with Wilton, however, 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 . Following the Norman invasion of 1066, a motte-and-bailey castle
4796-684: The administration of the City of New Sarum under its former charters, but its successor, Wiltshire County 's Salisbury District , continued to be accorded its former city status. The name was finally formally amended from "New Sarum" to "Salisbury" during the 2009 changes occasioned by the 1992 Local Government Act , which established the Salisbury City Council. On 4 March 2018, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were poisoned in Salisbury with
4905-409: The area. The most important of these discoveries is a densely scattered collection of worked flints found 300 m (980 ft) to the west of Avebury, which has led archaeologists to believe that that spot was a flint working site occupied over a period of several weeks by a group of nomadic hunter-gatherers who had set up camp there. The archaeologists Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard suggested
5014-451: The arrow struck a white deer, which continued to run and died on the spot where the cathedral now rests. The structure was built upon wooden faggots on a gravel bed with unusually shallow foundations of 18 in (45 cm) and the main body was completed in only 38 years. The 123 m or 404 ft tall spire, the tallest in the UK, was built later. With royal approval, many of the stones for
5123-590: The best-preserved of the four surviving copies of Magna Carta . New Sarum was made a city by a charter from King Henry III in 1227 and, by the 14th century, was the largest settlement in Wiltshire. The city wall surrounds the Close and was built in the 14th century, again with stones removed from the former cathedral at Old Sarum. The wall now has five gates: the High Street Gate, St Ann's Gate,
5232-544: The bishop, William Ayscough , who had been involved with the government. In 1483, a large-scale rebellion against Richard III broke out, led by his own 'kingmaker', Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham . After the revolt collapsed, Buckingham was executed at Salisbury, near the Bull's Head Inn. An act of Parliament , the River Avon Navigation (Christchurch to New Sarum) Act 1664 ( 16 & 17 Cha. 2 . c. 12)
5341-603: The cathedral. The permanent Stonehenge exhibition gallery has interactive displays about Stonehenge and the archaeology of south Wiltshire, and its collections include the skeleton of the Amesbury Archer , which is on display. The Pitt Rivers display holds a collection from General Augustus Pitt Rivers . The costume gallery showcases costumes and textiles from the area, with costumes for children to try on while imagining themselves as characters from Salisbury's past. Avebury Avebury ( / ˈ eɪ v b ər i / )
5450-402: The centre of Salisbury and staffed by predominantly young women who had no previous mechanical experience but were trained for specific tasks in the aircraft construction process. Supporting the factories were many workers producing small components in home-based workshops and garden sheds. Sub-assemblies were built in the city centre factories and then transported to High Post airfield (north of
5559-651: The circle. During the British Iron Age , it appears that the Avebury monument had ceased to be used for its original purpose, and was instead largely ignored, with little archaeological evidence that many people visited the site at this time. Archaeologist Aubrey Burl believed that the Iron Age Britons living in the region would not have known when, why or by whom the monument had been constructed, perhaps having some vague understanding that it had been built by an earlier society or considering it to be
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#17328025125875668-619: The city centre within the A36 ring road , and the rest of the unitary and city council areas are covered by six further wards. Laverstock and Ford parish council has the same boundary as the Laverstock ward, as well as part of the Old Sarum and Upper Bourne Valley ward, at unitary level. The Bishopdown Farm estate on the outskirts of Salisbury is now part of Laverstock and Ford, joining Hampton Park and Riverdown Park. Prior to 2009, Salisbury
5777-456: The city, in Durnford parish) and Chattis Hill (northeast, near Stockbridge ), where the aircraft were assembled, test flown and then distributed to RAF airfields across England. A total of over 2000 Spitfires were produced. The whole process was carried out in secret without the knowledge of even the local people and only emerged into public knowledge after the production of a film describing
5886-433: The clerics debauching the castellan's female relations. In the end, the clerics were refused permission to reenter the city walls following their rogations and processions . This caused Peter of Blois to describe the church as "a captive within the walls of the citadel like the ark of God in the profane house of Baal ". He advocated Let us descend into the plain! There are rich fields and fertile valleys abounding in
5995-430: The confluence of the rivers Avon , Nadder and Bourne . The city is approximately 20 miles (30 kilometres) from Southampton and 30 miles (50 kilometres) from Bath . Salisbury is in the southeast of Wiltshire, near the edge of Salisbury Plain . An ancient cathedral was north of the present city at Old Sarum . A new cathedral was built near the meeting of the rivers and a settlement grew up around it, which received
6104-418: The construction of large wooden or stone circles, with many hundreds being built across Britain and Ireland over a period of a thousand years. The chronology of Avebury's construction is unclear. It was not designed as a single monument, but is the result of various projects that were undertaken at different times during late prehistory. Aubrey Burl suggests dates of 3000 BC for the central cove, 2900 BC for
6213-519: The construction of the first Salisbury cathedral , though neither lived to see its completion in 1092. Osmund served as Lord Chancellor of England (in office c. 1070–1078); he was responsible for the codification of the Sarum Rite , the compilation of the Domesday Book , which was probably presented to William at Old Sarum, and, after centuries of advocacy from Salisbury's bishops,
6322-413: The ditch and suggested that its form may have been different. Gray found few artefacts in the ditch-fill but he did recover scattered human bones, amongst which jawbones were particularly well represented. At a depth of about 2 metres (7 ft), Gray found the complete skeleton of a 1.5-metre (5 ft) tall woman. Alexander Keiller financed and led excavations on West Kennet Avenue in 1934 and 1935;
6431-591: The dwelling of a supernatural entity. In 43 AD, the Roman Empire invaded southern Britain, making alliances with certain local monarchs and subsuming the Britons under their own political control. Southern and central Britain would remain a part of the Empire until the early 5th century, in a period now known as Roman Britain or the Roman Iron Age. It was during this Roman period that tourists came from
6540-484: The earliest structures on this site. The West Kennet Avenue , an avenue of paired stones, leads from the southeastern entrance of the henge; and traces of a second, the Beckhampton Avenue , lead out from the western entrance. The archaeologist Aaron Watson, taking a phenomenological viewpoint to the monument, believed that the way in which the Avenue had been constructed in juxtaposition to Avebury,
6649-466: The end of the 1987 season, he set up his own business - Martin Yeates Caravans - just outside Salisbury , later renamed as Salisbury Caravan Centre. Salisbury Salisbury ( / ˈ s ɔː l z b ər i / SAWLZ -bər-ee , locally / ˈ s ɔː z b ər i / SAWZ -bər-ee ) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire , England with a population of 41,820, at
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#17328025125876758-468: The first monuments to be seen in the local landscape, an activity interpreted as evidence of a change in the way people viewed their place in the world. Based on anthropological studies of recent and contemporary societies, Gillings and Pollard suggest that forests, clearings, and stones were important in Neolithic culture, not only as resources but as symbols; the site of Avebury occupied a convergence of these three elements. Neolithic activity at Avebury
6867-470: The fruits of the earth and watered by the living stream. There is a seat for the Virgin Patroness of our church to which the world cannot produce a parallel. Herbert Poore's successor and brother Richard Poore eventually moved the cathedral to a new town on his estate at Veteres Sarisberias ("Old Salisburies") in 1220. The site was at "Myrifield" ("Merryfield"), a meadow near the confluence of
6976-441: The full report. Smith completed the publication in 1965, reorganised the stone numbering system for the landscape, and put Windmill Hill, Avebury and West Kennet Avenue into context. When a new village school was built in 1969 there was a further opportunity to examine the site, and in 1982 an excavation to produce carbon dating material and environmental data was undertaken. In April 2003, during preparations to straighten some of
7085-517: The gasworks were producing not only coal gas but also coke , which was sold off as the by-product of gas-making. Ammoniacal liquor, another by-product, was mixed with sulphuric acid, dried and ground to make a powder which was sold as an agricultural fertiliser. The clinker from the retort house was sold to a firm in London to be used as purifier beds in the construction of sewage works . Salisbury power station supplied electricity to Salisbury and
7194-546: The growth of the city. The boundaries of these areas are for the most part unofficial and not fixed. All of these suburbs are within Salisbury's ONS Urban Area, which had a population of 44,748 in 2011. However, not all of these suburbs are administered by the city council, and are therefore not within the eight wards that had a combined population of 40,302 in 2011. Two parishes are part of the urban area but outside Salisbury parish. Surrounding parishes, villages and towns rely on Salisbury for some services. The following are within
7303-478: The henge could have been a meeting place for the citizens of the area for seasonal fairs or festivals. During that time the people would have been watching ceremonies or standing on the earthen banks. A lack of pottery and animal bone from excavations at Avebury suggest that the entrance to the henge was prohibited. The lack of "mess" and archaeological finds indicates "sanctity". Many of the stones had former uses before being transported to Avebury. For instance, many of
7412-461: The henge is a great outer circle. With a diameter of 331.6 metres (1,088 ft), this is one of Europe's largest stone circles, and Britain's largest. It was either contemporary with, or built around four or five centuries after, the earthworks. It is thought that there were originally 98 sarsen standing stones , some weighing in excess of 40 tons. The stones varied in height from 3.6 metres (12 ft) to 4.2 metres (14 ft), as exemplified at
7521-458: The henge is uncertain, because little datable evidence has emerged from modern archaeological excavations . Evidence of activity in the region before the 4th millennium BC is limited, suggesting that there was little human occupation. What is now termed the Mesolithic period in Britain lasted from circa 11,600 to 7,800 BP , at a time when the island was heavily forested and when there
7630-484: The importance of gender in Neolithic Britain with the taller stones considered "male" and the shorter ones "female". The stones were not dressed in any way and may have been chosen for their pleasing natural forms. The human bones found by Gray point to some form of funerary purpose and have parallels in the disarticulated human bones often found at earlier causewayed enclosure sites. Ancestor worship on
7739-447: The inner stone circle, 2600 BC for the outer circle and henge, and around 2400 BC for the avenues. The construction of large monuments such as those at Avebury indicates that a stable agrarian economy had developed in Britain by around 4000–3500 BC. The people who built them had to be secure enough to spend time on such non-essential activities. Avebury was one of a group of monumental sites that were established in this region during
7848-410: The largest ethnic minority group was 'other white' comprising 3.6% of the population as of 2011. There is not much contrast between areas when it comes to ethnic diversity. The ward of St Edmund and Milford is the most multiethnic, with 86.0% of the population being White British. The least multiethnic is the ward of St Francis and Stratford, which contains suburbs in the north of the city, with 94.8% of
7957-484: The local landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge 160 m (520 ft) above sea level; to the east are the Marlborough Downs , an area of lowland hills. The site lies at the centre of a collection of Neolithic and early Bronze Age monuments and was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in a co-listing with the monuments at Stonehenge, 17 miles (27 km) to the south, in 1986. It is now listed as part of
8066-663: The loyalty of many of James's commanders was in doubt. The first blood was shed at the Wincanton Skirmish , in Somerset . In Salisbury, James heard that some of his officers had deserted, such as Edward Hyde , and he broke out in a nosebleed, which he took as an omen that he should retreat. His commander in chief, the Earl of Feversham , advised retreat on 23 November, and the next day John Churchill defected to William. On 26 November, James's own daughter, Princess Anne , did
8175-575: The mid-1980s, the Salisbury Gas Light & Coke Company, which ran the city's gasworks, was one of the major employers in the area. The company was formed in 1832 with a share capital of £8,000, and its first chairman was the 3rd Earl of Radnor . The company was incorporated by a private Act of Parliament in 1864, and the Gas Orders Confirmation Act 1882 empowered it to raise capital of up to £40,000. At its peak,
8284-490: The middle, its entrance facing northeast. Taking experiments undertaken at the megalithic Ring of Brodgar in Orkney as a basis, the archaeologists Joshua Pollard , Mark Gillings and Aaron Watson believed that any sounds produced inside Avebury's Inner Circles would have created an echo as sound waves reflected off the standing stones. The southern inner ring was 108 metres (354 ft) in diameter before its destruction in
8393-461: The most agriculturally productive areas of the island: Orkney, eastern Scotland, Anglesey, the upper Thames, Wessex, Essex, Yorkshire and the river valleys of the Wash. Late Neolithic Britons also appeared to have changed their religious beliefs, ceasing to construct the large chambered tombs that are widely thought by archaeologists to have been connected with ancestor veneration . Instead, they began
8502-449: The name given to the stone. Alexander Keiller and Stuart Piggott published short reports from the excavations, however the outbreak of World War II, Keiller's failing health and dwindling finances, and Piggott's career which took him abroad during the war and into new archaeological projects post war, meant that they did not publish a full report. The archeologist Isobel Smith was commissioned by Gabrielle Keiller to synthesise and complete
8611-606: The nearby towns of Cunetio , Durocornovium and the villas and farms around Devizes and visited Avebury and its surrounding prehistoric monuments via a newly constructed road. Evidence of visitors at the monument during this period has been found in the form of Roman-era pottery sherds uncovered from the ditch. In the Early Middle Ages , which began in the 5th century following the collapse of Roman rule, Anglo-Saxon tribes from continental Europe migrated to southern Britain , where they may have come into conflict with
8720-404: The neighbouring town of Wilton , among others, however it does not include the towns of Amesbury or Romsey , as these support their own local populations and are further afield. At the 2011 census the population of the civil parish was 95.73% white (91.00% White British ), 2.48% Asian (0.74% Indian , 0.41% Bangladeshi , 0.40% Chinese ), 0.45% black and 1.15% mixed race. Within the parish,
8829-437: The new cathedral were taken from the old one ; others came from Chilmark . They were probably transported by ox-cart, owing to the obstruction to boats on the River Nadder caused by its many weirs and watermills. The cathedral is considered a masterpiece of Early English architecture . The spire's large clock was installed in 1386, and is one of the oldest surviving mechanical clocks in the world. The cathedral also contains
8938-535: The newly established Wilts & Dorset operator. The Scout company failed in 1921 after wartime disruption and competition from larger makers. Shopping centres include The Old George Mall, The Maltings, Winchester Street, and the Crosskeys precinct. Major employers include Salisbury District Hospital . The closure of the Friends Life office, the second largest employer, was announced in 2015. Salisbury
9047-561: The north and south entrances. Radiocarbon dating of some stone settings indicate a construction date of around 2870–2200 BC. The two large stones at the Southern Entrance had an unusually smooth surface, likely due to having stone axes polished on them. Nearer the middle of the monument are two additional, separate stone circles. The northern inner ring is 98 metres (322 ft) in diameter, but only two of its four standing stones remain upright. A cove of three stones stood in
9156-533: The population being White British. The city is represented by six other wards. Within the parish, the largest ethnic minority group was 'other white' comprising 3.6% of the population as of 2011. 86.43% of the civil parish's population were born in England, 3.94% were born elsewhere in the UK. 4.94% were born elsewhere in the EU (including the Republic of Ireland ), while 4.70% of the population were born outside
9265-478: The population claimed to be able to speak English well or very well. In 2001, 22.33% of Salisbury's population were aged between 30 and 44, 42.76% were over 45, and 13.3% were between 18 and 29. Salisbury holds a Charter market on Tuesdays and Saturdays and has held markets regularly since 1227. In the 15th century the Market Place had four crosses: the Poultry Cross , whose name describes its market;
9374-539: The possibility that Avebury first gained some sort of ceremonial significance during the Late Mesolithic period. As evidence, they highlighted the existence of a posthole near the monument's southern entrance that would have once supported a large wooden post. Although this posthole was never dated when it was excavated in the early 20th century, and so cannot definitely be ascribed to the Mesolithic, Gillings and Pollard noted that its positioning had no relation to
9483-403: The presence of a certain species indicates what the area was like at a particular time. The available evidence suggests that in the early Neolithic, Avebury and the surrounding hills were covered in dense oak woodland, and as the Neolithic progressed, the woodland around Avebury and the nearby monuments receded and was replaced by grassland. The history of the site before the construction of
9592-572: The reforms of 1832, its Member of Parliament (MP) represented three households. In May 1289, there was uncertainty about the future of Margaret, Maid of Norway , and her father sent ambassadors to Edward I . Edward met Robert the Bruce and others at Salisbury in October 1289, which resulted in the Treaty of Salisbury , under which Margaret would be sent to Scotland before 1 November 1290 and any agreement on her future marriage would be delayed until she
9701-521: The relocation of the cathedral into the valley almost immediately. Their plans were approved by King Richard I but repeatedly delayed: Herbert was first forced into exile in Normandy in the 1190s by the hostility of his archbishop Walter and then again to Scotland in the 1210s owing to royal hostility following the papal interdiction against King John . The secular authorities were particularly incensed, according to tradition, owing to some of
9810-421: The rest of the henge, and that it may therefore have been erected centuries or even millennia before the henge was actually built. They compared this with similar wooden posts that had been erected in southern Britain during the Mesolithic at Stonehenge and Hambledon Hill , both of which were sites that like Avebury saw the construction of large monuments in the Neolithic. In the 4th millennium BC, around
9919-562: The same, and James returned to London the same day, never again to be at the head of a serious military force in England. Following the destruction by the Luftwaffe of the Southampton factories building Supermarine Spitfires in 1940, production was dispersed to shadow factories elsewhere in the south of England. Salisbury was the major centre of production, supplemented by Trowbridge and Reading . Several factories were set up in
10028-468: The sarsens had been used to polish stone axes, while others had been "heavily worked". Archaeologist Aubrey Burl believed that rituals would have been performed at Avebury by Neolithic peoples in order "to appease the malevolent powers of nature" that threatened their existence, such as the winter cold, death and disease. In his study of those examples found at Orkney , Colin Richards suggested that
10137-404: The start of the Neolithic period in Britain, British society underwent radical changes. These coincided with the introduction of domesticated species of animals and plants, as well as a changing material culture that included pottery. These developments allowed hunter-gatherers to settle down and produce their own food. As agriculture spread, people cleared land. At the same time, they also erected
10246-516: The stone and wooden circles built in Neolithic Britain might have represented the centre of the world, or axis mundi , for those who constructed them, something Aaron Watson adopted as a possibility in his discussion of Avebury. A great deal of interest surrounds the morphology of the stones, which are usually described as being in one of two categories; tall and slender, or short and squat. This has led to numerous theories relating to
10355-474: The stones and facial reconstructions for the human remains found across the landscape; and Denis Grant King created illustrations, plans and section drawings. Upwards of 50 men from across Wiltshire served as 'hands' during the excavations over the 6 year period, doing the hard work of digging and re-erecting stones. During excavations in 1938, Keiller's team excavated the skeleton of a man from beneath Stone 38 (Stone 9 using Isobel Smith's system), now known as
10464-511: The stones, one was found to extend at least 2.1 metres (7 ft) below ground. It was estimated to weigh more than 100 tons, making it one of the largest found in the UK. Later that year, a geophysical survey of the southeast and northeast quadrants of the circle by the National Trust revealed at least 15 of the megaliths lying buried. The survey identified their sizes, the direction in which they are lying, and where they fitted in
10573-540: The surrounding area from 1898 to 1970. The power station was at Town Mill and was owned and operated by Salisbury Electric Light and Supply Company Limited prior to the nationalisation of the British electricity supply industry in 1948. The coal-fired power station was redeveloped several times to incorporate new plant including a water-driven turbine. From the Middle Ages to the start of the 20th century, Salisbury
10682-402: The third millennium BC. The top of the bank is irregular, something Caroline Malone suggested was because of the irregular nature of the work undertaken by excavators working on the adjacent sectors of the ditch. Later archaeologists such as Aaron Watson, Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard have, however, suggested that this was an original Neolithic feature of the henge's architecture. Within
10791-687: The whole process. In July 2021 a memorial to the workers, in the form of a life-size fibreglass model Mk IX Spitfire, was unveiled in Castle Road, Salisbury (near the rugby club) on the site of one of the factories. At the time of the 1948 Summer Olympics , held in London, a relay of runners carried the Olympic Flame from Wembley Stadium , where the Games were based, to the sailing centre at Torbay via Slough , Basingstoke , Salisbury, and Exeter . The 1972 Local Government Act eliminated
10900-400: Was "on a frontier between worlds above and beneath the ground." The Avebury monument is a henge , a type of monument consisting of a large circular bank with an internal ditch. The henge is not perfectly circular and measures 347.4 metres (380 yd) in diameter and over 1,000 metres (1,090 yd) in circumference. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the henge was made by the middle of
11009-470: Was an important centre for music in the 18th century. The grammarian James Harris , a friend of Handel , directed concerts at the Assembly Rooms for almost 50 years up to his death in 1780. Many of the most famous musicians and singers of the day performed there. Salisbury holds an annual St George's Day pageant, the origins of which are claimed to go back to the 13th century. Salisbury has
11118-638: Was constructed by 1070. 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 , uniting his former sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury into a single diocese which covered the counties of Dorset , Wiltshire, and Berkshire . In 1055, Herman had planned to move his seat to Malmesbury , but its monks and Earl Godwin objected. Herman and his successor, Saint Osmund , began
11227-483: Was finally canonised by Pope Callixtus III in 1457. The cathedral 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 (reigned 1100–1135): he served as viceroy during the king's absence in Normandy and directed, along with his extended family, the royal administration and exchequer . He refurbished and expanded Old Sarum's cathedral in
11336-457: Was in Scotland. The Parliament of England met at New Sarum in the years 1324, 1328, and 1384. In 1450, a number of riots broke out in Salisbury at roughly the same time as Jack Cade led a famous rebellion through London. The riots occurred for related reasons, although the declining fortunes of Salisbury's cloth trade may also have been influential. The violence peaked with the murder of
11445-517: Was noted for its cutlery industry . Early motor cars were manufactured in the city from 1902 by Dean and Burden Brothers, using the Scout Motors brand. In 1907, the company moved to a larger factory at Churchfields; each car took six to eight weeks to build, mostly using bodies made elsewhere by coachbuilders. By 1912, 150 men were employed and the company was also making small commercial vehicles and 20-seater buses, some of which were later used by
11554-462: Was part of the now-abolished non-metropolitan county of Wiltshire. It was governed by Wiltshire County Council at the county level and Salisbury District Council, which oversaw most of south Wiltshire as well as the city. Salisbury (previously officially New Sarum) has had city status since time immemorial. The Member of Parliament for the Salisbury constituency , which includes the city, Wilton , Old Sarum, Laverstock and surrounding rural areas,
11663-744: Was passed on 2 March 1665 for making the River Avon navigable from Christchurch to the city of New Sarum. and the work completed, only for the project to be ruined shortly thereafter by a major flood. Soon after, during the Great Plague of London , Charles II held court in Salisbury's cathedral close. Salisbury was the site chosen to assemble James II 's forces to resist the Glorious Revolution . He arrived to lead his approximately 19 000 men on 19 November 1688. His troops were not keen to fight Mary or her husband William, and
11772-501: Was still a land mass, called Doggerland , which connected Britain to continental Europe. During this era, those humans living in Britain were hunter-gatherers , often moving around the landscape in small familial or tribal groups in search of food and other resources. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that there were some of these hunter-gatherers active around Avebury during the Late Mesolithic, with stray finds of flint tools , dated between 7000 and 4000 BC, having been found in
11881-472: Was the curator of Avebury's Alexander Keiller Museum, it is possible that the monuments associated with Neolithic sites such as Avebury and Stonehenge constituted ritual or ceremonial centres. Archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson noted that the addition of the stones to the henge occurred at a similar date to the construction of Silbury Hill and the major building projects at Stonehenge and Durrington Walls . For this reason, he speculated that there may have been
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