Salisbury, England

District of Salisbury shown within Wiltshire

Salisbury (pronounced 'Solsbree' or 'Sauls-bree') is a cathedral city and a district in Wiltshire, England.

The city's origins go back to the Iron Age, and the Romans called it "Sorviodunum". There was a battle between the West Saxons and the Britons here, after which the place was called "Searoburh". The Normans built a castle and called it "Sarum". The site of the castle is now uninhabited and is referred to as Old Sarum.

The location is ideal for settlement. It is at the confluence of five rivers: the Avon, Nadder, Ebble, Wylye (pronounced 'Why-lee') and Bourne. The resultant river is the Avon (old English for 'river'), which flows to the south coast.

Bishop Richard Poore started to build Salisbury Cathedral in 1220. The main body was completed in only 38 years and is a masterpiece of Early English architecture. The spire, which is 404 feet (123 metres) tall was built later, and is the tallest spire in the UK. The cathedral is built on a gravel bed with unusually shallow foundations of 18 inches: the site is supposed to have been selected by firing an arrow from Old Sarum, although this is clearly legend due to the distance involved (although it is sometimes claimed the arrow hit a deer, which continued to run and died on the spot where the Cathedral now exists).

The cathedral's library contains one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta.

Salisbury holds a market on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and an annual funfair (the Sloe Fair) in October.

Districts of England - South West England
Bath and North East Somerset | Bournemouth | Bristol | Caradon | Carrick | Cheltenham | Christchurch | Cotswold | East Devon | East Dorset | Exeter | Forest of Dean | Gloucester | Isles of Scilly | Kennet | Kerrier | Mendip | Mid Devon | North Cornwall | North Devon | North Dorset | North Somerset | North Wiltshire | Penwith | Plymouth | Poole | Purbeck | Restormel | Salisbury | Sedgemoor | South Gloucestershire | South Hams | South Somerset | Stroud | Swindon | Taunton Deane | Teignbridge | Tewkesbury | Torbay | Torridge | West Devon | West Dorset | West Somerset | West Wiltshire | Weymouth and Portland
Administrative counties with multiple districts: Cornwall - Devon - Dorset - Gloucestershire - Somerset - Wiltshire