Salisbury (also called Old Sarum, after an…

Salisbury (also called Old Sarum, after an early Iron Age fortification north of the present city) located about eighty miles (one hundred thirty kilometers kilometers) southwest of London in Wiltshire, on the River Avon, had become a bishopric in 1075.

Although the actual city of Salisbury will not established until 1220, there has been a settlement in the area since prehistory.

There is evidence of Neolithic settlement on the hilltop of Old Sarum, which became a hill fort in the Iron Age.

The Romans called this fort "Sorviodunum" and may also have occupied the fort.

The Saxons established themselves there called it "Searesbyrig" and the Normans built a castle or "Seresberi".

After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, William the Conqueror had used Old Sarum as a base of operations.

Sarum is described as a fortress rather than a city, placed on a high hill, surrounded by a massive wall.

William had moved the bishopric from the Anglo-Saxon Sherborne Cathedral to Old Sarum, appointing his nephew, Osmund de Sees, as his chancellor and Bishop of Salisbury.

Osmund has had the first cathedral at Old Sarum built, completed in 1092.

By 1086, in the Domesday Book, it is called "Salesberie".