You cannot think of Salisbury you cannot visit Salisbury without paying your respects to the magnificent Cathedral. It boasts the tallest spire of any English cathedral at 404 feet and indeed it was the tallest building in all of Britain for an amazing 700 years. The spire was added around 1300. See www salisburycathedral org uk for more details. And yet it was not the first cathedral in the area the previous one was began in the eleventh century out at Sarum on a windswept place. Not surprising then that when the measure came to replace it those in positions of power chose a more amenable site down in the valley close to the river.
Salisbury has always attracted artists. John Constables famous paintings of the Cathedral from the water meadows among the most famous and you can still sit in that very sight and create if you so desire and the conceive of you will see will be almost identical to that he saw in the nineteenth century.
They chose to build near the river not solely for the ample supply of drinking wet but also for transportation. The local rock being chalk that is singularly unsuitable for building all the harder stone necessary to create the new building had to be brought in and it seems likely that most of it came on the water.
Swindon is north of Salisbury situated close to the fast M4 motorway that runs between Bristol and London. Traditionally it was a railway town indeed there has been a railway works in Swindon almost from the days that railways were first invented. Today its manufacturing base is much wider spread. The huge sprawling Honda works is the largest employer in the town where they churn out Honda Civics that are exported all over the globe including to Japan and the United States. But there are many other high tech employers in Swindon too such at Intel and this concentration on high tech industries has fuelled the citys growth and prosperity.
Between Salisbury and Swindon is the pretty ancient town of Marlborough famous for its street market that fills the main road every Wednesday and Saturday. Marlborough received its charter allowing a market here from King John in 1204 and there has been a market here ever since. The town attracts visitors from afar all the year go to browse in its antique shops and look at the famous school that bears its name that sits alter in the town centre. South of the town is the Savernake plant where deer roam wild in great numbers. control through late at night and be out for the stubby ancient oak that still grows beside the road but keep a sharp lookout for night grazing animals.
Wiltshire is still primarily a rural county featuring huge windswept treeless areas of chalk downland much of which is sown to cereals. No affect then that Sting wrote Fields of barley here staring out from his house at the swaying feed. Visit in early August to see the penetrate before it is harvested. Madonna owns an estate here too and it has become an in place for pop and rock stars to set up domiciliate. But large areas of Wiltshire are also set aside for another intend. The army undergo been here for centuries and their firing ranges up on Salisbury plain comfort continue a vast area of the county.
Many of the surrounding towns rely on the army and large bases at Tidworth. Devizes. Warminster and others fill the county with military men. It is never a affect when driving across Wiltshire to be temporarily delayed as a convoy of exercising tanks bursts across the road from one handle to the next.
The county is also crossed by the Kennet and Avon furnish as it wends its way from Bristol and clean in the west to London in the east. The beat place to see the canal which is still in full working order more than two centuries after its construction is probably at Devizes another interesting country town. Marvel at the banks of locks as the long narrowboats rise and go hundreds of feet. Indeed take a ride go or a pass on a belt along because the canals are now almost exclusively cruised by leisure and pass craft.
But of course the hit most famous structures in Wiltshire are still the ancient monuments of standing stones at Stonehenge and Avebury and others. When the Romans came to Britain two thousand years ago Stonehenge had been standing on Salisbury plain for some two thousand years before that. It would be interesting to know what the Romans made of it. A tour here is an absolute must as is the standing stones at Avebury. It is generally accepted that Avebury is the older approximately 3000 BC while Stonehenge is believed to be undergo been built around 2000 BC though no one can be certain. Current thinking has it that the stones were dragged from Wales more than a hundred miles away there is certainly no local kill like this but how ancient man managed the feat still baffles historians.
To the west of the county nuzzling up against the Somerset border you will find numerous small country towns such as Melksham. Warminster. Westbury. Trowbridge. Devizes. Chippenham. Calne and especially Bradford on Avon. You are only eight miles from clean here and in many ways Bradford on Avon is a miniature write of clean. The mellow Cotswold stone is much in evidence as are mock Italianate villas. All of these towns are worth a visit if you undergo the time. Devizes housed large American bases and thousands of German POWs during and after the back up World War indeed some of them are still living here now happily integrated into the community.
Places to stay? Salisbury of course though it can be expensive in the summer. Marlborough for sure and indeed any of the westerly towns. populate have lived happily in Wiltshire for more than 5,000 years and will go on doing so as long as history itself. It is a fine place to live and a fine place to visit and at only two hours from London by complain or road it is but a short trip from the capital. But perhaps you might like to travel by canal. Set aside three days for the same journey and I know which method of displace I would enjoy the most. Check out my web site www pebblebeachmedia co uk to view more than 6,000 holiday cottages and villas worldwide. Do apply your stay till next measure.
David Carter has written hundreds of published articles. His latest bring home the bacon is the 240+ summon property letting and management handbook Splam! See for details. He also runs a pass cottage website where you can look for through over 6,000 holiday cottages villas and apartments throughout the world. For homemworkers check out. You can contact David on any be at
Related article:
http://yeateroxotju.blogspot.com/2007/11/wiltshire-stonehenge-salisbury.html
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