Our plan had been to arrive on the Friday afternoon, have a wander into Salisbury, get food and some drinks there, then explore the town like proper tourists on the Saturday, with Sunday reserved for some trips out to nearby sites of interest to us. That was until we checked in and threw out the first day’s plans completely.

Our room was located on the furthest point west of the hotel and had a door that opened straight out onto a grassy area. The room was very large, and, in addition to the welcome bottle of fizz in a bucket, contained not only a kettle for tea and coffee, but also one of those fancy coffee pod machines too. We’d never used one of those before and would make two attempts to try to get something that looked and tasted nice out of it over the weekend with no real success; even a browse online for instructions in use wasn’t too forthcoming and we decided we wouldn’t be buying one of those for the house as a result.

We thought we might take advantage of the grassy area outside our room to drink the Prosecco on the small patio. That was when we discovered that the hotel was right on the waterfront. I hadn’t really realised that the Rose & Crown sat on the banks of the River Avon in Salisbury, and I hadn’t realised that there was a huge area with picnic tables and patio sets and some gorgeous views in an idyllic setting to enjoy. It helped having the weather for it, of course, but this was a wonderful surprise and was the reason that our plan to walk into Salisbury got ditched. We opted instead to sit out in the hotel garden on the banks of the river, watching people paddleboard up and down, drinking first the free fizz, then a few pints from the bar.

You can see from the photos below just how close to Salisbury Cathedral we were, and that would be one of the places we would be visiting the following day.

The bridge over the River Avon that we could see from the hotel would be one that we would cross several times over the next couple of days as it marked the most direct route to Salisbury. Called either Ayleswade or Harnham Bridge, it dates from around the thirteenth century and is a scheduled monument.

Our altered plans for the Friday meant we would be eating at the hotel rather than in the town. We showered, changed, and made our way through the hotel’s sprawling interior to the dining room and bar area. A word about that interior. The Rose & Crown definitely feels like an evolved pub; appearing like a coaching inn from the Middle Ages from one side with bolted-on conservatory area on another, more modern expansions to it all flowing around another section and following the contour of a small rise where the car park is to at points provide two storeys of accommodation, and rooms jutting off corridors here and there. It lends it all a nice, homely feel, and carries with it some age that is both comforting but can in places feel a little dated. We liked it.

As for our dinner: well, as you can see below there was a decent offering, but I think we both agreed the food was no more than satisfactory. Fine for a hotel, of course, and we had no real complaints, with just a minor eye-rolling from the pair of us when one of the courses was served on slate. I know it’s only one letter difference from plate, but it’s an important letter. I guess we’re old fashioned and like our food on porcelain, not slabs of metamorphic rock.

Our view from the conservatory area where food was served provided us with the lovely sight of dusk on the River Avon, and after our food we took a short walk around to a nearby pub just to see what that was like so got to see our hotel from the outside on the way back.

We enjoyed our stay at the Rose & Crown hotel in Salisbury and, not only would we use it again if visiting the area, we would – and have – recommended it to others if staying in the area too. It ticked all the right boxes for us: parking, convenient location, a lot of character, and wonderful views and garden area if the weather is good. Food was okay, drinks were a smidge pricey, but everything within that range of tolerance we have for such matters when taking any vacation in the UK these days.

In the subsequent posts in this Salisbury Weekender travelogue series I’ll cover the places we visited in the town – the cathedral, some museums, and pubs (of course) – and what we explored in the vicinity – a Roman settlement and a country house.

We were staying at the Rose and Crown, so were only ten minutes away on foot. If you’ve read the first post in this travelogue series then you might remember that the bridge over the River Avon is called either Ayleswade or Harnham Bridge. Like the nearby cathedral, it too dates from the thirteenth century. The pointed arches of the bridge give away its architectural style as Gothic. The views along this part of the river in both directions, and of the tree-lined fields to one side and the houses and our hotel on the other, were all very pleasant.

There are four medieval gates still set in parts of the wall that would have formed this fortified area of Salisbury, and our short walk took us through probably the least visually impressive of the four, Harnham Gate. The other three are Bishop’s Gate, St Ann’s Gate, and High Street Gate. Immediately after passing through the gate, we had good views to the cathedral’s imposing spire.

Salisbury Cathedral was the city’s second cathedral. The original had been located at Old Sarum (a place we’d be visiting the next day, and which you’ll be able to read about and see pictures of in a subsequent post in this series), but disagreements between the church and the military units there led to a new building being constructed in its present location some considerable distance away. The legend states that the bishop shot an arrow from Old Sarum with its resting place being where the church would be built; the arrow hit a deer which ran until it died. As a general rule, you should always get surveyors in to check the land where you’re planning on building large stone structures and not rely upon the chance expiration spot of a wounded mammal.

Salisbury Cathedral took just 38 years to complete, and at 123 metres in height, following the collapse of the spire of St Paul’s Cathedral, London in 1561 (the one destroyed and rebuilt a century later in the Great Fire), it became the tallest church spire in the United Kingdom. The architect of the new St Paul’s, Sir Christopher Wren, was contracted in 1668 to design some reinforcing beams under the spire to prevent Sailsbury suffering a similar spire collapse, however.

The cathedral has a very tall and narrow nave, and makes good use of contrast between the dark, polished marble of the supporting columns with the lighter stone above and used for the main walls. It’s all very nice, but, as with our previous visit, there was something a bit average about it all. We’ve been to spectacularly ornate cathedrals that felt majestic and overpowering, and we’ve been to cathedrals with very austere interiors too that had their own power to impose obedience and fear on the faithful, and Salisbury Cathedral, for some reason we can’t put into words, just doesn’t have any of that. It’s still nice, and there are still things to be impressed by there, but it lacks a little something. Again, all just our opinion. Don’t let that dictate whether you should go or not. You might visit and squeal with delight, dancing between the chairs and along the transepts, pointing at sculptures and tombs and flags with utter joy. It’s usually frowned upon in religious buildings, but don’t you ever be anything else than you.

One thing we did like in Salisbury Cathedral was the modern font. We’d seen the prototype of this font when we’d visited the cathedral in 2007 (so you can visit that page linked earlier in this article to compare if you’d like), and the one now there was the new form installed the following year. Difficult to get any good shots of the font and reflections thanks to the number of visitors at the time, but a lovely piece of water sculpture.

The main reason for our repeat visit to Salisbury Cathedral was not to see whether we’d changed our minds about how we felt about it – clearly, we hadn’t – but to take a look at the copy of the Magna Carta stored there; something we’d either overlooked or weren’t permitted to do for some reason before.

Heading out from the cathedral, we passed the attractive cloisters and entered the Chapter House. This small building, octagonal in shape, with a narrow, ornate central column, was decorated in the nineteenth century with scenes from the Bible. We perused a few whilst waiting our turn to enter the dark, covered section in which we could view the 1215 document. No photos, naturally. It’s smaller than we’d guessed it would be, but an impressive bit of history to feast the eyes upon.

That concluded our reasonably brief look around Salisbury Cathedral. If you’re in Salisbury then it’s definitely worth a visit, but all we’d say is that it doesn’t rate very highly in the big list of churches we’ve looked inside when we’ve travelled. There was a small fee to enter (check the cathedral website before you visit), which does include seeing the Magna Carta and is valid for a whole year. The entry price for Salisbury Cathedral is definitely worth it in our opinion.

We would be following this up with some visits to a few museums in Salisbury more-or-less directly opposite the church, and the main one, covered in the next post in this series, would be the very impressive former home of Sir Edward Heath, Arundells.

First impressions were very good, involving a friendly chat with the woman on reception who took our money, asked if we’d been before, and absolutely gushed with barely-hidden praise for what we were about to see. This was an attitude that would be shared by all the people we encountered in the house during our visit. Everyone really liked working there, and you could tell.

So, we didn’t know anything about Arundells except that it had been the family home of former British Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath. His leadership of the Conservative Party was a bit before our time (well, technically it coincided with our time, but we were more interested in playing in dirt and with toys than politics back then, and would probably rather that were still the case now), and, being a Tory, that meant he was, in our eyes, absolute scum. Why should we want to know anything about him? Why should we really care about his house and gardens? Well… it turns out that he was one of the good ones. Better ones, at least. He wasn’t a complete self-serving, outright racist, thieving, nasty, traitorous shit like all the present batch and anyone who supports them is what I’m really getting at here. He couldn’t have been too bad a chap, as Tony Benn was a close friend of his, although read the final paragraph of this post for a small caveat here.

From the reception block, a short walk and into the house.

Arundells dates from the late thirteenth century. Its history before Heath called it his home includes spells as a medieval canonry, home to lay tenants of the Cathedral, both a boys and a girls boarding school at different times, and as a book and wool store during the Second World War. Post-war, Arundells fell into disrepair and was in danger of being demolished before being bought and renovated. Then, in 1985 it was bought by the former Prime Minister who hired an interior designer to modernise the house while paying respect to its origins. Display cabinets and furniture were designed for the house at the same time, and many of these pieces are still there now, housing art, collectibles, and gifts from Heath’s interesting life.

Wandering around the ground floor rooms we got to see his yachting memorabilia, his Steinway piano, photos of celebrities and dignitaries, artwork by Winston Churchill and L.S. Lowry, Tang and Ming dynasty pieces, gifts from Mao Zedong, and lots of original political cartoons. It was here that I first started to get the impression that unlike the modern Tory’s xenophobic stance that is designed to shield corruption and incompetence and theft of public money from the average voting imbecile, Heath had a far more cooperative, international viewpoint. This would be confirmed when we headed upstairs.

Heath’s military and political history was spelled out on the first floor, rather than simply implied on the more home-like lower level. As someone interested in politics prior to World War II, his views were at odds with the Conservative-led government’s, despite being Conservative himself. He was opposed to Franco in Spain (his car had been machine-gunned while in Spain in 1938, and his hotel had been bombed by Franco’s forces so you can see how that might have an impact), and was at the Nuremberg Rally in Germany in 1937 where he was appalled by what he saw there and repulsed by meeting Göring, Goebbels, and Himmler, the lattermost of whom he described as “the most evil man I have ever met.” Heath was therefore opposed to appeasement, and in 1941 was called up to service. He was given a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, and temporarily commanded a battery that provided artillery support in France and Germany in the final years of the war. Though he didn’t personally kill anyone, he was in charge of a firing squad that executed a Polish soldier convicted of rape and murder, and he witnessed the results of the devastation of war at first hand which helped to cement his political world views.

While leader of the opposition in 1968 it was decision to immediately sack Nigel Farage’s wank material poster boy, Enoch Powell, following the revolting “rivers of blood” speech. Promoting the free market and closer ties to Europe as a means to get out of the country’s terrible economic situation against the Labour view of the time that this was simply reactionary, Heath led the Tories to election victory, and in 1973 brought the UK into Europe. How times and Tories change.

However, it wasn’t all good. Support for Pinochet in Chile, support for bombings by the US in Hanoi, Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland and the introduction of internment there, were just some of the “Ah, now, that could have been handled better” moments of his political career. These all led to an early election in 1974, the inconclusive result of which was a minority Labour government, before Margaret Thatcher could rise to power. Heath sat on the left side of the right-wing Tories and maintained a poor relationship with Thatcher throughout the rest of his and her lives, so that’s some small comfort.

“Make sure you go down to the end of the garden,” we’d been told in reception, and by one of the people in the house, so after we’d enjoyed our look around Arundells far more than we’d been expecting to we headed outside.

It helped with this being such a lovely day to visit Arundells, of course, but there was no disputing that this was a place with a great garden, indeed. At the very bottom of the garden it was possible to see part of the River Avon at the rear, and to look back along the length of the lawn and grounds towards the house and the cathedral beyond that.

And that is Arundells in Salisbury, and a very nice place it is too. We went in without expectations and were richly rewarded by being surprised, impressed, and educated everywhere we went. Learning about Heath was great, since we’d not known anything, although his personal life and some late-in-life accusations about him were obviously not mentioned or referred to anywhere. Understandable, but something you should check out if you feel the urge. One of the nicest aspects of Arundells, though, were the people working there, and a nicer, more committed bunch of museum employees and helpers we’ve yet to meet on our travels.

The building’s a nice one from the outside, and large inside, but be prepared to feel a little claustrophobic as it is absolutely rammed with memorabilia from the infantry regiments and your route around the ground floor is labyrinthine. For us, it was a chance to put some money into the local community and have a nose around, but there were other visitors who appeared to look at and read absolutely everything, and others – clearly military as we saw them fishing around for proof of their soldierly status to get reduced entrance fees – who wandered through, mostly talking to each other and not glancing at anything at all. So, you could argue that it’s a museum for you no matter what your interest levels in the military are. There’s a garden area at the back too.

That visit to the Rifles Museum drew a line under the cultural portion of this Saturday in Salisbury. From this point on our plan was to hit a few pubs, with another mix of culture and social activities planned for the following day too.

Built between 1327 and 1342 the High Street Gate is one of four original gates in the medieval walls of Salisbury. The wall and gate may be fourteenth century, but the statue you can see in the picture below is of King Edward VII and was added in 1909 when the king visited the city.

The following pictures were taken mostly on the meandering route we took to hit a number of pubs. The water running through Salisbury is the River Avon.

It might look like a church worshipping one of those modern religions you’ve not read about but have heard have funky iconography, and in a way that’s true, but the following photos are of the grounds and building of the Salisbury Arts Centre. The building is now deconsecrated but was formerly St Edmunds.

In the Guildhall Square in Salisbury we spotted an attractive modern sculpture. This was Turning Point by John Maine, formed from seven tapering, twisting blocks of granite in the shape of a spire.

Having worked in Chichester for many years I was very familiar with the market cross at the centre of the city, and it was nice to see that Salisbury had one too (the only one of four that the city originally had) called the Poultry Cross.

Of the pubs we visited on this day, the Wyndham Arms with its connections to the Hopback Brewery was the only one we were determined to hit, with others being fortunate happenstances. Of course I took photos of beers we drank but this barely scratches the surface.

To finish this brief post about Salisbury, some atmospheric night shots as we made our way back to the Rose & Crown Hotel. We were particularly taken by the Walking Madonna sculpture outside the cathedral by Dame Elisabeth Frink. Delightfully eerie.

In the next post in this Salisbury travelogue series I’ll cover our visit to nearby Old Sarum.

Old Sarum is run by English Heritage and we’ve had run-ins with English Heritage in the past so we expected the same on this occasion, but I’m happy to report that the people manning the ticketing were lovely. No high pressure sales pitch to get us to join made such a nice change; just the usual helpful hints on what to see and what would be the best route. There is a car park with s small fee for non-members accessed up a single track road before you get into the castle area of the location.

As a visitor to Old Sarum there are basically two things you’re going to want to see (regular visitors might also appreciate the walks and views, but I’m sticking to historical elements here): the castle, and the cathedral. Or ruins thereof, to be more accurate. We started with the castle.

Old Sarum dates to around the 400 BCE when the first hillfort and ditch was used for protection. It subsequently was occupied or used by tribes of Gauls under Roman rule, and came under Saxon rulership too, but it was only when the Vikings started invading from the late eight century onwards that defences were properly implemented and garrisons stationed. It was used as a base of planning against the Danes in the north during the ninth century. Following the Norman conquest a proper motte-and-bailey castle was erected and the cathedral was built, and the ruins that you see today are typical of Norman construction.

We walked a complete circuit of the walls of Old Sarum castle, admiring the views out across the Wiltshire countryside, and trying not to get blown off the stone paths by the wind that gusted strongly.

The name of Sarum is likely due to a mistake. Its name of Sarisburie was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 but records indicate it was often shortened to simply Sar with a line over the top of the ‘r’. Since this in itself was more often used to abbreviate the word “rum” in place names, Sarisburie eventually became Sarum.

Our visit to Old Sarum was punctuated numerous times by light aircraft flying over and dropping skydivers out. Not far from the site was an airfield that was laid down during the World War I. These days it’s for activities just like this, and it did look fun.

After completing our circuit of the castle we left the area over the bridge over the ditch surrounding it, then went for an anticlockwise walk around the ground outside.

As already mentioned, the cathedral dates to the Norman period but only lasted just over a century. Defensively, the location on a hill with views all around made sense but I’ve already mentioned that wind and writings from clergy pointed out that in addition to wind damage to the church, the howling noise could drown out prayers and there were problems with getting fresh water; it was likely easier and cheaper to transport it by cart from rivers than by wells. In addition, the church and the military often were at odds with one another with the latter blocking access on occasion, and the limited land space left lodgings that the clerics didn’t really like. The church eventually sought and got permission to relocate the cathedral to what is now Salisbury around 1220 CE, and the city soon followed it.

We enjoyed Old Sarum. If you get a pleasant day like the one we had then the countryside views are fabulous, with barely any sign of buildings in any direction. You can really appreciate what a good vantage point for spotting approaching hordes it would have provided. If you’re keen on walks then there’s a decent enough set of trails around too.

In the next post in this short travel series covering our time in Salisbury we’ll head across to Wilton House for a look around.

Wilton House, home to the Earl and Countess of Pembroke, is not far from Salisbury, where we were staying for the weekend, and we headed there straight after our visit to similarly nearby Old Sarum that you’ve already read about. We’d visited Wilton House many years before, and while our memories weren’t photographic – like the images inside the house aren’t (I’m sorry, I’ll stop mentioning it, I swear) – we were pretty sure that the grounds hadn’t really changed in the intervening decade or so. For us, then, this was mostly a case of walking around, taking some pictures, admiring the lawns and trees and architecture, getting some fresh air. You’ll have to get your own fresh air, but the pictures I’m happy to share with you now.

First up was the Water Garden, which wasn’t listed as an oriental water garden on the simple site map we had on us but the small pagoda garden sculpture and the little red bridges certainly implied an aesthetic from the Far East. It was surprisingly difficult to get any decent photos here thanks to a horribly bright sun through some hazy clouds and trying to avoid pictures with kids in them. Kids: ruining things since the time of the dinosaurs, probably.

We remembered the Whispering Seat from our visit to Wilton House previously and, as you are obliged to do, we tried whispering to each other from opposite ends of the curved, stone furniture. That worked fine, but the view you would normally be afforded of the main building on the estate was somewhat spoiled by the activities for children that had been set up in the grounds. Kids: still ruining things even though the dinosaurs are all now chickens, probably.

We waited for a few people to vacate the area of the Loggia in the gardens. In case you’re not aware, a loggia is a covered gallery with one exposed wall and while they’re typically found in buildings – and typically on upper levels because that’s where you tend to get views you’d like to gaze out upon – this one was in the grounds of Wilton House set in a way to look upon the Egyptian Column.

The Corinthian-style column was originally in the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome, is made of white Egyptian granite (hence the name), and dates from around the third century CE. It was purchased in the seventeenth century and moved to its present location early in the nineteenth century. The statue of Venus on the top was added after purchase and dates to the late Renaissance period.

From the column we strolled along the path that runs by the River Nadder, taking us past the Victorian Boathouse and towards the likely most-photographed structure on the grounds of Wilton House.

Partly based on a design rejected for the Rialto Bridge in Venice, the Palladian Bridge at Wilton House was built in 1736. The Palladian style was already being used for the south front face of the main building attributed to Inigo Jones. There’s no public access to the bridge but in this case you can forgive that because the best appreciation of its geometric symmetry comes from not being on the thing.

The remainder of the photos here will be from passing the side of Wilton House before heading in, and from the north entrance area to Wilton House with its statue of Marcus Aurelius on a horse above the arch, the formal gardens, and the fountain.

Obviously, I’d have loved to have taken some photos from inside Wilton House – especially the Sex Dungeon and the Hallway of Burnt Clowns – but I do understand that this is still a lived-in home and not a public building preserved for the likes of common oiks such as me. The grounds are lovely, though, and you could easily pass a few hours on a nice day with a slow bimble.

In the next and final post from this Salisbury Weekender travelogue series I’ll conclude this last day in Wiltshire with some pubs and thoughts about Salisbury as a place to have a few days’ break.

In the previous posts from this day that you may or may not have (and very likely haven’t) read, we’d taken a look around nearby Wilton House after first popping across to Old Sarum. We returned to our hotel – the Rose and Crown Hotel – with plans to check out a small cider festival taking place at one of the pubs in town. However, there was enough time and pleasant-enough weather first to treat ourselves to a bottle of (rather overpriced) Prosecco out on the hotel lawn beside the River Avon, taking in the views of the swans and the paddle boarders upon it.

So, Prosecco quaffed, we headed off into Salisbury, and this took us over the bridge we’d used on the previous day but this time I felt the overwhelming urge to snap a few photos of St Nicholas Hospital. This hospital can date its origins back to at least 1215 and it has served as a Christian almshouse for clergy and lay people with limited means and in need of shelter so long as they are Christian and prepared to worship daily. A mixture of “ah, that’s nice” and “ah, that seems somehow weirdly un-Christian” to me. “Of course we’ll help you… for a price!” Fortunately, that price is mostly an imaginary one, and hopefully it gives people enough time to get on their feet and do something with their lives without that bit of coercion.

That cider festival was taking place at The Winchester Gate and it was pretty rammed out the back where live music was being performed and everyone was enjoying the large range of ciders on. We opted for the quieter inside area and tried a few of the offerings. All very good, and the pub seemed to do a good standard range of ales too. Pretty much our sort of pub, in fact. I will say that the pressures of the festival and dealing with all the people queueing up with their tickets for the ciders seemed to be taking its toll a little on what I assume is a normally far more friendly staff because curt and scowling responses were what we were treated to, but perhaps I’ve just got one of those faces that antagonises people. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have.

There was time for another couple of pubs before grabbing some food, so we headed towards Market Square and had a drink in each of The Anchor & Hope and the Ox Row Inn. Very friendly staff in the former, and very friendly patrons in the latter, so that was nice.

And that just left a short stroll to get some food to soak up some of the day’s alcohol via a visit to Wildwood just off the square. Nice cocktails, and we had no complaints about the food at all – you know the sort of thing you’re going to get from a chain restaurant like this – but service was a bit hit-and-miss given how quiet the venue was. It served its purpose, though.

And that brings this weekend in Salisbury to a close. A very nice place to visit with a lot to see, and I think we chose our hotel well. Getting such good weather for our visit helped a lot. Highlight of Salisbury for us would be Arundells, and if you’re in the area then Old Sarum is definitely worth a visit too. Click the “Salisbury Weekender 2022” tag below if you want to check all the posts from this short travelogue series.