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Old Sarum, Wiltshire
Castle Rd, Salisbury SP1 3SD
Old Sarum had an Iron Age hillfort, saw Roman occupation, medieval fortification, a cathedral, saw Henry II incarcerate his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, there for inciting their sons to rebel against him, but over the centuries saw its importance both militarily and ecclesiastically wax and wane. With Salisbury Cathedral built and the one at Old Sarum dismantled administrative importance also seeped away but even with less than a dozen electorate was still sending MPs to Parliament until 1832 (!) including Charles Mompesson who had Mompesson House built in Salisbury Close. Today at Old Sarum there is but a bump in the ground, and a few stones, to mark what once was great, it's a reminder, as the 2020 pandemic again also showed, that there's little that lasts forever. Disabled Access