Salisbury (/ˈsɔːlzbəri/ SAWLZ-bər-ee, locally /ˈsɔːzbəri/ SAWZ-bər-ee) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820,[1] at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne.

In 1075 the Council of London established Herman as the first bishop of Salisbury,[12] uniting his former sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury into a single diocese which covered the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, and Berkshire.

[16][17] Bishop Roger was a close ally of Henry I (reigned 1100–1135): he served as viceroy during the king's absence in Normandy[18] and directed, along with his extended family, the royal administration and exchequer.

[19] He refurbished and expanded Old Sarum's cathedral in the 1110s and began work on a royal palace during the 1130s, prior to his arrest by Henry's successor, Stephen.

[18] After this arrest, the castle at Old Sarum was allowed to fall into disrepair, but the sheriff and castellan continued to administer the area under the king's authority.

[20] Bishop of Salisbury Hubert Walter was instrumental in the negotiations with Saladin during the Third Crusade, but he spent little time in his diocese prior to his elevation to archbishop of Canterbury.

[22] This caused Peter of Blois to describe the church as "a captive within the walls of the citadel like the ark of God in the profane house of Baal".

The legend is sometimes amended to claim that the arrow struck a white deer, which continued to run and died on the spot where the cathedral now rests.

The structure was built upon wooden faggots on a gravel bed with unusually shallow foundations of 18 in (45 cm) and the main body was completed in only 38 years.

[28] In 1450, a number of riots broke out in Salisbury at roughly the same time as Jack Cade led a famous rebellion through London.

His commander in chief, the Earl of Feversham, advised retreat on 23 November, and the next day John Churchill defected to William.

Several factories were set up in the centre of Salisbury and staffed by predominantly young women who had no previous mechanical experience but were trained for specific tasks in the aircraft construction process.

[32] In July 2021 a memorial to the workers, in the form of a life-size fibreglass model Mk IX Spitfire, was unveiled in Castle Road, Salisbury (near the rugby club) on the site of one of the factories.

The Member of Parliament for the Salisbury constituency, which includes the city, Wilton, Old Sarum, Laverstock and surrounding rural areas, is John Glen (Conservative),[37] who was first elected in 2010.

[55] In 1226, Henry III granted the Bishop of Salisbury a charter to hold a fair lasting eight days from the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August).

[56] Over the centuries the dates of the fair have moved around, but in its modern guise, a funfair is now held in the Market Place for three days from the third Monday in October.

Ammoniacal liquor, another by-product, was mixed with sulphuric acid, dried and ground to make a powder which was sold as an agricultural fertiliser.

By 1912, 150 men were employed and the company was also making small commercial vehicles and 20-seater buses, some of which were later used by the newly established Wilts & Dorset operator.

In the 18th century, John Constable made a number of celebrated landscape paintings featuring the cathedral's spire and the surrounding countryside.

[62] In the 13th and 14th centuries, Salisbury was a seat of learning, with students of theology and the liberal arts taught at the College of the Valley Scholars, founded by Bishop Giles of Bridport in 1262.

The lack of adequate roads is a cause of concern to the people of Salisbury as there are no motorway links to the ports of Southampton and Bristol.

[66] Salisbury bus station, which opened in 1939, closed in January 2014 due to high operating costs and low usage.

[67] Situated in Endless Street, on the northeastern edge of the city centre, the site was later developed into retirement homes, which opened in February 2018.

The chancel is from c.1230, the tower (with spire) is 14th-century and the nave and aisles are from the late 15th century, but there is evidence of an earlier church and of Saxon burials.

[87] As the city's suburbs extended further north, St Francis's church was consecrated in 1940 to serve an area which had been part of Stratford-sub-Castle parish.

Old Sarum Airfield, north of the city centre, is home to a variety of aviation-based businesses, including flying schools and the APT Charitable Trust for disabled flyers.

The Haunch of Venison, overlooking the Poultry Cross, operates from a 14th-century building; one of its attractions is a cast of a mummified hand, supposedly severed during a game of cards.

Its frequency now transmits Greatest Hits Radio Salisbury, which broadcasts national and regional music programmes with local news bulletins.

The local free weekly newspaper from the same publisher is the Avon Advertiser, which is delivered to houses in Salisbury and the surrounding area.

In terms of the local climate, Salisbury is among the sunniest of inland areas in the UK, averaging over 1650 hours of sunshine in a typical year.