This heyday of the settlement lasted for around 300 years until disputes between the Sheriff of Wiltshire and the Bishop of Salisbury finally led to the removal of the church into the nearby plain.

Although the settlement was effectively uninhabited, its landowners continued to have parliamentary representation into the 19th century, making it one of the most notorious of the rotten boroughs that existed before the Reform Act 1832.

Old Sarum is also the name of a modern settlement north-east of the monument, where there is a grass strip airfield and a small business park, and large 21st-century housing developments.

The archaeologist Sir R. C. Hoare described it as "a city of high note in the remotest periods by the several barrows near it, and its proximity to the two largest stone circles in England, namely, Stonehenge and Avebury.

"[a] At the time of the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, the area of Old Sarum seems to have formed part of the territory of the Atrebates,[11] a British tribe apparently ruled by Gaulish exiles.

[12]: 150–151  Bishop Ussher argued for its identification with the "Cair Caratauc"[14] listed among the 28 cities of Britain by the History of the Britons traditionally ascribed to Nennius.

[3] It remained part of Wessex thereafter[16]: 1  but, preferring settlements in bottomland like nearby Wilton,[2] the Saxons largely ignored Old Sarum[17] until the Viking invasions led King Alfred to restore its fortifications.

[2] In the early part of the 9th century, it was a frequent residence of Egbert of Wessex and, in 960, King Edgar assembled a national council there to plan a defence against the Danes in the north.

In 1075, the Council of London established Herman as the first bishop of Salisbury (Seriberiensis episcopus),[20] uniting his former sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury into a single diocese which covered the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, and Berkshire.

[20] Osmund was a cousin of William the Conqueror[21] and Lord Chancellor of England; he was responsible for the codification of the Sarum Rite,[22] the compilation of the Domesday Book, and—after centuries of advocacy from Salisbury's bishops—was finally canonized by Pope Callixtus III in 1457.

[23] The Domesday Book was probably presented to William I at Old Sarum in 1086,[2] the same year he convened the prelates, nobles, sheriffs, and knights of his dominions there to pay him homage[24] by the Oath of Salisbury.

[25][26] Bishop Roger was a close ally of Henry I who served as his viceroy during the king's absence to Normandy[27] and directed the royal administration and exchequer along with his extended family.

[32] An early 12th-century observer, William of Malmesbury, called Sarum a town "more like a castle than city, being environed with a high wall", and noted that "notwithstanding that it was very well accommodated with all other conveniences, yet such was the want for water that it sold at a great rate".

The late 12th-century canon Peter of Blois[33] described his prebendary as "barren, dry, and solitary, exposed to the rage of the wind" and the cathedral "as a captive on the hill where it was built, like the ark of God shut up in the profane house of Baal.

[16]: 2  Bishop Herbert received permission for the move from Richard I, who was agreeably disposed towards the diocese after discovering it held £90 000 in coin in trust for his father, in addition to jewels, vestments, and plate,[16]: 3  but was forced to delay the change after John's succession.

By papal order, Herbert's brother Richard Poore was translated from Chichester to succeed him in 1217; the next year, Sarum's dean and chapter presented arguments to Rome for the cathedral's relocation.

[16]: 3  The investigation of these claims by the papal legate Cardinal Gualo verified the chapter's claims that the site's water was both expensive and sometimes restricted by the castellans; that housing within the walls was insufficient for the clerics, who were required to rent from the laity; that the wind was sometimes so strong that divine offices could not be heard and the roof was repeatedly damaged; and that the soldiers of the royal fortress restricted access to the cathedral precinct to the common folk during Ash Wednesday and on other occasions for providing the Eucharist and the clerics felt imperilled by their circumstances.

[16]: 4  On Easter Monday, 1219, a wooden chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary was begun near the banks of the Hampshire Avon; on Trinity Sunday, Bishop Poore celebrated mass there and consecrated a cemetery.

Evidence of quarrying into the 14th century shows some continued habitation,[17] but the settlement was largely abandoned and Edward II ordered the castle's demolition in 1322.

[29] In 2014, an on-site geophysical survey of the inner and outer bailey by the University of Southampton revealed its royal palace,[30] as well as the street plan of the medieval city.