Here they are:

With the Wylye joining 3 miles upstream, the Bourne 1 mile downstream and the Ebble joining 3 miles downstream of Salisbury, I guess the phrase “where two rivers meet” isn’t quite so distinctive.

Anyway, it is important if you live here to be able to name all the rivers, and the trick is to know that they go in alphabetical order clockwise from the top: Avon, Bourne, Ebble, Nadder, Wylye.

And you will know that the word Avon means river and the word Bourne also means river, so the confluence of the Avon and the Bourne is truly where two rivers meet.

If you are still questing after the phrase “where five rivers meet” then you may want to see the post on some Lighter Reading.

The post Do five rivers really meet here? appeared first on 332 Steps.

Nope.

The book “Endless Street” by John Challenger is very helpful here.

The Bishop already had a manor at Milford – which was also and confusingly called Old Sarisburie  –with a small village including St Martin’s church.  The churchmen’s plans were bigger than just a cathedral – they were going to lay out a whole new town, and they needed a lot of space for it.

The land chosen was conveniently near the crossroads between the east-west road from Winchester via Clarendon Palace to Wilton, and the north-south road from Old Sarum to the Avon ford and onwards to the important port at Christchurch.

The lines of these key roads can still be seen, incorporated into, and distorting a bit, the new town’s grid of roads.

The bishop would get the planning uplift (as we now call it) from the conversion of fairly low-grade agricultural land into residential plots which could be rented out for 12d a year.  More money would come from running a market and having a water mill, so although the bishop would be putting a lot of money into the construction project, he could also expect to get plenty back.

Other villages already established nearby were Fisherton Anger to the west and Harnham to the south.

A Curious Reader might be wondering:

• What is Clarendon Palace?
• Was Salisbury the only New Town being built?
• Why are some of the streets in the grid wiggly?
• Do five rivers really meet here?

PS Both the old and new cathedrals are apparently on a ley line joining Stonehenge to Clearbury Ring through Old Sarum.  I am not sure why I told you this.

The post How was the site chosen? appeared first on 332 Steps.