Old Sarum Cathedral: Salisbury Cathedral's Invisible Ancestor

Above: A museum model of what Old Sarum Cathedral must have looked like, ca. 1200 A.D.  Photo source: Wikimedia commons.

Two miles north of Salisbury, England, and only six miles from Stonehenge lies an empty field that was once the site of Old Sarum Cathedral, the administrative seat of William the Conqueror and, for more than 4,000 years, one of the holiest sites in all of Britain.

A zoom-in zoom-out Wikimapia overview of the Old Sarum grounds may be found here.  For photos, visit the English Heritage Old Sarum page, the Old Sarum Facebook Page or more than 70 visitor photos posted at TripAdvisor.co.uk's Old Sarum Page.

According to Sacred Destinations.com, “Old Sarum was occupied since about 3,000 B.C. by a Neolithic community who built communal burial places, stock enclosures, and large ritual enclosures known as henges (the same sort of structure, on a less monumental scale, as nearby Stonehenge and Avebury Henge).

“From about 500 B.C., during the Iron Age, the hilltop site was given further protection with double ditches and used as an administrative center and fort.  It was later settled by the Romans (from c. 60 A.D.) who called it Sorviodunum. “

The Roman soldiers probably built a shrine to one of their gods on the top of the hill, and Sorviodunum remained a key military stronghold because it was located near a major intersection of several Roman roads, notably the roads from Winchester to Exeter, from Silchester, and from the Severn via the Mindip Hills.

After the withdrawal of Roman troops from Britain, Saxons took over the Old Sarum hillsite around 552 A.D.  They renamed it Searobyrig.  It became a royal estate of the Saxon kings, who re-fortified the hill and used their hill-fort to protect the local farmers and townsfolk for more than 500 years.

After the Norman conquest of 1066, William the Conqueror immediately recognized the importance of Old Sarum, chose it as his residence and began constructing a wooden castle on the site in 1069.  It became the seat of the Norman king’s court and the county government in Salisbury from 1070 forward.  The Norman cathedral that became known as Old Sarum Cathedral was built next to the king’s castle between 1075 and 1092.  Wikipedia provides an Old Sarum Cathedral article with model and maps here.

Above: An early wood-cut image of Old Sarum.

An Uncomfortable Place for Christian Worship

According to legend, Old Sarum Cathedral was first completed in 1092, but it was hit by lightning and burnt to the ground only five days after the church’s consecration.  The cathedral was rebuilt with stone, and completed around 1190.  Located within a military hill-fort on a gloomy hilltop, the location proved unpopular with superstitious townsfolk, who believed in local legends about the ancient hill on which Old Sarum was founded.

Soon after completion of the stone cathedral, the local council of bishops petitioned the Pope in Rome for permission to build a new cathedral in Salisbury, a much more popular, comfortable and convenient location.  They cited severe weather amongst their reasons for wishing to relocate.

The Pope granted his permission, and the bishops moved to Salisbury Cathedral in 1219.  Old Sarum Cathedral fell into disuse, and the nearby royal castle was finally demolished by King Henry VIII in 1591.

Sarum Missal Remains Popular

Despite the eventual abandonment and demolition of Old Sarum Cathedral, the Sarum Missal or guidebook for the ritual Mass that was practiced at the Old Sarum Cathedral survives and remains popular to this day. 

The Anglo-Catholic Sarum Missal is seen by modern church scholars as a quaint, curious, peculiar and fascinating gem that clearly reflects Catholic practice in Medieval England prior to the Protestant Reformation.

Free ebook copies of the Sarum Missal in several formats may be found at Google Books here and at Archive.org here.

A Wikipedia article on the Sarum Rite summarizes the Missal’s contents and explains the reasons for the continued popularity of the Sarum Rite amongst English-speaking Catholics and church historians.

Nodal Point of 10 Major Ley Lines

Despite the fact that Old Sarum Cathedral no longer exists, the Old Sarum hillsite remains an English Heritage site of great importance to students of British history, astro-archaeology, sacred geometry and ancient pre-Christian religions.  

For example, Stephen Skinner dedicates an entire section to Old Sarum in his 2006 book Sacred Geometry: Deciphering the Code.  Skinner takes pains to distinguish between “unanchored” landscape geometry (fanciful geometry superimposed on landmarks by wishful thinking) and “anchored” landscape geometry. 

The sacred geometry surrounding Old Sarum’s landscape is very well anchored indeed. According to Skinner, the Old Sarum hillsite remains the focal point of “10 main ley lines that fan out over Salisbury Plain connecting it with other prominent sites such as Stonehenge.”

What are ley lines? 

Skinner says “I believe that ley lines are manmade alignments radiating out from major stone circles and earthwork-ringed settlements . . . . The principle purpose of ley lines was to link major sites, such as Old Sarum and Avebury, with other settlements, hillforts, smaller circles and sacred religious sites . . . .  Effectively the leys formed an intricate and sacred geometry – the geometry of individual sites is related to the horizon points that were determined by the rising and setting points of the Moon and the Sun.  This geometry creates the magic that ties together the whole land, under one chief, king or priesthood.  If this sounds too mystical, then add the additional function of allowing rapid military communication along lines of sight using beacons.”

Skinner lists the following ley lines radiating northward from Old Sarum:

Ley 1: Roman Road toward Dunstable Pond

Ley 2: Toward Figsbury Ring

Ley 3: Portway Roman Road toward Quarley Hill (Fort) then Silchester (pre-Roman town)

Ley 4: Toward Sidbury Camp (Iron Age Fort)

Ley 5: Toward Ogbury Camp, Woodhenge, Durrington Walls

Ley 6: Toward Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral, Clearbury Ring, Frankenbury Camp

Ley 7: Toward Yarnbury Castle (Iron Age Fort)

Ley 8: Toward Codford Circle, Wilsbury Ring

Ley 9: Toward Grovely Castle

Ley 10: Toward Bilbury Ring

By comparison with Old Sarum, Stonehenge has only two major ley lines, which indicates that Old Sarum was far more important to the sacred geometry of the British landscape than Stonehenge.  The radiance of so many ley lines from the abandoned field upon which Old Sarum Cathedral once stood suggests Old Sarum was the spiritual and administrative center of the ancient megalithic culture that built Stonehenge and Avebury on Salisbury Plain more than 4,000 years ago.