This post is a little bit out of order, but here’s a short summary of the first part of our field trip on Tuesday- to Salisbury! Before we even got to the town, we could see the spire of the Salisbury cathedral towering above everything around it. This spire is actually the tallest in all of Britain (I saw the Guinness World Record certificate at the top!). Once we were there, the group split up to do things like admire the cathedral, explore the town, buy a lot of cheese at the market, frolic in the countryside, walk to Old Sarum, climb hundreds of stairs, etc. As much as I would like to explain how to frolic, I’m only going to talk about the Cathedral Tower Tour and Old Sarum.
Old Sarum is where the first two Salisbury Cathedrals were built (in 1092 and then the 1100’s), where there is now only the ruins of the cathedral and the castle. This site is up on a hill outside of Salisbury. We walked there from the current cathedral, and had a lovely time walking around on the old foundations and looking at the beautiful scenery around us. I’ll echo Halle in saying that it was refreshing to be outside of the city, even for a short time. Also, I walked on foundations that were laid 900 years ago. Wow. I keep checking my math because I can’t believe that’s real.
Later I went back to the cathedral in town and went on a tower tour (a lot of other students did too!). We learned a lot about how the cathedral was constructed on the tour and renovations/changes that have been made since the initial construction. The building was finished in only 38 years (1220-1258), but the spire wasn’t added until the early 1300’s. We walked up a lot of narrow spiral staircases and finally got to the top- the view was incredible. We, of course, sang an enthusiastic rendition of 606 from the balcony before we returned to the earth.
Hopefully the photos can do the views justice. Enjoy!
-Sam