Old Sarum Bishops Palace(s) (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Old Saresbury; Salisbury

In the civil parish of Salisbury.
In the historic county of Wiltshire.
Modern Authority of Wiltshire.
1974 county of Wiltshire.
Medieval County of Wiltshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU13653272
Latitude 51.09475° Longitude -1.80597°

Old Sarum Bishops Palace(s) has been described as a certain Palace.

There are masonry footings remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

A Medieval cathedral and close situated within the northwest section of the bailey at Old Sarum Castle. The cathedral was first constructed between 1078-92 AD and comprised an apsidal east end, narrow north and south aisles and an aisled nave. Between circa 1110-25 the east end of the cathedral was enlarged to comprise an aisled presbytery, three chapels, a tower and aisled north and south transepts. This phase may have also included construction of the cloister. The Bishops Palace was constructed between 1102-39 and comprised four ranges enclosing a courtyard. Further additions at the western end of the cathedral took place between circa 1142 and 1200. The cathedral is situated in the centre of the Close which was bounded on the east by a bank, to the south by a road and to the northwest by the hillfort defences. The canons cemetery has been identified to the south of the Cathedral, with a lay cemetery situated further to the south and east. The cloister and bishops palace are both situated to the northeast. A number of buildings including a possible deanery were present to the southwest and west of the cathedral. The siting of the cathedral within the bailey of the castle eventually caused conflict between the castle and ecclesiastical authorities, leading to the removal of the cathedral to Salisbury (New Sarum) in 1219. A chapel in the cathedral remained in use at Old Sarum. From 1331 stonework from the cathedral was removed for the construction of a range of buildings in Salisbury including the precinct wall to Salisbury Cathedral. (PastScape)
A re-examination of the published excavations of 1909-15 has led to a reappraisal of the buildings to the north of the cathedral. While the cloister requires re-excavation to arrive at a final dating, much of its meaning and the source for its construction can be said to have come from the enclosed bishop's palace to the north, by Bishop Osmund in the closing decades of the 11th century. (PastScape ref. Montague 2006)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1015675, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 26715
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1197111.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) SU13SW452.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- English Heritage
  Wikipedia entry
  CastleUK.net
Books
- Smith, P.L., 2013, The Bishop's Palace at Salisbury (Reading: Spire Books) p. 195-7
  Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 627-9
  Keevill, Graham D., 2000, Medieval Palaces, An Archaeology (Stroud; Tempus) p. 23-4, 34, 71, 86-7, 105, 120, 126, 153, 162, 170
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 183-4
  James, T.B., 1990, The Palaces of Medieval England (London; Seaby)
  RCHME, 1977, 'Old Sarum' in Ancient and Historical Monuments in the City of Salisbury Vol. 1 (HMSO) p. 1-15, 173-4 online transcription
  Morewood, Caroline C., 1910, 'Introductory Chapter' in Rait, R.S. (ed), English Episcopal Palaces (Province of Canterbury) (London; Constable & Co) p. 24 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Montague, John, 2006, 'The Cloister and Bishop's Palace at Old Sarum with Some Thoughts on the Origins and Meaning of Secular Cathedral Cloisters' Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 159 p. 48-70
  Hope, W.H.St John and Hawley, W., 1915-16, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries London (ser2) Vol. 28 p. 174-83
Guidebooks
- Renn, Derek, 1994, Old Sarum Wiltshire (London: English Heritage)
  Shortt, H de S., 1988, Old Sarum Wiltshire (London: English Heritage)
  Shortt, H de S., 1965, Old Sarum Wiltshire (HMSO)
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 495
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 260 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Wiltshire Council, 2009, Extensive Urban Survey - Wiltshire (Wiltshire Council, English Heritage) Download copy
  Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) p. 180-82 (available via EThOS)

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
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