Old Sarum Castle ~ William the Conqueror, Privies, and Moats in England

In 1066 a chap name o’ William decided he rather liked the area and went about laying claim in a very bloody fashion. He put up castles at what seemed like strategic points around England. The first was Old Sarum Castle in what is now considered Old Salisbury. It looked like a great spot up on that great hill over-looking the valley. For added security he put in two elaborate moats on the hill leading up to the main area. Slight problem in planning with that, though. You see, there wasn’t a water supply. DOH!

Oh it was a grand undertaking. Just not quite placed in the best of spots, was it? I’m sure those moats-cum-ditches helped in the defense of the castle a bit even dry, but still… not what Billy the Conqueror had in mind at all. He stayed on for a bit, and even had those dignified Roman bathrooms installed. You might know them better as Privies. Big holes in the floor is what they are. At the time they were of course covered with a wooden structure full of holes so you could sit and dream of inventing the newspaper. While the head of the castle was away playing with his army buddies, some poor chap had to go in there and dig out all the ummm crap. Nice job, that.

So. Eventually it was realized that this location simply was not all it was cracked up to be, and the Bishop was in a bit of a snit, so they began moving everything over a bit, to what is now Salisbury (as opposed to Old Salisbury, you see.) Salisbury Cathedral is the result of all that stone moving.

You see where I’m headed here yet?

The site of Old Sarum Castle is just that, a site. A hill surrounded by ditches, with two big holes where the privy used to be. Oh wait, the well is still there too. Almost forgot about that bit.

OoooKkkkkk. They didn’t take every single last stone away while building the Cathedral up the road there around 1219. There is still the stone outline of what the place was, once upon a time. The Royal Whateveritis has also put up nice little plaque thingies telling you what used to be everywhere as you walk around what remains of the walls. It is really a bit more interesting though than I make it sound here.

I mean, you can feel something here. The history and all that is palpable standing there among the ruins of what was once a very grand construction. You can easily imagine it as it once was. (Well, I could at any rate but then folks do say I’m not quite right in the head.)

Handicapped folks in wheelchairs might have a rough go at this one as there really aren’t paths, per se, but grass and dirt and ummm a small dirt pseudo-path carved out by visiting tourists, such as myself.

There is a very small gift shop here, mainly filled with stuff for children. Toy swords and shields and what have you. Even a few choices of tabard, come to think of it. Mostly they have snacks, drinks, and books. I did cave in and buy one called Dark knights & Dingy Castles. It is a rather hilarious book about the history of the times by Terry Deary and ran me �7.99 (or $16us.) I’m glad I found it. Now I’ll have to hunt down the rest of the Horrible Histories series.

There is a lot of other interesting history to this spot, and ol’ BtC wasn’t the first to see and use this hill for defense, but I gave ya the short edited Docorific version for the sake of what was intended to be a short review… ahem. For the complete history you can go see it yourself, can’t you?

This place is about 4 stars out of 5 worth of cool for history buffs interested in Times Medieval, and about 2 stars worth of rocks for everyone else. So, I’m settling on ummmm… 4 stars cuz it is my review and I am indeed very interested in stuff like that. So there.