"Cathedral Town" a Salisbury Travel Page by grandmaR

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Steeple from the visitor's center cafeteria

Preparation for the Visit

We did this trip to England primarily to see our daughter who had been living in Cheltenham for 3 years on a job exchange. Her husband and youngest son (8 years old) were living there too.

I wanted to see the Salisbury cathedral (which is sort of on the way back to the house our daughter is renting in Cheltenham) because I remembered studying paintings of it when I was in school.

I had taken Bob to see the two paintings of it by Constable at the National Gallery while we were in London. The cathedral rises out of the plain and is visible for miles away, including from the original Roman settlement of Old Saarum.

We spent the first 4 days in London. Then we got on the tube and rode out to West Ruislep so that she could pick us up without having to drive all the way into London.

After we parked, we walked to the Cathedral. Most unusually, they specified the exact amount of the 'voluntary donation' required to be admitted. I think as seniors we paid about £3.

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Chloisters with cedar trees

Magna Carta

We went into the chloisters (which were never a residental abby), and into the chapter house where there are one of the four remaining original copies of the Magna Carta. I was not able to get to the British Library when we were in London to see the copies that are there. The charter house also had a large display of antique silver.

After we walked around the gift shop, we went back to the car and started in the direction of Stonehenge and Avebury. We stopped at Old Sarum where the original cathedral was located to look back at the 'new' cathedral.