Salisbury city & villages

Wiltshire’s only city effortlessly blends medieval architecture, cobbled streets and shady parks, with a bustling market square, great independent shops and restaurants, first-rate schools, and a racecourse – no wonder it’s been featured in The Sunday Times’ Best Places to Live Guide.

This attractive city sits in southern England’s rural heartland and is just a few miles from Stonehenge, one of the wonders of the world and best-known prehistoric monument in Europe.

Created at the confluence of five rivers, the city of Salisbury is home to one of our country’s finest Gothic cathedrals. Built between 1220 and 1258, the cathedral boasts the tallest spire in England and houses the best preserved of four remaining copies of the Magna Carta, as well as the world’s oldest working mechanical clock.

The compact city is easily explored, with the historic Cathedral Close sitting just off the centre.

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Location

Once you get here, we’re not sure why you’d want to leave, but great road and rail links make access to other parts of the country easy. Trains go straight to London in just an hour and a half, and there are also direct lines to Southampton, Bristol and Exeter.

The regional airports of Bournemouth and Southampton are both under 45 minutes away, and Heathrow, Gatwick and Bristol are easily reached by road and rail.

Schools

Salisbury is blessed with excellent schools, which makes it a very desirable location for families. The city has two outstanding grammar schools – Bishop’s Wordsworth for boys and South Wilts for girls, both with co-ed sixth forms – and some great private schools, including Godolphin, Leehurst Swan, Chafyn Grove and Salisbury Cathedral School.

There’s a sixth form college, as well as a range of excellent primary and secondary schools in the city and surrounding area.

Restaurants & pubs

One thing’s for sure – you won’t go hungry in Salisbury! There’s a huge range of great coffee shops and restaurants, and excellent pubs, too. Favourite atmospheric pubs include The Haunch of Venison – arguably the oldest pub in Salisbury – and the Ox Row Inn. Other places to head for include The Cosy Club, for fab furnishings, good food and cocktails, and Anokaa, for beautifully-presented, contemporary Indian cuisine.

Parks

Salisbury is a patchwork of green, with lots of great parks dotted through the city and its outskirts. Picnic in the beautiful cathedral grounds beneath the soaring spire, tire the children out with a run around the beautiful Queen Elizabeth Park, or wander along one of the many peaceful paths that wind their way along Salisbury’s rivers.

In Cathedral Close, the Grade II listed Arundells – former home of the late Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath – has two acres of gorgeous gardens, and Bourne Hill, on the city’s edge, is a beautiful, tranquil space with shady trees and wildflowers. Old Sarum, on the original site of the cathedral on the outskirts of Salisbury, offers the remains of an Iron Age fort to explore, as well as 29 acres of rare grassland to walk through and enjoy a picnic.

Enjoy the weekly parkrun in Churchill Gardens just a mile to the south of the city centre, and walk your dog through the natural beauty of Harnham Water Meadows.

Shopping

As well as high-street giants like M&S and Primark, Salisbury has dozens of inspirational, independent treasures and a large department store, Bradbeers, which is part of a family-run chain that has been running in Hampshire for more than 175 years.

The busy market square hosts Salisbury Charter Market on Tuesdays and Saturdays every week. The historical market has run since 1227, in Salisbury Market Place, and has around 70 stalls offering everything from meat, fish, fruit and veg, cheese, bread and cakes to clothes, bags, jewellery, plants, music and homeware.

Enticing smells will draw you to the central hot food area, where you can find hog roast, Thai, South African and Indian food. A farmers market of 12 blue and white stalls are also part of the main market. The square also hosts food and art fairs, as well as the popular Christmas market.

Business

Salisbury may be one of England’s most historic cities, but it’s cutting-edge when it comes to technology. The city has one of the best internet services in the country, making working from home just as easy as in the office. In 2020, the city was the first in the UK to have universal access to ultra-fast fibre broadband, which means that Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology is available to 22,000 households and businesses.

Culture

Salisbury has a strong arts and culture scene, with entertainment for all ages under the banner of Wiltshire Creative.

Salisbury Playhouse is one of the UK’s leading touring theatre producers with a year-round calendar of top-quality entertainment, while the Salisbury International Arts Festival and Chalke Valley History Festival are two of the biggest cultural festivals in the south, drawing crowds from around the world.

Built in the late 1800s as a grain mill, Fisherton Mill is the south of England’s largest, independent gallery and is a haven for shopaholics and foodies, with an award-winning cafe and artist studios.

History

Legend has it that an archer shot his arrow from Salisbury’s original site at Old Sarum, and wherever it fell would be the site of the new city and its cathedral. Eight hundred years ago, the tallest spire in England rose, and the city that we know today, planted its roots at the heart of our beautiful countryside where five rivers meet. That history is reflected all around the city, and especially in the ancient walls of Cathedral Close, which show off a range of architectural styles dating from the 13th Century. As well as the impressive cathedral, you can also visit Arundells, the home of the late Sir Edward Heath, to see many items on display including gifts to the former Prime Minister from Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon, Sir Winston Churchill and Chairman Mao. Other houses of note in the close include the elegant Queen Anne Mompesson House that featured in the film Sense and Sensibility, and both the Rifles and the Salisbury Museum.

Salisbury villages

Alderbury

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Rural post box in the village of Alderbury

Britford

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River Avon at Britford

Burcombe

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A bridge on the River Nadder in Burcombe

Coombe Bissett

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Home in Coombe Bissett

Lockerley

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St Johns Church, Lockerley

The Wallops

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Nether Wallop

The Winterslows

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Field in winterslow

The Grimsteads

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Netherhampton

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Green countryside near Netherhampton

East and West Tytherley

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Church in East Tytherley

The Deans

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Countryside near West Dean

Explore our
Patch

It’s safe to say that we live in one of most beautiful places in the British Isles, with everything from the culture and heritage of a city and the buzz of a market town, right down to the quietest rural villages. Each area has its own unique charm, so explore our patch to uncover where is perfect for you.