22 March 2015 - Robin Hill Farm, Winterslow, Wiltshire

Since arriving in England the morning temperatures have been more often than not about zero or little more, and not climbed much more than ten or eleven, even when the sun has shone. It is still winter here although the blossoms on the trees and the daffodils might suggest otherwise.

We made an early start and were settled in a car park in the centre of Salisbury before 10 am. The Park & Rides do not seem to function on Sundays, or at least at this time of the year, and the townsfolk were barely out of bed when we arrived in town. That could well have been because the shops do not open until then on a Sunday and so the town was really quite dead.


We found our way to the MacDonald’s and enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee, by which time the Information Centre was open. Here, as in Oxford, maps come with price tags of 2 GBP and more but today the chap behind the desk produced an excellent promotional  city map from a drawer and offered it to us gratis, with advice and marks to guide us through our day's activity.

We headed off through the old North Gate and to the famous Cathedral which today was in use, the weekly congregation doing what they normally do in the privacy of tourist free premises. The man on the door suggested we head instead through the cloisters and to the octagonal Chapter House home to the original Magna Carta. The chapter house itself is a stunning structure and of course the Magna Carta and its history and the intricacies of the law is an education itself. We spent some time here chatting with the volunteer on duty before we proceeded further through the cloisters to the cathedral. The parishioners were still inside enjoying their cups of tea and the weekly chitchat catch up with their fellow believers, but the tourists had also arrived in force and so we, the latter, all drifted around this magnificent centre of worship and marvelled at the architecture.

Salisbury Cathedral was built over forty years, begun in 1220 and because of the relatively short building period, the whole structure fits together so much better than other similar churches and cathedrals which have often been works in progress through many many centuries. The exception to this is the spire which was constructed a century later and at 404 feet is the highest in all of England. The survival of this structure is somewhat a miracle; the foundations penetrate only about six feet into marshy ground, and when Christopher Wren surveyed it, he found the spire to be leaning almost two and a half feet out of true. He added further tie rods which finally arrested the movement.

The cathedral is also home to a medieval clock, made in or before 1386, originally located in a separate bell tower demolished in 1792 just to the north of the cathedral. It is probably the oldest working clock in existence, and like all clocks of that date had no face, but struck the hour on a bell now located in the Cathedral roof space. In 1956 it was repaired and restored to its original condition.

The grounds of the Cathedral are spacious and invite picnics, photos and relaxation. We sat there in the sunshine, still well wrapped in our many layers, enjoying our packed lunch, watching all the others enjoying their own Sunday pastimes.

Our next port of call was Mompesson House, built in 1701, an example of Queen Anne architecture, used as the location for the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. One of the upper rooms had an excellent exhibition in honour of the twentieth anniversary of the event and the other rooms were beautifully furnished and restored in various periods. Happily for us, this is yet another National Trust property and for us, free.

The chap in the Information Centre had urged us to walk across the Watermeadows to the Mill on the River Nadder where John Constable had sat and painted his famous scene of the Cathedral.  The meadows also provide evidence of the marshy nature of the surrounding land and today were well populated with sheep, a charming pastoral foreground to the scene that is now so famous. Today the Mill was busy with locals enjoying their Sunday lunch; we wandered on past, then along the streets to return to the centre of the city down Harnham Road where Chris and his parents lived immediately before he emigrated to Australia. Alas he was unable to pinpoint the exact house because as is so oft the situation in England, the houses are so very alike.

Back in the city we visited St Thomas, named after Thomas a Becket, often overlooked by the Salisbury tourist. Built in 1475, it features a fine carved roof and “Doom” painting over the chancel arch and is well worth a visit.

After a little shopping at the Maltings we headed off to the shopping centre on the road to Southampton in an attempt to buy toilet chemical. Ben, at the Motorhome hire centre, had told us that Tescos sell the appropriate product, but here as in other supermarkets visited in the last couple of days, we learned that it was no longer available. For now this remains a mystery and one that requires solving in the next day or two, or we really will be in the poo, as it were.

The Sunday retail laws decree that shops must close at 4 pm so we had to give up our search and headed back “home” instead, satisfied with our sightseeing  for the day and ready to move on to the next stage. A call to the next CL proprietor, the opening of a bottle of red and the cooking of some excellent cider and apple pork sausages finished the day just perfectly.