The Iron Age castle rampart of "Old Sarum" was built in the 4th century BC. This was later used as a fortress by the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons and finally, from the 11th century, by the Normans.


At the time of the Saxon invasions, Old Sarum fell to King Cynric of Wessex. The Saxons favoured settlements in the lowlands and largely ignored Old Sarum until the Viking invasions prompted King Alfred of Wessex to rebuild the fortifications. However Old Sarum was abandoned by its inhabitants and was sacked and burnt down by the Danish-Norwegian king Sweyn Forkbeard in 1003. After the Norman invasion a castle was built by 1070, which was directly under the control of the Norman kings.

In 1075, the Council of London installed the first Bishop of Salisbury, named Herman. He and his successor, Saint Osmund, began the construction of the first Salisbury cathedral, that was completed in 1092.

In 1220, Bishop Richard Poore of Sarum began building a new cathedral about three kilometres away in the valley south of the fortress of Old Sarum. This was the nucleus of today's city of Salisbury, initially under the name New Sarum. Just seven years later, Salisbury was granted city rights. The cathedral was consecrated in 1258 after only 38 years of construction.
Due to the short construction period of the cathedral, its architectural style largely corresponds to the early English Gothic style. The free building site and the generous financial support of Henry III were decisive for the rapid completion. The crossing tower, which was added in the early 14th century, has been the tallest church tower in Great Britain at 123 metres since 1561, after the collapse of the crossing tower of the old St Paul's Cathedral.

The only major sections begun later were the cloisters, added in 1240, the chapter house in 1263, the tower and spire, which at 123 m dominated the skyline from 1330. In total, 70,000 tons of stone, 3,000 tons of timber and 450 tons of lead were used in the construction of the cathedral.

In the 17th century, Christopher Wren designed restoration measures to strengthen the central pillars, which by then had visibly deformed under the weight of the tower and spire. Significant changes to the cathedral were made by the architect James Wyatt in 1790, including the replacement of the original rood screen and demolition of a bell tower which stood northwest of the main building.

The floor plan of Salisbury Cathedral shows a three-aisled basilica with two transepts.

The chapter house is notable for its octagonal shape, slender central pillar.

And when the sermons got too boring, some of the listeners could secretly play Nine Men's Morris.