Wiltshire News: Stonehenge (burials); Sarum, Salisbury area

Wiltshire District -



The area is a layer cake, as this site describes parts of it - history of Sarum, see below, at ://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/castles/sarum.shtml.



Find successive cultures, religions for the ages. Burial practices, historical developments taking place within short distances, Cathedral, little hamlets with little Norman churches (Mildenhall, for example - there are two Mildenhalls, one north of London with a military base, and then this little village they pronounce as "Minall" if you are looking).



Stonehenge: Fellow Left Just Outside the Circle



Stonehenge.



We were told that this was a place of sun worship - example ://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.16465. New news: With the carbon-dating of cremated remains that had been in storage, archeologists now say that the purpose of Stonehenge is clearer. It was a burial ground, and apparently for rulers that dominated the area for some 500 years. Stonehenge itself dates from about 3000 BC. See://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-stonehenge_30may30,0,3850894.story



Old Sarum: Work building the banks of the earthwork area began in about 5000 BC - town then on top. It was in use through the time of the Romans and Normans, and finally the center of life moved to Salisbury, about 1219 AD.



"The Sarum Use" is an old liturgy that formed the basis for the later Book of Common Prayer, Church of England, the Common Prayer dating from 1549. View the Sarum Use, parallel Latin and the English, here - at://ia331338.us.archive.org/0/items/theancientliturg00maskuoft/theancientliturg00maskuoft.pdfOr,Or

Or, go first to this site for an overview, and then click to view. See ://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Sarum/index.html; overviews at http://www.britainexpress.com/Where_to_go_in_Britain/Destination_Library/old-sarum.htm.



A new book is coming out on that Sarum Use, says ://www.thecityandthecity.org/2008/04/new-book-on-the-sarum-use/. The liturgy is also known as the Sarum Missal. See ://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Sarum/index.htm.



Good older beach book: "Sarum - A Novel of England," by Edward Rutherford, 1987.



Salisbury. Apparently people needed water and the high earthwork town did not access it easily, thus the move to Salisbury and the vast Cathedral there, see See://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/; ://www.thetravelinsider.com/britain/salisburyintroduction.htm



Getting around. How do we cover so much in two weeks with a rented car - remember the short distances and small size of European countries. Go back to your globe and superimpose England, for example, on the US. Our car trips are not frenetic at all. They just unfold. Stonehenge, the Salisbury Plain; Old Sarum, 500 BC, see ://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.16426; Salisbury Cathedral, all an easy motorway drive from London and then south - short compared to the distances here. Easy to visit from London to Stonehenge, Stonehenge to Old Sarum, and then to Salisbury for the night.