Salisbury
cathedral city in Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom
Salisbury ( SAWLZ-bər-ee, locally SAWZ-bər-ee) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately 20 miles (30 kilometres) from Southampton and 30 miles (50 kilometres) from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of Wiltshire, near the edge of Salisbury Plain. An ancient cathedral was north of the present city at Old Sarum. A new cathedral was built near the meeting of the rivers and a settlement grew up around it, which received a city charter in 1227 as New Sarum. This continued to be its official name until 2009, when Salisbury City Council was established. Salisbury railway station is an interchange between the West of England Line and the Wessex Main Line.
Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is 8 miles (13 kilometres) northwest of Salisbury.
Toponymy
Cair-Caratauc, one of 28 cities of the Ancient Britons listed in the History of the Britons (9th century), has been identified with Salisbury. Alternative names for the city, in the Welsh Chronicle of the Britons (12th century) were Caer-Caradog, Caer-Gradawc, and Caer-Wallawg.
“Salisbury” enters the record as cathedral city in Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Salisbury, cathedral and city can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Salisbury” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Salisbury, cathedral and city provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q160642. VIAF identifies the subject as 129023345. The Library of Congress control number is n82029063. Authority coordinates are 51.074, -1.794. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1227 and 2009.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Salisbury”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Salisbury primary sources, Salisbury archive and Salisbury research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Salisbury”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Salisbury” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.