- Welcome to Humphreys of Henley TV,
countryside concierge at its finest.
And a fabulously warm and
sunny welcome to Salisbury.
We have had the most glorious weekend
in this beautiful little city in the,
right down in the heart of Wiltshire,
really is just lovely.
And right at the moment,
what you can see behind me
is the old Salisbury.
I think, I might be wrong, but
I think it is the only city
that has physically moved,
completely, to a different site.
So the new Salisbury is actually a couple
of miles down the road,
because they had real
problems with water supplies and
it's a bit windy, it's
not too bad today, but
it's a bit windy up here, so
they moved it
to the site where it is today.
So Old Sarum as its known and
New Sarum which is where
the new Salisbury is,
are just about a couple of miles apart.
But you can see the old site,
when we show you the old site
of the old cathedral
that was here.
Because it was formed as an
iron age fort back in 400 BC.
So we're quite a long way back in history.
Now the new Salisbury,
if you can call something
that's 800 years new,
is absolutely beautiful and the cathedral
which was due to celebrate
its 800th birthday
this year in 2020, it's
absolutely beautiful.
It's magnificent.
And they had all sorts
of celebrations planned
for the cathedral, but
sadly, obviously because
of circumstance it hasn't happened.
But we were lucky enough to
see these beautiful pieces
of modern art, that they're
all surrounding the whole,
all of the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral.
So for a history lover like me,
I am in my element this weekend.
For art, architecture,
there's something everywhere you look.
We're really close, about
nine miles from Stonehenge,
from Amesbury, and
where the site of Woodhenge is.
So there is all sorts of
history at every turn.
There's also rather beautiful house
that used to belong to Ted Heath,
who was prime minister from 1970 to '74.
And he was a great art collector as well.
A passionate sailor.
And his house Arundells
is just beautiful and
well worth visiting, cause of all of
the sailing memorabilia
everywhere and so on.
So its really had some movers and shakers
who've lived in the town.
Clarendon Palace is
also well worth a visit.
Now, it was Henry II and Henry III
who really spent a lot of money
on developing the site
of Clarendon Palace.
And the story has it,
that it was the last place
that Henry II met Thomas Becket in person
before he uttered those fateful words of,
"Will no one rid me of this..."
Oh, sorry.
"Will anyone rid me of
this tiresome priest."
Which obviously led to the
ultimate death of Thomas Becket.
It's now a ruin, but well,
well worth, well worth a visit.
Now Salisbury Cathedral is
absolutely wonderful and
you do have to book a
visit nowadays, online,
which is wonderfully easy to do.
And we certainly recommend that you do it.
It's got the most incredible font inside.
Which is a fairly new edition, I think
about ten years or so ago.
But well-worth having a look.
And the now, dare I say it,
infamous spire of Salisbury Cathedral,
which is 123 meters high, and
I think, I'm safe in saying,
is still the tallest spire in England.
But sadly, the Salisbury
Cathedral and that spire
became rather infamous
with the poisonings that happened
a couple of years ago and
the Russians claimed that they
had come to visit the spire
that was a 123 meters tall
Now the cathedral is also home to
one of four copies of the Magna Carta.
And apparently it's the
best preserved copy.
It's been there since
1215, which is going some.
And that was the agreement
between King John and
the rebellious barons that
many say is the founding document
of our modern day democracy.
It certainly had a huge part to play,
but the Magna Carta is quite
special and quite magnificent.
So stay cay homes,
art,
architecture, you name it.
Salisbury absolutely has it.
It's about an hour and a
half or so from London.
There are some beautiful
hotels to stay close by.
I mean you could certainly
do it from London in a day,
but if you're going to fit in
Salisbury and Winchester, which will
do another episode from,
and Stonehenge and so on,
then it's probably worth
doing at least one overnight.
And you've got Heckfield Place,
one of our favorite hotels
just a hop, skip, and a jump away,
The Four Seasons, and so on.
There's some also rather fabulous
garden opera
that is very close by down at
West Green House and so on.
So I hope you've enjoyed
our little trip to Salisbury
as much as we've enjoyed being here.
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Thanks so much for joining us and
we look forward to seeing you next week.
