In 2018, the Novichok poisonings brought the city of Salisbury to world attention. It seemed that everyone knew about the Maltings, Elizabeth Gardens and of course the spire of Salisbury Cathedral.
Salisbury is my hometown. My childhood memories are of walking through the Maltings on the way to the library or paddling in the river at Elizabeth Gardens. After returning to Salisbury from trips away, we would look out for the cathedral spire. As soon as we saw, it, we knew we were home.
But Salisbury is more than just the cathedral. And Salisbury, built in the 13th century, was a latecomer. The antiquary John Leland describes “…a village at Fisherton over [the river] Avon before New Salisbury was built, and it had a parish church there.”1
The parish church is St Clement’s (sadly demolished in 1852, leaving only the graveyard). If a visitor from the past were to continue past old St Clement’s Church, they would come to a water mill on the banks of the River Nadder. This lane and the surrounding farmland is the original settlement of Fisherton Anger. The 1086 Domesday Book gives Fisher Anger two ploughlands, two lord’s lands, the mill and 40 acres each of pasture and meadow (estimated at about 350 acres in total).2 3
So what happened to Fisherton Anger? Its fate was changed by events a couple of miles north at Old Sarum.
Old Sarum was a royal castle originally built by William the Conqueror. A cathedral – the first Salisbury Cathedral – followed in 1091. By the 12th century, Old Sarum was “more like a castle than city, being environed with a high wall; and notwithstanding that it was very well accommodated with all other conveniences; yet such was the want of water…”3 The bishop and priests of Old Sarum were complaining – about the ‘want of water’, insufficient housing, strong winds, conflicts between soldiers and clergy, the dazzle of the surrounding chalk and even the lack of birdsong...!
In 1218 the pope finally agreed to a move from Old Sarum. The new site was on the bishop’s lands in the river valley below. The cathedral and other ecclesiastical buildings were built here (now the Cathedral Close) and the surrounding city of New Salisbury was laid out on a grid pattern. New Salisbury and Fisherton Anger were separated only the River Avon. A bridge linking the two settlements was built by 1300, and Fisherton Anger expanded rapidly.
Inns, houses and taverns sprang up on the road connecting Salisbury and Fisherton Anger. A brewery, kiln and malthouses were built on the north side of the street, and the association with malting continued well into the 20th century.
In 1512, Fisherton Anger became the seat of the county gaol (and the gallows just a short walk away!) The following centuries saw further developments - an infirmary, two railway stations, a playhouse, gas works, brick kilns and the largest private “madhouse” in the country!
Throughout the 19th century, parts of Fisherton were carved off and absorbed into the city of Salisbury. By 1904, the process was complete. The whole of Fisherton Anger ceased to exist as a separate parish.
It is still possible to find Fisherton Anger within the city. If you enter Salisbury by rail, you have two routes into the city. Turn right onto Mill Road, past St Clement’s graveyard (now a secret garden) to the River Nadder and Fisherton Mill House. Or straight on to Fisherton Street, still full of eclectic shops and buildings. Both routes take you through the ancient parish of Fisherton Anger into the new city of Salisbury.
Citations
1 Leland, John & Smith, Lucy Toulmin. The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543, parts I to [XI], London, G. Bell & sons, 1907, p.268, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/itineraryofjohn01lela/page/268/mode/2up
2 "Fisherton [Anger]", Open Domesday by Anna Powell-Smith, https://opendomesday.org/place/SU1329/fisherton-anger/
3 Wright, Jamie. Fisherton Anger, Salisbury’s older suburb [Video]. Society for Landscape Studies, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcjZbuHyZvs
4 A description of that admirable structure, the cathedral church of Salisbury. : With the chapels, monuments, grave-stones, and their inscriptions. To which is prefixed an account of Old Sarum, London, Printed for R. Baldwin, 1774, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/descriptionoftha00sali/page/n14/mode/1up
Further Reading
Chandler, John. Endless Street A History of Salisbury and its People, The Hobnob Press, 1983.
"Fisherton Anger." A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 6. Ed. Elizabeth Crittall. London: Victoria County History, 1962. p.180-194, British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol6/pp180-194
McNeill, John. Old Sarum, English Heritage, 2006.
Moody, Froggy, 'History of Fisherton - Salisbury's Oldest Neighbour', Salisbury Journal, 29 Aug 2021, https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/features/journalfeatures/19537395.history-fisherton---salisburys-older-neighbour/
Newman, Ruth & Howells, Jane. Salisbury Past, Phillimore & Co. Ltd, 2001.
Perkins, Elaine. The Lost Settlement of Fisherton Anger, https://www.hiddenwiltshire.com/post/the-lost-settlement-of-fisherton-anger