Stratford sub Castle Village Website
Salisbury, Wiltshire UK
Magic Lantern slide - a 1890s view of Old Sarum & Mill Lane from Devizes Road
The house at the corner of Stratford Road and Mill Lane (Old Sarum View) is a convenient fixed reference point for comparing late 19th C and modern views. Building along Devizes Road and tree growth mean duplicating the view precisely is no longer possible.
The farm buildings layout of Parsonage Farm persisted much as in the 1890s to the 1980s, now replaced by Parsonage Close and Millers Close. The wall seen at their end closer to the camera persists as the wall at the west side of Kent Cottage, the drain passing alongside and under Mill Lane persists.
The Steers’ barn and the chimneys and upper windows of Parsonage Cottage and the roof of The Parsonage together forming an L shaped complex, are all discernible.
Copies of the photo above, which have been professionally scanned and printed, can be purchased from the Stratford Local History Group. Please contact: Kerry O’Connor kandeoconnor@tiscali.co.uk 01722 328743
or David Balston dmbalston@gmail.com 01722 411628
Prices: 12 x 12 inches: £15
10 x 10 inches: £12
A4, cropped and frameless glass mounted: £18
At the nearer end of Mill Lane sits Avonside with its front porch, then and now. The ford and bridge across the Avon have switched places, the old footbridge was downstream of the ford, now the modern footbridge is upstream and closer to Avonside.
The field at the southwest foot of Old Sarum down to the Road is undivided in the late 19th C, the subdividing hedges on the upper slope are 20th C features.
The ridge and furrow patterns for the water meadow alongside Mill Lane are visible still, but the channels or carriages along the top of the ridges, clearly shown in the 1890s view are now not.
The inner and outer baileys of Old Sarum were higher prior to the 1909-15 excavations.
1897 https://maps.nls.uk/view/101168888 This map is reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/index.html, with excerpt selected and annotation superimposed by the author.
The Magic Lantern Slide is reproduced with the permission of the Stratford sub Castle Village Local History Group.
Modern day photograph is by the author.
The workings of the Stratford sub Castle water meadows are explained by Platt, J. at https://www.stratfordsubcastle.org.uk/stratford-s-water-meadows
Kerry O'Connor
December 2020