You have reached the website for Salisbury Civic Society's Family Quiz. You may download the quiz as a double sided A4 document that you can print or follow the quiz on this website; ideal if you have an iPad.
The quiz has been made into a double sided A4 leaflet.
This leaflet can be downloaded here in pdf format.
Click here for pdf version (1.5 megabytes).
If you have the skills and facilities, you can then print the 2 pages on a colour printer on one double-sided A4 sheet.
Armed with this quiz leaflet you can then walk around The Cathedral Close and see how well you do. As an alternative to printing, you could view the quiz on your iPhone or such; see below.
Have fun quizzing quirky bits of buildings in Salisbury Cathedral Close
(based on the Society’s publication Salisbury in Detail)
Can you spot the architectural details shown below?
Most can be seen safely from within the grassy areas of the Cathedral Close, but take care.
You will need about 40 minutes for the quiz walk. Wheelchair accessible.
We have also suggested some interesting historical stories you might like to look up later.
AROUND CHORISTERS GREEN (on right after High Street Gate)
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A |
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A1) Standing near the red phone box, can you spot this ‘cupola’ on top of the College of Matrons? A2) Why might it be called a ‘lantern’? A3) What does the weather vane on the very top tell you? A4) Look at the round window to the right. How many other round or oval windows can you count around the Green? |
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B |
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B1) Can you see a musical instrument by this carved Coat of Arms on Mompesson House built in 1701? Look for other details. B2) Why did the big stable doors to the right have to be so wide and high? B3) Look up later how the house was used in the film “Sense and Sensibility” (1995). |
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C |
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C1) Looking at the corner of the Green nearest the Cathedral, can you make out this plastered-over window with a lamp beside it? C2) Find out about the tax on windows (1696 to 1851). Can you think of other reasons for blocking windows? C3) How do you think lamps in The Close were lit over the centuries? |
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D |
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D1) To the west, find these ‘bargeboards’ (decorated wooden trimmings) on the gables of the Rifles Museum once called ‘The Wardrobe’. D2) Why do you think its walls have a patchwork of stones, flints and bricks? |
LOOKING AT WEST WALK (opposite the West Front)
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E |
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E1) Are you eagle-eyed enough to spot a small mullioned window with an old brick arch below it? It’s high up on a building to the left, now Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. It was built in the 13th century for the Abbot of Sherborne and to lodge canons. E2) Look up the different uses of the building over the centuries and also find a scary legend about King Richard III in the 15th century! E3) After a visit by King James I in the 17th century, this building was renamed ‘The King’s House’. Find out which of his sons and grandsons became Kings of England. |
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F |
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F1) Can you see the letters R and H each side of three high windows in the North Canonry (far right)? F2) It’s not certain who R.H. was, but in the 17th century some of the Hyde family lived here. Find out about Edward Hyde (Earl of Clarendon), two of whose granddaughters became Queens of England! F3) Below is an ‘oriel’ window. How is it different from the other windows? |
LOOKING AT NORTH WALK (leading to St. Ann’s Gate)
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G |
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G1) Moving to some way past the ‘Walking Madonna’ statue, can you spot this front door with a zigzag pattern above it? G2) Can you see a parapet decorated with a diamond pattern? G3) This house is called Aula le Stage (Hall with Upper Floor) because of its 15th century roofed ‘tower’ (back left). One of the two front gables was added in the 18th century. By looking at the roofs behind, can you guess which one? |
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H |
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H1) Go along the pavement towards St. Ann’s Gate and look for this sundial on Malmesbury House. Can you tell the time and date from it? H2) Read the notice on the garden wall about when the Calendar was changed in Britain. You could look up how this affected people’s lives. H3) Look for a plaque nearby commemorating some 16th century martyrs. H4) On the opposite side of the road, find a small blue plaque to a 20th century writer. Find out which famous book he wrote involving children marooned on a remote island. |
As you walk back through the Close, see if you can spot other interesting door heads, mullion and oriel windows, bargeboards, blocked windows or other quirky details.
WE HOPE YOU HAVE ENJOYED THE QUIZ! PLEASE TELL OTHERS ABOUT IT.
No prizes but for more information look at www.SalisburyCivicSociety.org.uk and www.SalisburyPlaques.org ; especially for questions A1, H1, H2, H3 and H4.
Search the internet for each building or topic or refer to The Royal Commission for Historical Monuments' book on Salisbury: The Houses of the Cathedral Close, as well as the Civic Society book, Salisbury in Detail; obtainable from our website and local bookshops. The following may also be helpful:
Question A3): The weather vane shows north, south, east and west and the direction from which the wind is blowing. The stag and arrow on top reflect a legend that the site for the ‘new’ Cathedral at the very end of the 12th century was chosen when an arrow was shot from the hill of Old Sarum and landed on a stag in the gravelly area which is now The Close.
Question C3): In early centuries, lamps were made of rushes soaked in oil or tar. From the mid-19th century they were lit by gas. A watercolour by Barbara Townsend in Mompesson House shows a lamplighter lighting each lamp individually. In the 1880’s, Bishop Wordsworth and his wife were arranging lectures on the benefits of cooking by gas. Electricity came to the Close in about 1900.
Question G3): The gable on the right was added in the 18th century to create a more symmetrical effect when the 13th century canonry was yet again extensively altered and enlarged.
09/08/2013
