What or who is Sarum?

Why our name has a lot of heritage going back centuries.

Sarum Hydraulics has been around for decades, but what’s in the name?  The source of our name is a very special location with a story of a massive falling out, people seeing a great opportunity and a stunning design that has endured – and that was over 800 years ago. Old Sarum and New Sarum still exist to this day.

The Bronze Age hill fort very close to our factory was later a key Roman post that they called Sorviodunum. Five roads met close to this spot. The Normans also found the settlement to be a great strategic spot and called it Seresberi. This became know as Old Sarum. There was a fine motte and bailey castle up there and also a church with clergy. A population lived around the fort which it has to be said, is an exposed, windy and cold location.

The personalities and history are complicated, but Salisbury people will say that the clergy had the most almighty falling out with the military and they, plus the population of the settlement decamped down onto the water meadows in the valley below which is rather a pleasant spot. This was in the 1100’s.

Five rivers meet close to Salisbury and it must have been a very difficult site to develop due to the amount of water. With a modern flooding perspective, you can only marvel at how the rivers were guided around the settlement and how robust this has been. The Church picked a wonderful spot for their building, being a relatively solid gravel area, or so we are told. Even today, the water table is only a metre or so below the Cathedral floor, so the footings must have been very well designed to endure this long.

The “New Sarum” site became Salisbury which is now a thriving cathedral city of 45K people. As well as designing a robust series of channels, the medieval developers used a striking grid system for the streets and buildings. That still survives. We refer to an antique map on this page of the grid of streets, which are still there today.

Salisbury Cathedral is truly stunning, sitting within a walled Cathedral Close that is locked every evening. The building was completed in 1258 and has the highest church spire in the UK. The beautiful cloisters were added later. This Gothic cathedral is an incredible experience to visit.

If Salisbury has a long heritage over the centuries of clever hydraulic engineering in rivers, channels and sluices around the town and the water meadows, it is great to keep water hydraulics alive in our own Micropac pump product.

So, that’s what is in a name. We are proud of our product and also our home here in Salisbury. Contact us.

The beautiful Salisbury Cathedral, finished in 1258.

By courtesy of our Salisbury Cathedral Dean and Chapter and the copyright owner.