Old Castle Road is on the northern edge of Salisbury.
The name Old Castle Road is either:
- it was the original route of Castle Road.
- a reference to Old Sarum (castle) or
- a reference to the ‘Old Castle’ pub or
The road forms a semi circle with the northern end of Castle Road, going around the back of the pub.
The original route of ‘Castle Road’?
My guess is that the road was not the original route of the Old Castle Road, in the sense, say, that the Old Blandford Road was the original route to Blandford.
This is because it doesn’t really fit in with the shape of the road, as you might be able to see if the embedded Google image below is working.
It is possible that there was another old road or roads, which Old Castle Road does follow. There were a number of roman roads which met in exactly this area.
A reference to Old Sarum?
The road could be a reference to Old Sarum itself. Indirectly it must be given that there are no other castles in the area – old or otherwise.
However, the road can’t really be said to go to the Old Castle.
The road was named after the pub?
I would guess that the road was actually named after the pub.
The pub is now typically known as ‘the Harvester’ – it’s part of the Harvester chain, and when they took it over they removed most of the references to the Old Castle.
However, before the pub was ‘Harvester-ized’ it was only known as ‘the Old Castle’. It has been the ‘Old Castle Inn’ since at least the 1830s 1
The pub, and its garden occupy all or most of the semi-circle formed by Old Castle Road and Castle Road itself, so my guess is that the road was named primarily after the pub.
Staying in Salisbury?
For accommodation, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.
