I think it’s named in reference to the ‘original’ Fisherton Mill.

I believe that the name ‘Fisherton Mill’ has been applied to two different buildings – the current Fisherton Mill, just off of Fisherton Street, and the ‘old’ Fisherton . . . → Read More: Mill Road, Salisbury]]> Mill Road is in central Salisbury. It runs along the northern side of Queen Elizabeth Gardens.

I think it’s named in reference to the ‘original’ Fisherton Mill.

I believe that the name ‘Fisherton Mill’ has been applied to two different buildings – the current Fisherton Mill, just off of Fisherton Street, and the ‘old’ Fisherton Mill which was close to the Fisherton end of Queen Elizabeth Gardens.

The first Fisherton Mill

The first chronologically was on the river Nadder, on or near Fisherton Island.

There was a mill at Fisherton in 1086. Mills in Fisherton are mentioned in a dowry in 1273, in conveyancing documents in 1589, and again in 1653 (when three grist mills are specified), and then in various documents through the 18th and 19th Centuries. ¹

In the 20th Century Fisherton Mill was first owned by Messrs. F. Bowle & Sons.

In 1935, ownership was taken by J. H. Bartlett and then, in 1956, by Messrs. H. R. & S. Sainsbury & Co., Ltd.

The picture below was taken from the Long Bridge, in 1955.



Reproduced courtesy of Francis Frith. Click on the photo if you would like to buy a copy!

The second Fisherton Mill

The second Fisherton Mill is the mill that currently stands at the Fisherton end of Fisherton Street, on the right as you look away from the town.

This was built as a grain mill in 1880 ² by W.Main & Sons Ltd. The mill was a grain mill, serving the Corn Exchange (which is now the library) and Main’s shop, which was in the Nationwide building opposite the library. The mill employed up to 25 people, but closed in 1984.

It was subsequently a carpet warehouse, and store-rooms for Salisbury playhouse.

In 1993-4, Michael and Leonard Main, the great grandsons of the original founder, converted the building into a workshops, a shop, a gallery and cafe. It’s well worth a visit – both for the building and the artwork.

Fisherton Mill - Mains mill, Salisbury

Which Fisherton Mill was Mill Road named after?

As I said, I believe that Mill Road is probably named after the older Fisherton Mill.

There are two reasons for this:

• The chronology – this isn’t conclusive, but given that the road was called Mill Road ‘subsequently’ to 1860 and Main’s Mill wasn’t built until 1880, it seems more likely to have been named after the original mill
• The location – the original Fisherton Mill was more or less at the end of Mill Road. The road does curve away, towards the railway station, but the road ‘leads’ to the location of the old mill rather than the newer one

Mill Road was Church Street

As late as 1860, most of Mill Road was actually known as ‘Church Street’ ³.

This would, I think, have been a reference to the Church of Saint Clements, which stood at the ‘Churchfields end’ of what is now Mill Road. The church was re-built as Saint Pauls on the other side of the railway station in the early 1850s.

Part of Mill Road was known as Harcourt Bridge Road in 1879 – I think this was the section between Crane Bridge and Water Lane, but I’m not sure ⁴.

Footnotes

1. Fisherton Anger | British History Online
2. Fisherton Mill, Salisbury, Wiltshire | Art Gallery, Cafe and Mill
3. ‘Fisherton Anger’, A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 6 (1962), pp. 180-194. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41809 Date accessed: 14 September 2009.
4. ‘Fisherton Anger’, A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 6 (1962), pp. 180-194. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41809 Date accessed: 14 September 2009.

It runs closely parallel with the Eastern edge of the grounds of the . . . → Read More: Minster Street, Salisbury and Minster Street, Wilton]]> Minster Street is in the centre of Salisbury. It runs from the Poultry Cross to the Cheesemarket, or to put it another way, from the junction of Blue Boar Row and Castle Street to the junction of Silver Street and Butcher Row.

It runs closely parallel with the Eastern edge of the grounds of the Church of Saint Thomas a Becket, with only the single row of buildings between Minster Street and the graveyard.

The Haunch of Venison in Minster Street, Salisbury

‘the most direct way from the cathedral to Old Salisbury and included the whole of the present High Street, Minster Street, and Castle Street ‘¹

The word ‘minster’ itself is ‘from Old English mynster, from Vulgar Latin monisterium, from Late Latin monasterium, monastery.’². It broadly seems to mean a monastic or collegiate church.

Given that at one time Minster Street ran all the way from Castle Gate to the Cathedral the word ‘minster’ could be referring to either Saint Thomas’ Church or to the Cathedral itself.

Visiting Salisbury?

For accommodation, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.

Footnotes

1. ‘Salisbury: St Thomas’s parish’, A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 6 (1962), pp. 81-83.
2. minster: Definition from Answers.com

Myrrfield is the name of the meadow in which Salisbury Cathedral was built.

It is sometime spelt Merry-field, as in a poem by a Doctor Walter Pope in 1713:

One day as the prelate on his down bed Recruiting his . . . → Read More: Myrrfield Road, Salisbury]]> Myrrfield Road is on the Bishopdown Farm estate, on the north east side of Salisbury.

Myrrfield is the name of the meadow in which Salisbury Cathedral was built.

It is sometime spelt Merry-field, as in a poem by a Doctor Walter Pope in 1713:

One day as the prelate on his down bed
Recruiting his spirits to rest
There appeared as ’tis said, a beautiful maid,
With her own dear babe at her breast.

To him thus she spoke (the day was scarce broke)
And his eyes yet to slumber did yield)
Go build be a church without any delay,
Go build it in Merry-field ¹

It has also sometimes spelt ‘Maryfield’. ²

This, though, was a revision of an older name. The Victoria County History says that:

The site was later called Maryfield on account of the dedication of the cathedral.³

Possibly the best explanation of the name is in a book called ‘Bell’s Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of Sarum’. The book is long out of copyright and it explains the derivation of the name better than I ever could:

During his [the bishop's] period of indecision the Virgin appeared to him in a vision, and commanded him to build his new church in a place called Myr-field, or, as some accounts have it, Maer-field. He searched vainly for a piece of ground by that name, that he might obey the supernatural edict, until by chance he overheard a labourer (or a soldier, the legends vary,) talking of the Maer-field, and then having, as he thought, identified the place, which appears to have been within his own demesne, he commenced to plan the present building. Another tradition ignores the dream, and says the site of the cathedral was determined by an arrow shot from the ramparts of Old Sarum.

Misled by the similarity of sound, the name Maer-field has been, naturally enough, interpreted to mean Mary-field. The apparently obvious form “Miry-field,”–as, according to Leland, it appears on an old inscription,–in spite of the marshy nature of the site, is probably a mere coincidence. Nor is Thomas Fuller’s “Merry-field, for the pleasant situation thereof,” better worth attention. The generally accepted theory at present is that _maer_, the Anglo-Saxon word for a boundary, supplies the clue. A hamlet, Marton, near Bedwin, another of the same name now corrupted to Martin, near Damerham, might each be truly described as boundary-towns. In Wiltshire to-day ‘mere-stone’ is the local idiom for a boundary-stone. Mere is alike the name of a hundred and of a parish in Wilts, both near its borders. The site of the present cathedral is at the junction of three ancient hundreds–Underditch, Alderbury, and Cawdon–the south-east wall of the close being the boundary line which divides the cathedral precincts from Cawdon.⁴

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Visiting Salisbury?

For accommodation, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.

Footnotes

1. A Salisbury Assortment, p13, ed John Chandler, Ex Libris Press, 1996
2. I can’t find a reference for this at the minute
3. New Salisbury – Introduction | British History Online
4. Bell’s Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of Sarum

The three roads dedicated to Saint Andrew are in different parts of the Salisbury area.

St Andrews in Laverstock is named after Saint Andrew’s Church in Church Road, Laverstock, which is nearby. Part of St Andrews is also alongside the village hall, which I think . . . → Read More: St Andrews SP1, St Andrews Close SP2, St Andrews Road SP2]]>

Saint Andrews Church in Laverstock

The three roads dedicated to Saint Andrew are in different parts of the Salisbury area.

St Andrews in Laverstock

St Andrews in Laverstock is named after Saint Andrew’s Church in Church Road, Laverstock, which is nearby. Part of St Andrews is also alongside the village hall, which I think is actually called St Andrews Hall.

St Andrews in Bemerton

St Andrews Road in Bemerton is named after the Saint Andrew’s Church in Bemerton which is at the junction of Lower Road and Church Lane.

Saint Andrew’s Church is most famous for being the Church where the poet George Herbert worked from 1630 until his death in 1633.Bemerton: George Herbert

St Andrews Close in Wilton

St Andrews Close in Wilton is perhaps named after a church that used to be at the junction of West Street and South Street Wilton – Churches and Protestant nonconformity | British History Online. It is one of a number of roads that are close to or leading off of Bulbridge Road which are named after saints. The others are St Nicholas Close, St Peters Close, St Marys Close and St Ediths Close

More than one Saint Andrew

There are at least three Saint Andrews.

Saint Andrew the apostle is the most well-known. He was the brother of Peter. After Jesus’ death he reputedly travelled to Greece. He was martyred on an ‘X’ shaped cross – according to legend he took three days to die, but he continued to preach for all of this time Thomas J. Craughwell. This Saint’s for You!: 300 Heavenly Allies Who Will Change Your Life, Quirk Books,US (1 Nov 2007). ISBN 978-1594741845. He is traditionally depicted with messy grey hair, often with the ‘X’ shaped cross, known as a ‘saltire’Taylor, Richard (2003). How to Read a Church: A Guide to Images, Symbols and Meanings in Churches and Cathedrals. Rider & Co. ISBN-10 1844130533.

Saint Andrew Avellino is the patron saint of stroke victims. He was a Sicilian saint who lived from 1521 until 1608, when he died of a stroke. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia he was ‘a great lover of chastity’ – in attempting to reform a convent near Naples he was attacked by

Certain wicked men who were accustomed to have clandestine meetings with the nuns …. and one night he was assaulted and severely wounded

. He was taken to a hospital run by the Order of Theatines, which he subsequently joined.Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Andrew Avellino – Wikisource

Saint Andrew Corsini was a Bishop of Fiesole, near Florence in the fourteenth century – the time of the feuds between the Pazzi and the Medici. He was credited with ending some of the conflict Thomas J. Craughwell. This Saint’s for You!: 300 Heavenly Allies Who Will Change Your Life, Quirk Books,US (1 Nov 2007). ISBN 978-1594741845. The Catholic Encyclopedia says that he was a thaumaturgus – a miracle worker.

I believe that there was once an older Saint Marks Church, or possibly Chapel, in Saint Marks Road itself, but I don’t have a reference for this – I think it was known as an ‘iron church’.