Old Sarum

Old Sarum is the rare English place that got abandoned, kept its seats in Parliament anyway, and is now being lived in again by people who mostly want a warm house and a short drive. The medieval city walked off the hill over wind, water and a long-running row between the garrison and the clergy, and rebuilt itself in the meadows below as Salisbury, which is still where everyone goes for anything. What is up top is earthworks and a view. What is down below is new-build estate, an airfield with hangars that have outlasted several ideas about what to do with them, and a quiet that people either move here for or complain about within a year.