Sunday, October 2, 2011

Salisbury

Salisbury was one of the stops we did on our 3-attractions-in-one-day tour. How I wished we were given more time to explore this charming town. Unfortunately, we were only allotted an hour and a half for this stop, with the options of either exploring the interior of the Salisbury Cathedral or the town with the quaint marketsquare and traditional shops. We chose the former.

I snapped these pics as we were walking out from the cathedral to our awaiting coach.

The school where William Golding (novelist of "Lord Of The Flies") taught.

Lord Of The Flies was required reading in Malaysian secondary schools back in our days.

Oh, before I forget, Salisbury is pronounced as 'Sawlz-bree'. Those English names were continually messing with my mind.




Noticed the bricked-up windows in the above photos? They are the result of an unpopular income tax called the "Window Tax" that was introduced in 1696. Property owners were taxed on the number of windows their houses or buildings contained. In order to avoid the tax, house owners would brick up some of their windows and as the bricked-up windows prevented rooms from receiving any sunlight, the tax was referred to as "daylight robbery". It is alleged by some that the idiom "daylight robbery" originates from this window tax.



Notice the sign that mentions Sunday Roast, a traditional British meal served on Sundays

Our tour guide explained that during the agricultural revolution, Yorkshire families left a cut of meat in the oven before going to church on a Sunday morning and returning to find lunch cooked. Hence the name.

Saw this neat contraption made of cast iron located near the front steps of some buildings.

We learned from our guide that it was a wall mounted boot-scraper used to scrape dirt or mud from the bottoms of shoes or boots before entering the building. They were common before roads were paved.

10 comments:

  1. That's such cool info. What a waste of windows though.

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  2. Sometimes we could use one of those boot scrapers! LOL

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  3. new follower, would love a follow back!

    http://cumminslife.blogspot.com/

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  4. So interesting about the windows! We had to read Lord of the Flies in school, too.

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  5. Oh how beautifully interestin' your tour was. Now I'm wantin' me one of those 'classy' boot scrapers at the back door of the Ponderosa.

    God bless ya and have a marvelous day sweetie!!!

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  6. With the crazy way our world is these days, I'm surprised that we don't have window taxes now. Heck, if they could charge for air, they'd do that too!

    Cool stuff you found! I wanna go on vacation with you, Veronica Lee!

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  7. How cool, I love all of the interesting facts you shared, your pictures are great. We also had to read Lord of the Flies in school, and my children just read it for their class a year ago as well! Thanks for the tour of Salisbury :) ~April

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  8. I think a boot scraper is a great idea even now, for moms with kids that love to play in mud all the time. I didn't know there was such a thing. Thanks for posting.

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  9. Never read Lord of the Flies. Wasn't there a movie too? Thanks for the proper pronunciation! ;)
    The homes are so beautiful -- brick homes are lovely!
    A roast sounds good... a Sunday roast, even better! I will have to look into that for the weekend as it is finally getting chilly around here!
    I think MD needs his own mounted boot-scraper at our house -- that boys can track mud from anywhere!!! It drives me mad!

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  10. so cool!
    i am learning so much from your trip

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