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Salisbury was planned so that water could be drawn from the Avon as it runs southwards, diverted through the town and fed back into the river as it runs from west to east, and this feature explains why the chequers the quarters bounded by the streets are not perfectly rectangular.

The early success of the new city can be gauged in several ways. The Poultry Cross is the sole survivor of four medieval market crosses, the other three being a cheese cross and a wool cross in the market place, and one on the south-eastern outskirts of the city where livestock was traded. The Poultry Cross was originally in the market place, the ranges of buildings to its north and east, facing onto Minster Street and Butcher Row, replacing temporary stalls. The names of these streets Butcher Row, and the Latin name for Oatmeal Row date from 1339 and 1455 respectively; those of Catherine Street (originally ‘the carters’ street’) and the Green Croft (originally ‘the meal-mongers’ street) date from 1339 and 1403. Pennyfarthing Street, according to legend, is named after the daily wage for which master masons living there and working on the new cathedral went on strike. The names of some chequers, taken from inns such as the Blue Boar, the Black Horse or the White Hart, reflect the early importance of travel. Others, named after individuals such as Swayne’s and Rolfe’s, reflect the economic power of the merchant class whose members were able to amass enough properties for entire chequers to be named after them.

The growth of Salisbury’s population is a further measure of success: to an estimated 5,000 by about 1400, despite the Black Death, and to around 8,000 a century later at both dates Salisbury was amongst the ten largest English cities. The range of activities of a merchant such as John Hall, whose house is now the foyer of the Odeon Cinema in New Canal, is further evidence of Salisbury’s prosperity. Hall, four times Salisbury’s mayor and thrice its Member of Parliament, had a ship with which he imported dyestuffs, almonds, fruit, fish, soap, tar and iron, and engaged in piracy on the high seas, and his personal contribution to the royal levy of 1449 was 2% of the total of £66. Other reminders of the city’s wealth ranged from the chantry chapels in St Thomas’s church, endowed by William Ludlow and William Swayne, to the elaborate processions staged by the city’s guilds on major feast days, or to welcome royalty. But the pageantry, the conspicuous wealth of individuals, and the ability of the city to meet royal demands, as when the city provided and manned the warship Trout during Henry VI’s reign, all mask a glaring paradox.

Throughout the middle ages, the city remained in a state of vassalage to the bishop. Attempts to appeal to royal authority, such as a major stand-off in 1305-6 between the city’s leaders and Bishop Simon of Ghent, came to nothing. Even after the Reformation, when the city fathers were quietly extending their powers by expanding their administrative and legal functions, the bishop still claimed ultimate authority, and not until 1612 was the city granted a charter confirming powers independent of episcopal authority.