Beneath its postcard-perfect spire, the city of Salisbury holds a history as rich and dark as the peaty soil of the Wessex countryside. From its origins as a prehistoric fortress to its stunning cathedral and ancient inns, Salisbury is a place where the past is not just remembered—it’s alive. While tourists come to see the Magna Carta, a deeper look reveals a city haunted by folklore, bloody history, and one of the most chilling unsolved murders in English history.
A Castle's Spite and a Pub’s Gruesome Secret
Our journey begins not in Salisbury itself, but on the windswept ramparts of Old Sarum. Here, the original medieval town and castle stood, but the constant bickering between the military and the clergy became so intense that the bishop decided to abandon the site. According to a local legend, the bishop fired an arrow from the ramparts and where it fell, the new cathedral would be built. The arrow, of course, landed miles away, prompting an ingenious but likely apocryphal solution: a second arrow struck a deer, which then bled out on the marshy ground where the current city now stands.
In the valley below, the new city prospered, but its ancient inns carry stories of their own. One of the most macabre legends is found at the Haunter Venison pub. In the 1820s, a card game turned deadly when a local butcher, suspecting a visiting gambler of cheating, severed the man’s hand with his cleaver. The butcher’s suspicions were confirmed when four aces fell from the gambler's sleeve. Decades later, during a 1911 renovation, a mummified hand clutching a set of playing cards was discovered in a wall cavity, cementing the pub’s grim reputation.
The Cathedral's Hidden Stories
The magnificence of Salisbury Cathedral is undeniable, but even its stones hold secrets. It is here that one of England's greatest mysteries lies in a tomb. William Longsby, Earl of Salisbury and an illegitimate son of Henry II, died suddenly after a banquet hosted by a jealous rival. While some attributed his death to the hardships of his recent military campaign, dark rumors of poisoning circulated. When his tomb was opened centuries later, a chilling discovery was made: a mummified rat was found inside his skull. The rat had seemingly died from a massive dose of arsenic, lending grim credence to the long-held suspicions of murder.
But perhaps the city’s most unsettling story is not of a historical figure, but a child.
The Unsolved Murder of Teddy Haskell
On a cold Halloween night in 1908, 11-year-old Teddy Haskell was found dead in his bed. He had been brutally murdered, his throat cut so severely that it severed his larynx. His mother, Flora Haskell, screamed to her neighbor that a man had "un-murdered" Teddy and then fled the house. The police, led by the famous Chief Inspector Walter Dew (of Jack the Ripper fame), were immediately suspicious.
A bloodstained knife was found, a knife Flora admitted came from her own kitchen. Her story was full of inconsistencies: no one saw a man flee the scene, and her behavior after the murder was highly questionable. Furthermore, a police matron and a visiting reverend both reported hearing Flora state, "If I did it, I do not remember it," suggesting a potential memory lapse or a momentary fit of madness.
Despite the damning circumstantial evidence, the case was far from straightforward. The police’s mishandling of the crime scene and the inconsistencies in witness testimonies created enough doubt for the jury. After two lengthy and sensational trials, Flora Haskell was ultimately acquitted, though the Chief Inspector remained convinced of her guilt. The case remains a complex and tragic puzzle, leaving open the question of whether Flora was a cunning killer or a grieving mother wrongly accused.
Beyond the City Walls: Prophecies and Cryptids
Salisbury’s mysteries are not limited to its ancient past. Our weird news this week brought the strange into the modern day. Across the Atlantic, a California assemblyman has introduced a bill to make Bigfoot the state’s official cryptid. While seemingly a novelty bill, it’s been taken seriously enough to generate headlines and open a broader conversation about the existence of elusive creatures, with an official DNA project underway at a major university.
Even more bizarrely, a 900-year-old prophecy by an Irish saint may have foretold the end of the world. Saint Malachy’s prophecy lists 109 popes before the final one, a list which ends with the current Pope Francis. While the prophecy’s authenticity is debated, history offers a few chilling coincidences, such as the reign of Pope Benedict XV, whose prophetic description of "Religion Depopulated" was followed by the mass deaths of World War I and the Spanish flu.
From ancient prophecies to unsolved crimes and bizarre pub legends, Salisbury shows us that the line between history and mystery is often blurred. The strange and the unexplainable are not just found in folklore—they are a very real part of our world.