The whole of Wiltshire is proud of Trowbridge’s part in the story of Magna Carta and particularly the part played by Baron Henry de Bohun at Runnymede and as one of the 25 enforcers of the Great Charter.

Both Trowbridge and Salisbury were settled in the 10th century. Salisbury started as an Iron Age fort that was rebuilt by the Romans and called Sorviodunum. Our Saxon King Alfred re-fortified it and William the Conqueror ordered a new castle to be built in 1070.

A substantial town grew up in the cramped 30 acres within the castle walls where our first cathedral was built, incorporating the ancient bishoprics of Ramsbury and Sherborne.

Magna Carta was a peace treaty that failed – it was overturned by the Pope 10 weeks after Runnymede. But by the end of the civil war, Henry de Bohun was fighting on the same side as William Longspee who was King John’s half-brother, Earl of Salisbury, Sheriff of Wiltshire and commander of King John’s castle at Salisbury. They must have known each other well.

William was married to Ela, a rich Wiltshire landowner who became Countess of Salisbury. William died in 1226 and was the first man buried in the new cathedral at New Sarum (the new town of Salisbury). His widow Ela gave her own manorial land to found Lacock Abbey in 1232.

So in Wiltshire we are all in this celebration together. Trowbridge is celebrating in style on April 25 with their Magna Carta Conference – and I hope people will attend from all over our county. Salisbury too has a fine programme of events (see the Cathedral website), starring Wiltshire’s 1215 Magna Carta which is the finest of the four surviving Charters. We hope people will flock to Salisbury on June 14, to take part in a pilgrimage from Old Sarum Castle to New Sarum Cathedral.

Robert Key FSA, Chairman, Salisbury Cathedral Magna Carta 2015 Programme Board.