Things you didn't know about... Salisbury

A chophouse in Salisbury? That's handy!
The Haunch of Venison chophouse in Minster Street has the mummified remains of a hand that were hacked off during a card game.

Salisbury Cathedral is fond of records
The 13th-century Salisbury Cathedral, among all its other attributes, possesses Britain's tallest spire (123 m/403 ft), the world's best-preserved Magna Carta (dating from 1215), and Europe's oldest working clock (1386). It's also unique among medieval English cathedrals in that it was built within one century and has had no substantial additions.

Salisbury, home of leaders and leading men
Former Prime Minister Edward Heath lived in Salisbury, in the Cathedral Close, which is also home to Bishop Wordsworth's School, where actor Ralph Fiennes studied as a boy.

Salisbury novel topped the New York Times charts
In 1987, Edward Rutherfurd, who was born and raised in Winchester, wrote Sarum: The Novel of England, a historical novel charting the history of Salisbury and Stonehenge over the past 10,000 years. It was on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly six months.

Salisbury department store is haunted by headless duke
Debenhams in Salisbury town centre is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who was beheaded in 1483 for betraying Richard III. He was executed on Market Square where the store now stands—after spending his final hours in what is now the in-house restaurant.

Charles II holed up in Salisbury during the Great Plague
As the Great Plague raged through London in 1665, Charles II, along with his family and the royal court, moved to Salisbury, and attended Parliament in Oxford, where it was temporarily convened.

The capital of Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, was formerly Salisbury
The town of Salisbury, which became the capital of Rhodesia, was created in 1891, and was made a city in 1935. Rhodesia, after gaining its independence in 1982, took the name Zimbabwe and Salisbury became Harare.

Salisbury has the UK's oldest building containing a cinema
The local Odeon cinema, in the former home of 15th-century wool merchant, John Halle, is thought to be the oldest building in the UK to contain a cinema. The Grade I listed building was originally built in the 1470s, and became the Gaumont Palace Cinema in 1931.

William the Conqueror ordered nobles to pledge oaths to him in Salisbury
In 1086, in a bid to head off any possible future rebellions, William the Conqueror ordered all nobles to Salisbury to swear an oath of loyalty to him.

Salisbury has a giant trapped in its museum
The 4 metre (13 ft) high giant statue of St Christopher, which once paraded in processions and pageants, is now on display in the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. He retired in 1981, and structural changes to the museum since then mean he can never be removed.