Sport and Leisure
The Bishop's Walk on the edge of the city provides a popular viewing point.
Some buildings in Salisbury are reputed to be haunted. Ghost tours are popular with locals and visitors. One such building is the local Odeon cinema located in the Hall of John Halle - the oldest building in the UK to contain a cinema. The Debenhams department store is said to be haunted by Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham - the store is on the site where he was beheaded in 1483.
The city has a football team, Salisbury City F.C.. Salisbury City football club play in the Conference South division. Their games are at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium on the northern edge of the city. Also in the city is fellow Non-League football club Laverstock & Ford F.C., which plays at The Dell. The rugby club has produced several England Internationals in recent years and continues to nurture future talent through a buoyant Mini and Youth section. It is seen as one of the prime rugby nurturing centres nationwide, regularly providing County Championship winning sides, County Players at all ages, and academy players for the professional game. Their junior section has also won National tournaments on a regular basis playing finals at Twickenham. The Five Rivers Leisure Centre and Swimming Pool is located just outside of the ring road and was opened in 2002. Salisbury Racecourse is a flat racing course to the south-west of the city. Five Rivers Indoor Bowls Club and Salisbury Snooker Club share a building on Tollgate road (behind the College). The snooker club also has sections for Pool and Darts.
The local theatre is the Salisbury Playhouse. The City Hall is an entertainment venue and hosts comedy, musical performances (including those by the resident Musical Theatre Salisbury) as well as seminars and conventions. Salisbury Arts Centre has exhibitions and workshops.
Salisbury is well-supplied with pubs. 'The Haunch of Venison', overlooking the Poultry Cross, still operates from a 14th century building. One of its attractions is a cast of a mummified hand, supposedly severed during a game of cards. The hand vanished in 2004 as a publicity stunt for the pub but later reappeared and can still be seen there. The Rai d’Or has original deeds dating from 1292. It was the home of Agnes Bottenham who used the profits of the tavern to found Trinity Hospital next door in around 1380.
Read more about this topic: Salisbury
Famous quotes containing the words sport and, sport and/or leisure:
“Sport and death are the two great socializing factors in Ireland ...”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can’t go at dawn and not many places he can’t go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking—one sport you shouldn’t have to reserve a time and a court for.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)
“Tourism, human circulation considered as consumption ... is fundamentally nothing more than the leisure of going to see what has become banal.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)