Harnham is a suburb of the city of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England, centred about south of Salisbury Cathedral and across the River Avon. Harnham is split into the areas of West Harnham and East Harnham. History Early history The area has had human habitation since the Iron Age; a settlement is marked on Ordnance Survey maps underneath several modern houses in Harnwood Road/Old Blandford Road, a straight Roman Road. Middle Ages Until the 19th century formation of urban and rural districts, the area lay within the Cawdon and Cawsworth Hundred of Wiltshire. Road access to the city was improved in 1244 by the building of Ayleswade bridge, in two sections across an island in the Avon, leading traffic from the south through Harnham instead of the older route to the west through Wilton. The old bridge survives inside an outer casing added in the 16th or 17th century. St Nicholas Hospital, sometimes described as being in Harnham, was built earlier than the bridge, just north of it. Parts of the medieval almshouses survive, including two chapels, and the site continues to provide sheltered housing for a Christian community. Post Industrial Revolution In 1848, Samuel Lewis (publisher) described the settlement in a topographical dictionary based partly on 1841 census statistics: East Harnham, a tything, in the parish of Britford, union of Alderbury, hundred of Cawden and Cadworth, Salisbury and Amesbury, and south divisions of Wilts., 1½ mile (S. E. by S.) from the city of Salisbury; containing 411 inhabitants. West Harnham (St George) a parish, in the union of Alderbury, hundred of Cawden and Cadworth, Salisbury and Amesbury, and S. divisions of Wilts, 1½ mile (S. W. by W.) from Salisbury; containing 256 inhabitants. The living is annexed to the vicarage of Coombe-Bisset; the tithes were partly commuted for land and money payments under an Inclosure Act in 1783; and the remainder have been commuted for a rentcharge of £50. Civil parishes East Harnham spent less than ten years as a civil parish. Anciently a tything of Britford, a new ecclesiastical parish was created in 1855 after the opening of All Saints church. East Harnham continued to be part of Britford civil parish until 1896, when it was made a separate civil parish. In 1904, when Salisbury became a single civil parish, East Harnham was abolished and its area transferred to West Harnham, Salisbury and Britford. The ancient parish of West