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The nineteenth century began as a time of trial for Salisbury, with its industries under threat from the loss of overseas markets due to the continental wars. While the Close supported the wars, the Corporation petitioned the King for peace. When peace came, the initiative in textile manufacture had been lost to those parts of the country where the presence of natural resources favoured industrial-scale production. Meanwhile on the land, the effect of the Corn Laws and the introduction of mechanisation led, in southern Wiltshire, as elsewhere, to distress amongst the agrarian workforce and to the Swing Riots. In November 1830, there was a stand-off between a party of rioters, and a posse of special constables and a troop of the Wiltshire Yeomanry under the magistrate, Wadham Wyndham. In the ensuing Special Assize, two received the death penalty, and 150 were transported.
Matters gradually improved, with a combination of improvements in agricultural wages, and, in the city, various initiatives for the relief of hardship. The 1830s ushered in a series of political and social reforms, starting with the Great Reform Act of 1832, which set the city on a long and sometimes slow path of development to meet the demands of an increasingly complex society. The most serious challenge to the city was the outbreak of cholera in July 1849, and it was met initially by corporate denial, both amongst officials and opinion-formers, namely the Salisbury Journal. But a ringing condemnation of the state of the city’s water supply and sanitary arrangements by T.W. Rammell forced the Corporation to adopt the Public Health Act of 1848, and to embark on the necessary works. Within five years, Salisbury had a pure water supply, and over the ensuing decades the open watercourses were filled in and replaced by a modern sewage system which served the city from 1899 to 1961.
The railways arrived in Salisbury in 1847, initially with a branch line from Milford to Bishopstoke, connecting with the London and South-Western Railway’s main line to the capital. Soon it was possible to travel to London and back in a day, and special excursion trains were being run. In 1856, the route to the west was opened, with the Great Western line to Warminster and Bristol, and the following year, the line from London via Basingstoke, which proceeded westwards to Gillingham and, by 1860, to Exeter. The effect on the coaching trade was dramatic, and although it survived initially by plying between Salisbury and railway stations, the days of coaching were numbered, with Quicksilver travelling to London for the last time in October 1846.
Improvements in communications reinforced Salisbury’s position as a centre of trade and of tourism, and the variety of trades and activities is well reflected in the Exhibition of 1852, which was inspired by the Great Exhibition of 1851. And yet, for example, amongst the textiles on display, that produced most locally was Downton lace, and other specimens came from as far away as Ireland, Scotland and Saxony. As in earlier ages, Salisbury’s manufactures were in niche markets, including the Invicta Leather Works, Lovibond’s Tintometer for colorimetric chemical analysis, and Burden’s clock factory. The other large-scale industries at the time were power generation, brewing and the railways.