New Salisbury Trails App explores the City's rich heritage and hidden histories

The free, easy to use location-aware app, called Salisbury Trails, guides people to Salisbury's key landmarks, historic sites and cultural and arts venues.  It will help people find the city sights close to them and discover the stories behind them, or people can follow a themed trail to explore the city's rich heritage and uncover hidden histories. It includes historic photos, engravings and information from the archives of the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre that show how Salisbury has changed over time.

Cllr Richard Clewer, Deputy Leader of Wiltshire Council and Cabinet Member for Heritage, Arts and Tourism, said: "We are delighted to launch this new and exciting app that highlights the unique and wonderful sights of Salisbury. Recent events have combined to reduce visitors to the city centre and footfall for our local businesses. The walking trails and other features of the app are a great opportunity for more residents and visitors to safely explore the city and also take the opportunity to visit and enjoy our local shops, cafes and cultural venues, while respecting social distancing and the other current COVID-19 guidelines.

"The app also provides a digital space we can use in the future to encourage more use of other market towns and places of interest as we develop trails across the whole county."

Currently the app has three themed trails:

·       A Medieval Meanderings trail takes people on a walk through Salisbury's medieval streets and into historic buildings.

·       A trail that takes people through the trials and tribulations experienced by the city with Witchcraft, Riots and Treason.

·       Inspired by Salisbury Civic Society's book Salisbury in detail, the #LookUpSalisbury trail highlights some of the strange and fun features of the city's historic buildings including a bear, a lion and the mythical symbol of Wessex - the Wyvern

New trails will be added over the coming months with opportunities for residents to contribute content and share their stories.

The app has been created by Wiltshire Council and Bristol-based app developer Calvium on the Place Experience Platform which supports the local and visitor economy. 

Dr Jo Morrison, Director of Innovation and Research, Calvium said: "By harnessing the power of digital technologies to drive place-based recovery and growth, the overall experience of visitors, communities and businesses is significantly improved."

The app is available free for download to Apple and Android devices via the Apple App-Store and Google Play

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Notes for editors

The Salisbury Trails App is flexible and adaptable to the city's immediate needs and future plans as they emerge. The Wiltshire Council team will be able to respond accordingly using a powerful content management system. As well as delivering written and pictorial information, the app also allows the use to experience audio and video content, which will be a feature on future upgrades. This will include stories from local residents.

The app content was created by the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, which holds eight miles of the county and borough's archives dating back 800 years including a wealth of material on the city of Salisbury. 

The app platform was developed by Calvium. Based in Bristol, Calvium is a pioneering independent digital agency combining expertise in research, experience design, software engineering and mobile innovation. Leaders in Digital Placemaking, they create location-specific digital services and experiences that enhance or radically transform people's relationship with natural and built environments. This expertise has led Calvium to build innovative digital placemaking experiences for some of the most recognisable brands and landmarks in the UK, such as: Battersea Power Station, Tower Bridge, Historic Royal Palaces and the National Theatre.

Case study available here https://calvium.com/projects/salisbury-trails