AN UPCOMING talk at Salisbury u3a club will focus on the outward urban expansion of Salisbury in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Hadrian Cook will deliver the talk, ‘Salisbury and its suburbs from 1800’ at St Francis Church, Beatrice Road from 10am on November 19.

A U3A spokesperson said: “Over the long-term, the pattern of urban development around Salisbury and Old Sarum is complex.

“Fisherton excepted, outward urban expansion of Salisbury was limited before 1800, so in this talk Hadrian will focus on nineteenth and twentieth century expansion.

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“Hadrian will stress the contiguous relationships between settlements involved in suburbanisation. Modern Salisbury functions as a commercial and market city and was not a major manufacturing centre in the modern era.

“Development was rapid following the arrival of the railway from 1847 and in the twentieth century the process was stimulated by military and other publicly funded employers.

“Population density decreased dramatically after 1920, before the development was constrained by topography because water meadows and downland restricted building.

“This caused river terrace land to experience land-use competition between agriculture, horticulture, brick manufacture and urban development. All this Hadrian will explain.”

Members and guests are warmly welcome to attend the meeting which will start with coffee. Guests are invited to join Sarum u3a after two visits.