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 The
town of Warminster began in Saxon times as a small settlement within
the loop of the Were stream, but people were living in the area
during pre-historic days - the surrounding hills feature Iron Age
remains, while at Pitmead, a meadow by the river Wylye near Norton
Bavant, the remains of two Romano-British buildings were first discovered
in 1786. The Domesday Book (1086) suggests a population of 400 in
Warminster. A grant of a market had been made by 1204 and although
the growth of the town was gradual to begin with, the corn market
held here was soon successful. By the middle of the 17th century
it was the “greatest corn-market by much in the West”
and the fame and fortune which continued was encouragement for other
trades such as malting, cloth production and iron founding. Corn
and cloth gave rise to much of the architecture we see in the town
centre today. The coming of the railway to Warminster in 1851 accelerated
the decline in trade. The Corn Exchange built in 1855 slowed down
the decline for a few years but by 1900 the great days of the corn
market were well and truly over. Since then Warminster has looked
to its role as a garrison town with some light industry and tourism
as the way forward.
CHURCHES
Warminster has several churches providing worship and ministry
in practical ways. The Parish Church of St. Denys, The Minster,
now amalgamated with Upton Scudamore, was restored between 1887
and 1889. Outside the main door stands a venerable yew tree which
is often quoted as being a thousand years old, although a recent
study suggests it dates back to the 14th century.
The Chapel of St. Lawrence at High Street is a “Peculiar,”
existing outside direct Church of England control and held in trust
by feofees since 1575, when they purchased the chapel for the town
for £38 6s 6d. A clock which has no face is installed in the
tower and sounds the hour and quarters. The chapel is open daily
for prayer and evensong is held at 3.30 p.m. on the third Sunday
of every month. A flower festival is usually presented during the
Christmas period with donations being given to charity.
St. John’s Church at Boreham, designed by G.E. Street and
built in 1865, glows magnificently in the sunshine. The walls inside
are illustrated with mosaics of scriptural scenes designed by Ponting
and made by J. Powell of Whitefriars. They were unveiled in 1912.
Another was added to mark the new millennium.
Christ Church, at Sambourne was built in 1830 in the hope that it
might put an end to the lawlessness and degrading living conditions
of Warminster Common residents. Initially a Chapel of Ease to the
parish church, the Perpetual Curate, the Rev W. Hickman, who began
his ministry in 1867, became the first Vicar when the church became
a separate Parish Church by Act of Parliament. It has recently been
refurbished with the addition of modern facilities.
St George’s Roman Catholic Church, where Mass is held on Saturdays
at 6.00 p.m., Sundays at 8.30 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. and on Holy Days
at 10.00 a.m. and 7.30 p.m., is in Boreham Road.
The United Church at George Street was formerly the Methodist Church
until 1984 when the Methodists joined the United Reform Churches.
The building was erected in 1861 and extended, with a new foyer
in 1976. John Wesley visited Warminster in October 1758 and preached
in Smith’s yard at Portway.
The Ebenezer Baptist Church, dating back to 1811, is in North Row.
The Reverend H. M. Gunn in his History of Nonconformity in Warminster,
published in 1853, described it as “a neat and simple edifice,
capable of seating 400 persons.”
At Imber Road the Garrison Church of St. Giles, whose foundation
stone comes from the tower of St. Giles Church in the deserted village
of Imber, was dedicated in 1968 and serves the town’s military
community.
The Christian Science Church and Reading Room at Ash Walk occupies
the building used between 1857 and 1932 as the town’s police
station.
The Foundation of Christian Fellowship provides an “oasis
of love” for Warminster, holding a service on Sunday mornings
at the Assembly Rooms and a fellowship and bible school on weekday
evenings in various homes. They also arrange classes, meet in homes
for prayer and hold both Men’s and Ladies meetings and events.
The church runs Alpha Courses and the Warminster Help and Action
Team.
BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS
A “Blue Plaque” trail has been established in the
town reflecting Warminster’s varied blend of architecture
which covers several centuries of development. Plaques have been
placed on 20 buildings. A leaflet is available from the Information
Centre.
The Tudor House, at Number 34 Vicarage Street is a timber-framed
and jettied building which may well pre-date its name. North Row
(formerly known as Meeting House Lane) off the Market Place, is
an old and still relatively unchanged part of Warminster. Number17
features a Sun Fire Insurance Office plaque, and the Town Council
offices are currently in the 17th century home of the Old Meeting
which later became the British School for Girls.
Wren House in Vicarage Street and The Chantry at High Street have
often been credited to Sir Christopher Wren (born at East Knoyle
a village ten miles south of Warminster) but it is now accepted
that they are not by him but in his style. A doorway at Warminster
School in Church Street, originally in situ at Longleat, is credited
to Wren though. Pevsner described Church Street as “the best
street in Warminster.”
Portway House now converted into residential apartments, is dated
1715 but research suggests it is as early as 1702. It was built
for the Middlecotts, a family of local clothiers, but in 1820 they
sold it to Longleat along with 500 or so acres remaining of the
original Newport Manor. From 1958 to 1981 it was used as the town’s
library and the offices of the Urban District Council were also
there. Stone pillars with ornamental eagles enhance the handsome
gates which were restored in 1962.
The Warminster Preservation Trust, using local authority grants,
has undertaken three restoration projects in recent years. Number
6 Vicarage Street (Durrell House) was the first in 1988, followed
by number 7 Vicarage Street in 1990. Two shops with accommodation
above on the corner of High Street and Portway were converted into
one shop and several flats in 2000. They have been named Marlborough
House.
The Obelisk, a triangular monument of Bath stone, at the junction
of Silver Street, Church Street and Vicarage Street was erected
in 1783 to commemorate the enclosure of the parish. It stands on
the site of the former Emwell Cross Barn. A fountain (now disused)
is in the shape of a lion’s head and the cattle troughs at
the base are now planted with flowers. The monument is floodlit
at night.
Teddington House, opposite the Obelisk, is dated circa 1700, and
its western wing was once a wool store, a reminder of one of Warminster’s
former trades.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY In days gone by there were many different industries
in Warminster providing not only employment for most of the population
but also carrying the name of the town far and wide. Thirty six
malthouses, three iron foundries, cloth making in factories and
cottages, three gloving firms, nurseries, barley, trial plots for
new varieties of barley, agricultural implement making, waterworks
engineering, lime-burning, bricks, silk manufacturing, banana ripening,
egg packing, making chair parts and shoe components, charcoal production,
a creamery and cardboard packaging were all vibrant at certain periods.
Of this list, only one malthouse and one gloving business survive
today. The Pound Street Malthouse still operates using the traditional
methods and the current owners have established a “Friends
of the Warminster Malthouse” group.
Dents Gloves in Fairfield Road/Station Road were established in
Worcester in 1777. They took over the A.L. Jefferies factory in
Warminster in 1937. The company is planning to move to Crusader
Park within the next 2-3 years and the site will be converted to
retail units.
Many businesses in Warminster have re-located to or started up on
one of the town’s trading estates. The Warminster Business
Park, Crusader Park, Northlands Industrial Estate and the Woodcock
Trading Estate are the homes of several enterprises which provide
varied products and services.
A GARRISON TOWN
Warminster has long been associated with military activity from
the Civil War years to the Warminster Loyal Association during Napoleonic
times and to the period when several Warminster men enlisted for
the Boer Wars in South Africa and later in the two world wars. Five
years prior to the outbreak of the First World War the 10th Wiltshire
Volunteer Rifle Corps (Warminster) was absorbed into the Wiltshire
Regiment. During the 1939-45 War the townsfolk served at home and
abroad and some, mainly from farming backgrounds, who had joined
the Wiltshire Yeomanry, saw active service in Northern Africa and
Italy. Meanwhile back in Warminster during the later part of the
War, the town was used as billets by American troops.
It was during the First World War that thousands of young men were
stationed in and around Warminster preparing for the muddy battle
conditions in France. Some missed death while defending “King
and Country” only to succumb to the world-wide epidemic of
Spanish influenza in 1918/19. The churchyards at Codford, Sutton
Veny and Baverstock feature the graves of some three hundred members
of the Australian and New Zealand forces. Ceremonies are held on
Anzac Day - 25th April (or the Sunday nearest to it) to acknowledge
the sacrifices these soldiers made.
At the junction of the Avenue and Portway stands the town’s
War Memorial, a tall Iona type cross of Box-ground Bath stone standing
21 feet high and incorporating interwoven rope work and Egyptian
art. The names of 115 men who gave up all in the First World War
are commemorated. It was designed by Warminster stonemason Egerton
Strong whose ancestors had worked with Sir Christopher Wren on the
rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire of
London. The Warminster War Memorial site was donated by the 5th
Marquess of Bath and 2,000 people attended the unveiling of the
monument on Sunday 29th May 1921. The monument was re-dedicated
on 6th November 1949 when the names of 52 townsmen who had paid
the supreme sacrifice during the Second World War were added.
Copheap, the hill closest to the town centre, was purchased by the
Urban District Council and soon afterwards it was agreed at a public
meeting in 1947 that it should become a war memorial for the town.
The purchase price was then met by public subscriptions. Members
of the R.A. and Old Comrades associations (illustrated here) constructed
the Path of Remembrance from Copheap Lane to the base of the hill
with regimental badges being incorporated into the walls at the
lower end of the path. A lych gate at the entrance to Copheap is
inscribed “As an everlasting tribute of pride and gratitude
to the sons of Warminster who gave their lives in the great World
Wars this archway was constructed and Copheap preserved for the
perpetual use and enjoyment of all”
The north and east slopes of Copheap overlook the garrison part
of Warminster. This area was used for summer tented camps during
the early decades of the 20th century. The proximity to Salisbury
Plain, used for military training, gave rise to further developments.
The Land Warfare Centre (formerly the School Of Infantry) began
life as the Swinton and Elles Tank Barracks. Swinton Barracks was
officially opened by the Rt. Hon. Leslie Hoare Belisha, M.P. in
September 1938. Building the married quarters for officers in the
area commenced the following year.
In 1939 a Royal Army Ordnance Corps depot was established at Beggar’s
Bush off Imber Road which was transferred six years later to the
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, 27 Command Workshop,
later renamed 27 District Workshop REME. The United States Army
3rd Division extended the workshops in 1943 during their tenure.
It is now the Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO) and continues
to be an employer of civilians from the Warminster area. Battlesbury
Barracks were built in 1956 and extended in 1964 (and again since).
More developments have followed including the construction of the
Harman Lines (for tanks) at Sack Hill during the 1970s.
The military continue to play a vital part in the life and economy
of Warminster.
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