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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, 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. Laurence at High Street is a “Peculiar,” existing outside direct Church of England control and held in trust by feofees since 1575, when the chapel was purchased by 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, 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 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 recently been established in the town reflecting Warminster’s varied blend of architecture which covers several centuries of development. Plaques have already been placed on sixteen buildings.

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.

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 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, 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 old 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.

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 Anza 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 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 (pictured front cover) 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 a considerable 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.