Extract from The Changing Face Of Warminster by Wilfred Middlebrook, published in 1971:
The neighbourhood of Coldharbour was called la Goslonde or Gooseland in 1292. In 1609 it was called Coleharborow, but no-one seems to know what Coldharbour really means. I can recall watching a ladies’ football match in an East End district of London called Coldharbour. Over the bridge from the town are a few bungalows, then a row of four old cottages; the end one of which was at one time the turnpike cottage. The last toll collector at the Coldharbour turnpike was a Mr. Dicks.
There used to a pair of fine and lofty “monkey puzzle’ trees fronting one of the houses cornering Gashouse Lane, but these have now been cut down. Selwood House, taking its name from the ancient Selwood Forest, was once a private school. Norridge Wood is all that remains of the once mighty Forest Of Selwood, being the North Ridge Wood. Across from the turnpike cottages, Coldharbour Lane leads to Norridge Wood; at one time the lane ended at a knacker’s yard or slaughterhouse, but now there is a large modern barn and byre.
The playing fields of Lord Weymouth’s School are along Coldharbour Lane, and a “Public Footpath’ notice across the lane shows the way to the open fields and West Street, though one has to jump the Cley Hill Stream to reach the fields. Warminster St. Martin’s Football Club had their ground and club house further along the lane, with red-painted doors marked “Home Team’ and “Visiting Team’ at each side of the silver-grey corrugated iron building. The goal posts have recently been presented to the children’s recreation ground on the new Portway Lane Estate.