From a Warminster Town Guide, 1971:
Introducing Warminster
Warminster is the most southerly of a group of five towns that stand in West Wiltshire only a few miles from the Somerset border. With a population of 13,110, the urban district includes not only the town of Warminster but its eight and a half quare miles include much open country including part of the western escarpment of Salisbury Plain.
The town dates from Saxon times although the downs were occupied by our Iron and Bronze Age ancestors who have left not only barrows and earthworks behind them but, at Battlesbury Camp, one of the major Iron Age forts in Great Britain. Warminster’s later history was peaceful and prosperous and in the Middle Ages it was not only one of the leading West of England wool and cloth towns but also the greatest corn marketing centre in Southern England.
Today’s Warminster is still a country town of importance. It has long since lost its cloth industry but has made up for that by adding a score of other industries and crafts. Shoe components, furniture, gloves and greeting cards are produced here whilst egg packing, light engineering, malting and, surprising perhaps, banana ripening are among local industrial activities. Warminster has also become an important military centre with the establishment here of the School of Infantry and workshops of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
The main thoroughfares of the town retain the pleasing appearance of a country town and many stone buildings date from the 17th and 18th centuries. Old inns are a reminder of coaching days and other historically or architecturally notable buildings include the Minster Church of St. Denys, the chapel of St. Laurence and Lord Weymouth’s Grammar School.
Though so much that is old is retained, Warminster is modern in ideas and its shopping centre is one of the best in West Wiltshire. Modern housing estates – both council owned and privately developed – have grown up around the town and several of these are sited in most attractive and natural surroundings. Sports facilities are excellent and the many open spaces include, of course, the high downs that reach to nearly 700 feet and stretch away east to the heart of Salisbury Plain.
Numerous places of worship are found in the town, and schools, which are also plentiful, include several leading independent establishments.
Not least of the town’s amenities are its good road and rail links with the rest of Wiltshire and with neighbouring Somerset. Road networks also provide an easy means of reaching nearby beauty spots including the lovely villages of the Wylye and Deverill valleys and the great mansion and estate of Longleat.
A growing town, a busy town and a town set in most beautiful and unspoilt scenery – that is Warminster.