Extract from The Changing Face Of Warminster by Wilfred Middlebrook, published in 1971:
We cannot mention the wide thoroughfare of George Street without first saying something about Chain Street, which no longer exists as such but was once the main thoroughfare through the town, when George Street was but a meadow. Colt Hoare, the Wiltshire historian, describes Chain Street as crossing the foot of the Deverill Road (now called Sambourne Road) from the New Inn to the White Hart.
In 1898 an octogenarian recalled Chain Street as running parallel with George Street, from the White Hart to Almshouse Bridge at the foot of Town Hall Hill, now the High Street. This was before the fine Georgian houses were built on the north side of George Street, and the old houses now on the south side were almost hidden by another row of houses with a narrow, watered alley between, called Chain Street.
The chains were probably there to prevent pedestrians from slipping into the Sambourne Stream. There was one place where the stream could be crossed by stepping stones and the Almshouse Bridge spanned the stream at the far end, where it was joined by the Cley Hill Stream or Rocky Daddy as it curved round from Church Fields to join what is now called the Swan River.
During the course of my writing these notes, a fellow, over 75 years of age, told me how his “grandfather used to water his horses in the stream by Almshouse Bridge.” In recent months the County Council has re-bridged the stream that flows under George Street at the foot of High Street, to take the strain of modern traffic, which adds point to my previous remarks that the main thoroughfare of Warminster was many feet lower in the olden days.
The Almshouses, first occupied in 1561, fell into decay and were pulled down about 1750. A commercial directory published in 1823 stated that “Warminster has been lately improved by the removal of hovels in George Street, neat houses now being erected.” This probably marked the widening of the street as we know it today, a fine wide thoroughfare with Chain Street but a long-lost link with a bygone age.
Relics of the past were discovered in 1904 during gas-main excavations on both sides of the junction between George Street and High Street. A number of large pieces of wood were found at regular intervals, presumed to be the lower portions of large posts which formed a fence along the sidewalk to prevent foot-passengers from stepping into the stream. These posts were relics of the days when the streets yawned with deep ruts, so that a traveller might step from the footpath on to the top of a loaded wagon.
More recent excavations in 1949 revealed more posts and chains in the middle of George Street, across from Butcher’s Yard. R. Butcher And Son have been established as builders over a hundred years – two fine examples of their work locally being the lovely chapel of St. Boniface Theological College in Church Street and the more recent transformation of the old Bartlett’s Brewery in the High Street to a fine and imposing showrooms for Carr’s Cars.
There are fine modern shops in the George Street of today, most of the Georgian houses on the north side having been converted into shops during these last few years, while old-established businesses have flourished and died and have been reborn on the southern side.
For many years the Warminster Motor Company held a prominent position facing the foot of Sambourne Road. Adjacent to these premises, which occupied the site of what was once the Castle inn, was the Castle Malt House, taken over in 1902 as a steam laundry. A grand improvement scheme was planned for the Motor Company premises in 1962, and the Castle Laundry moved to a new place by the Regal cinema in Weymouth Street, thus transferring the old name of the Castle to a new site. The story of the Castle Laundry has a sad ending, for the place was closed down in 1969.
Mr. Percy Carr, of Carr’s Cars, who started business at Corsley, at the garage now run by Rob Walker, was desirous of moving from his palatial showrooms in High Street, so he proceeded to build a really modern garage here in George Street in 1962. Situated at the junction of George Street and Ash Walk, on the site of the old Warminster Motor Company; six houses and the Castle Laundry had to be demolished to accommodate the spacious premises.
Corrymore, for many years a boarding house at the corner of George Street and Ash Walk, was razed to the ground, along with two more houses in Ash Walk, and four from the end of the Georgian terrace. When finished, the new premises of Carr’s Cars included a raised office and workshops leading off from the central showroom. The showroom, holding up to sixteen cars, is a circular “rotunda’ with a domed roof of plastic and fibreglass that floods in the daylight. Around it is a matching circular canopy under which vehicles can park when pulling in for petrol and servicing. In 1970 the firm changed hands and became appropriately known as Octagon Motors.
Present day shops on the north side of George Street include both ladies’ and gentlemen’s outfitters, a chemist, greengrocer, cakes and confectionery, a cafe and a long-established photographer’s business, terminating with Butcher’s Yard at the east end. “Jack’s Shop,’ still Butcher’s, is at the far end in premises once occupied by the wool shop of Willmott And Bee.
Mention has already been made of the posts and chains unearthed at this junction with Portway and High Street, one-time protection from the swiftly-flowing, alder-lined streams that converged here at Almshouse Bridge. Protection is still needed in these modern times for pedestrians at this spot, a strong barricade of steel netting being erected on the corner to protect people from the hazards of heavy motor traffic. Even the barricade is not immune, and has been wrecked more than once by skidding lorries.
Tradespeople of old-time George Street included Yockney the Printer (1860) and Baiss, a timber merchant who died in 1842. The Provis family were tradespeople too, and they provide an interesting link with Charles Dickens. In The Times of 7th September 1853, the famous novelist found a report on the trial at Gloucester Assizes of Tom Provis, of Warminster, on a charge of attempting to prove that he was Sir Richard Smythe of Ashton Court. Inspector Field, who often accompanied Dickens when visiting the haunts of the underworld in London, had the job of tracking down the impostor Provis. At Warminster he found an old woman who was related to Provis and took lodgings with her. Dickens contemplated writing a life of Inspector Field, and drew him as “Inspector Bucket’ in Bleak House.
The Methodist Chapel on the south side of George Street was founded as a Wesleyan Chapel in 1804, when that side was still called Chain Street. The Chapel was rebuilt in its present form, complete with schoolrooms, in 1861. It stands next to what was the old-established bakery of Payne’s, now a petrol service station and motor-car equipment centre, but the old bakehouse still stands in the rear.
Other old firms now gone include Everett’s the grocers, now a carpet and furnishing shop; Siminson the chemist, now a travel bureau; Worthington’s china shop, now the George Restaurant; and Vallis the fishmonger, who had his shop enlarged and modernised by Chinns the butchers who ran it for many years. The latter was afterwards a motor-car showroom for Alf Hickin and is now a house-furnishing establishment. Another former trader, Miss Francis, ran a cobbler’s shop and her old place is now the premises of an optician.
The changing face of Warminster demonstrated so dramatically by Carr’s Cars development and the road-widening behind the White Hart, narrowly missed another alteration in George Street, when the Town Council decided to pull down shops on the south side to form an entrance and exit to the new Western Car Park. The County Council decided otherwise and the entry had to be made the back way, as already described.