In 1987, Reg Cundick wrote:
“The Unicorn was a beerhouse at West End; identified as Plot No.2399 in the 1838 Survey of Warminster. This is the first record of it; the owner being Thomas Papps Udsell and the tenant/occupier William Turner. The Unicorn was one of the beerhouses sanctioned under the Beerhouse Act of 1830. It is not known how long this inn existed, but the last known record in any of the local directories was in 1842. It was situated on the opposite side of the road to the Tudor House in Vicarage Street, on the eastern side of a small alley leading to an old malthouse which was converted into residential accommodation before the Second World War. The Unicorn is a private house today.”
Danny Howell, writes:
To which 1842 Directory was being referred to by Reg Cundick is not known. The only local directory for 1842 that I am aware of is the Commercial Directory. This does not list a Unicorn beerhouse or inn for Warminster, but does list The Unicorn public house at Heytesbury – now a private residence on the corner of Park Street and Park Lane, Heytesbury, and now called Unicorn Cottage. (The hill at the eastern end of Heytesbury, on what was the old A36 road from Park Street to the junction with the turning for Chitterne – the present A36 was realigned alongside of this – was once known as Unicorn Hill). Perhaps Reg Cundick made a mistake, with the reference in the Commercial Directory 1842, thinking that the Unicorn listed (at Heytesbury) was a reference to the one at West End(Vicarage Street), Warminster? It might have been a simple oversight on his part. Reg passed away in 1989, so we can’t ask him now whether this was the case or not, but it seems highly likely.