West Wiltshire District Council’s Warminster Town Centre Conservation Area Character Assessment, Informative Document, Consultation Draft/Cabinet Draft, of December 2006, includes the following notes:
THE ORIGINS AND HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
The earliest reference to a settlement in this locality dates from the 10th century and makes reference to an Anglo Saxon settlement, focused on the River Were, on the edge of a great forest. The forest was believed to be located to the south west of Church Street, and it is possible that a Saxon church and burial ground was located to the south west of the Norman Church.
The first record of a place name identifies the earliest settlement as “Worgemynsterâ€. This has been identified as signifying the River Were and a Minster church.
The Domesday Book identifies Warminster as a royal manor, sited to the east of the parish church, with agricultural holdings of some standing with several mills. The main settlement was located to the west of the current town centre in the region of Church Street, extending from St Denys’ Church to Emwell Street. The market centre is said to have been at the junction of Church Street and Silver Street, where the obelisk now stands.
Over the following centuries Warminster was extended and a total of eight manors emerged. In the late 12th century the royal manor was granted to Robert Mauduit and it became Warminster Manor. In the 13th century part of the estate belonging to Warminster Manor was granted to a younger son and the manor of Newport was created. This was later to become Portway Manor and is now the only manor remaining which was situated within the boundaries of the Town Centre Conservation Area.
The manor of Kingston’s [Kyngeston], also established in the 12th century was located on what is now called The Close, but it is no longer any physical evidence of it.
Boreham Manor which stood to the east of the town is also believed to have previously formed part of the estate belonging to Warminster Manor and was created in the 13th century.
12th- 14th Centuries
By the early 12th century the town had spread as far as Silver Street and George Street areas. High Street and Market Place, formed planned extensions to the settlement in the 13th century. Burgage plots* are an important feature of the town that are indicative of a planned medieval development. The fact that they are still evident in some areas has a significant impact on the character and appearance of the town and should be preserved.
The first record relating to the market status of the town is in the form of a market grant, which dates between 1204 – 1244, and was given to Mr. Thomas Mauduit. It is therefore likely that either King John or King Henry III awarded market status.
15th -17th Centuries
By the 16th century the corn market was well established and was of some considerable regional importance. A Town Hall was erected in the middle of Cornhill, which has since become High Street and Market Place.
At this time other manufacturing and trade industries, were emerging, in particular the woollen and malting industries. The woollen industry did not result in the building of factories or wool mills in Warminster and was probably based on the earlier cottage style weaving. Nevertheless, the clothing trade was prosperous and well known in the 16th century. Wealthy clothiers built some of the more prestigious houses within the town, such as Byne House and Portway House. The only factory-based cloth manufacturing emerged in 1874, which was the silkworks factory on Factory Lane.
During the 17th century brick making and the leather manufacturing industries emerged. Brick making resulted in an increase in the use of brick in local construction.
Warminster also became well known for leather glove manufacturing. Dents still have a factory located just outside the conservation area.
The increasing use of the corn market and rising levels of traffic, meant an increase in the significance of Warminster’s roads, although many of the streets we see today may, at this point, have still been drovers routes, as the market was not solely reliant on the corn trade.
18th-19th Centuries
The visual characteristics of the town are mainly attributable to this period. Whilst a number of buildings date back to the 16th and 17th centuries, many of these were refronted in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In 1727 the Warminster Turnpike Trust* was established. This body was one of the earliest of its kind in the country, and is an indication of the importance of the town and its function within the south region. The Trust generated employment and ensured the continuing success of Warminster’s corn market and coaching industry. Seven toll houses were built to finance road improvements. The work undertaken, through or with the assistance of the trust, helped to shape the current form of the town centre including:
1759 Portway was widened for increased traffic.
1763 Footbridge known as Almshouse Bridge was replaced by a road bridge. Almshouse Bridge was located at the end of George Street where it meets Portway and High Street.
1783 major works to Market Place.
1808 joining of two narrow streets, one of which was called Chain Street, to form a broader thoroughfare renamed George Street.
1831 the opening of Weymouth Street to link the newly built Christ Church with the current Town Hall, built by Lord Bath.
1838 The need to widen the pavements in East Street resulted in the loss of front gardens and garden walls.
Trading routes connected Warminster to some of the most important towns on the south such as; London, Barnstable, Bath, Bristol and Salisbury and southern ports including Southampton and Portsmouth. Consequently, there was a buoyant coaching industry in Warminster in the 18th and 19th centuries that relied on the good position of Warminster on the main coaching routes.
In 1815 powers of the Turnpike Trust were extended on the grounds of public safety to the extent that they forbid the use of thatch within the Town Centre. Consequently, thatch, though once a common roofing material in Warminster, can no longer be seen within the town centre.
The town, like many others, became service orientated and seemed to lack a particular commercial focus, or many opportunities for further employment.
Warminster’s landscape setting as well as the reason for the containment of the town now proved to be a source of employment and wealth within the local economy. The large expanses of uninterrupted terrain upon Salisbury Plain attracted the military as a good environment for military training. The influx of military workers in the early 20th century and the establishment of War Department Barracks in 1938 brought with it employment opportunities and fuelled the service sector by considerably increasing the population of Warminster and providing a source of custom. The arrival of the army was followed by the building of fighting vehicle workshops and finally the establishment of the School of Infantry, located on the northern edge of the settlement.
The attractiveness of the towns setting, the needs of the military and changes in lifestyles in the mid 20th century led to the considerable expansion of the town, with the development of residential suburbs really taking off in the 1960s. In addition to military personnel, Warminster has also become an attractive place for retirement.
Another important industry in the 20th and 21st centuries is tourism. Since 1966 Longleat House and gardens (roughly 5km west of Warminster) has also become an important tourism venue, which has boosted tourism within the wider area, when it became a safari park. The other largest tourist attraction in close proximity to Warminster is Center Parcs, which was first opened in 1996 and provides employment as well as bringing tourists to the locality as it diverted traffic from the road and resulted in trade passing by the town.
The success of the corn market and the strength of the local farming industry resulted in a strong malting industry, aided by the trade routes, local alehouses and breweries, by the early 19th century Warminster was the malting capital of the south west. The one remaining malting that is in full operation is in Pound Street.
Despite the early origins of the corn market a corn market building was not constructed until the early 19th century. As an attempt to sustain the corn market it failed and the building, which was on the south of Market Place, has now been demolished.
The 19th century saw a shift in focus from industrial development to civic investments such as the construction of the Town Hall, and the Athenaeum. The Warminster Athenaeum as an institution was set up in 1851 and initially leased premises within the Literary and Scientific institute, which was located opposite the Town Hall on the Corner of Weymouth Street and Market Place. In 1856 The Marquess of Bath agreed to sell the premises known as The London Inn to the Athenaeum Trust. The London Inn was built on the site of the former Search Hoop Inn that was built in the late 17th century and destroyed by fire in the early 19th century. The London Inn had been an important coaching stop and one of the busiest inns in Warminster. The location of both the Town Hall and the Athenaeum served to maintain this area of the town as the focus community activity.
The 19th century also saw an expansion in the quantity and size of educational facilities within the town, many of which occupied prominent locations within the town centre.
The arrival of the railway is blamed for the decline of the coaching industry and loss of the corn market in the 20th century.
20th Century
Following the loss of the corn market in the mid 19th century, and the decline in other industries, which had been buoyant in the 18th century, by the early 20th century farming, horticulture and service trades were the dominant employers.