Reg Cundick and Danny Howell in the book The Inns And Taverns Of Warminster, published in November 1987, stated:
The King Arthur, which opened on 2nd December 1981, was an amalgamation of the King’s Arms and the Bunch of Grapes, two pubs situated next to each other on the eastern side of Weymouth Street.
The owners, Ushers Brewery, of Trowbridge, closed the King Arthur in early March 1987 after an inspection by the West Wiltshire Environmental Health Department. A brewery spokesman stated that after careful consideration they had decided to refurbish half of the King Arthur and to re-open it as licensed premises, appointing a new licensee. The other half (the old Bunch Of Grapes) at the southern end was to be converted into flats on its first and second floors, with a retail outlet on the ground floor.
When it opened again in June 1987 the inn was renamed The John Barleycorn.