Saturday 4th October 2025
If you are walking up the Boot Hill part of Deverill Road, Warminster, soon after you pass the Fox & Hounds public house, you may notice what appears to be the bricked-up arch of a doorway in the wall alongside the pavement. I took the attached photo only a couple of days ago, on Thursday 2nd October 2025.
This doorway once gave access to a beer cellar used by the landlords of the Fox & Hounds in days long gone by. And at one period Frank Moody, who had various businesses at Fore Street during the 1920s, including a bicycle shop, a furniture store, and also a pig-slaughtering house and a bacon factory there; he used this cellar at Boot Hill as a curing place and as additional storage for cured bacon. Frank Moody died in 1930.
This cellar also had military use during the Second World War, not with the regular army but with the town’s Home Guard. The land above it provided vegetable garden ground for the residents of Christ Church Terrace.
What I’m going to repeat next is going to sound very “Dad’s Army”.
On 19th March 1986 I tape-recorded the memories of Percy Vincent, and published them in my book Remember Warminster Volume Three. Among his wealth of recollections, Percy recalled:
“During the War I was in the Home Guard . . . We were in different sections. My section was operating by Christ Church. We took a piece of the churchyard wall at Christ Church out, opposite the Fox And Hounds pub. We took the top off the wall and dug in a bit, a hole, so that we could get in. That was our strong point against anybody coming up Boot Hill. They had to come round the corner and our fire-point lay there.”
“Opposite that was a couple of old-fashioned doors laid in the wall, where Moody’s bacon factory had some cellars, where they put the bacon. That was cold storage before fridges came about. We had a flame-thrower in there. It was just before you get to the Fox And Hounds pub, on the right. There was a wall and halfway down that wall were two wooden doors and that was the cellar belonging to Moody’s, the bacon factory people. We commanded that cellar and we put our flame-thrower in there. That was our point at Christ Church.”
Fortunately we have more written recollections concerning the cellar at Boot Hill.
Wilfred Middlebrook, who lived at Christ Church Terrace, during the war years, wrote a newspaper serialisation in 1971 which he called The Changing Face Of Warminster. In it he wrote the following notes about the cellar. He noted:
“An underground cave. The Fox And Hounds still retains its private malthouse at the rear, unused for many years. An adjacent ‘cave’ under the gardens, was once used for curing bacon; the smoke emerging from a small chimney protruding from one of the Christ Church Terrace gardens above. This cellar was used by the Home Guard during the last War as a magazine for their ammunition and explosives, complete with a sandbagged defence post in the gardens that roofed the cellar, and a matching strongpoint in the Christ Church cemetery across the road.”
“In August 1941 the newly-formed Home Guard staged an anti-invasion exercise in Deverill Road, manning the defence posts they had dug and sandbagged at the bottom of my garden in Christ Church Terrace, and the cemetery post across the road. Thunder-flashes were lobbed about the place, blowing the tops off my carrots, but the ‘enemy’ happened to win this particular round. An ‘enemy’ agent, dressed as a nun, gained entrance into my house at the point of a gun concealed within his/her flowing robes. After hiding in the front bedroom and biding his time, he finally threw open the window and bombed the lot! A few days after the Home Guard had stocked their magazine – the old Fox And Hounds beer cellar under my front garden – with explosives. My neighbour was discussing our crops. ‘Are your potatoes coming up yet?’ he asked. ‘Not yet,’ I replied, ‘but they soon will be if anything goes wrong down below!'”
I posted the photo and my notes above on my dannyhowellnet Warminster and District Facebook page and it gained 228 likes, 19 shares and 39 comments including:
Tina Randall
This is really interesting, I’ve seen the arches often and the flat area on Christ Church Terrace but it’s good to know the history.
Angie Howarth
Oh wow – so when can we open it up and start curing bacon again? Amazing history, thank you.
Vicki Towers
I always wondered what the bricked up doorways were.
Sarah Muir
Even as I child walking up to attend Sambourne School in the late 70’s I wondered what those arches were for.
Kenny Biffo Byfield
There was also a gun emplacement opposite cut out of the church wall which was manned to observe any enemy movements coming up from the Deverill Road.
Robert Lewis
Is the same Percy Vincent that had a milk round in later years? . . . . so much information that I didn’t know . . . . thank you so much Danny.
Kenny Biffo Byfield
Robert Lewis no that’s a different Vincent, Robert.
Robert Lewis
Thank you Kenny.
George Dwight
How did they NOT suspect a nun during an anti-invasion exercise! ?
Ian Gruncell
I’ve often wondered about that.
Norma Braine
A great read. I don’t know Warminster well but live in Wiltshire. I can imagine the ‘Dad’s Army’ scenario . . . . what a laugh that episode would have been! Thanks for sharing a bit of localish history and a good laugh!
Linda Stafford
We always thought it was a tunnel to somewhere, don’t think we ‘knew’ where!
Dibbley Wood
Should open them up . . . Go exploring . . . And teach the kids of today.
Gordon Davies
Dad’s Army, I think, was good for morale, made men who could not join up to do real fighting, something to do and might be useful if the Germans did invade. Just goes to show what is hidden around an old town.
Eileen Goring-Smith
I walk past here regularly so will take better notice in future.
Sheila Oaten
Fascinating piece of local history!
Tom Biss
Interesting.
Beverley McSparron
Very interesting thank you for sharing.
Sandra Major
Lovely part of history and knew Percy Vincent very well.
Sandra Major
Is that the same Percy Vincent who was manager at Dents glove factory?
Nikki Spreadbury-Clews
Very interesting, thank you.
Bob Payne
Thank you for the history, that was wonderful.
Kenny Biffo Byfield
Bob Payne I can remember going inside that room as a lad when I lived in Upper Marsh Road, Bob.
Bob Payne
Kenny Biffo Byfield I was too afraid to go in there, Ken.
Jezzie Moon
Thank you for all your historical information Danny.
Clare Blandford
Amazing look back in time ! Thanks for sharing.
Margaret Aiken
Thank you for sharing this information! So interesting.
Christopher Knight
Great piece of Warminster history.
Clive Moulder
Frank moody was I believe my ex-wifes grandfather.
Kenny Biffo Byfield
Leonard Crouton I knew all this from my dad and other men who were in the Home Guard during the war.