Sherrington ~
The place name was recorded as Scearntune in 968.
Scearn-tun means “mud farmstead” or “dung farmstead.”
Author: Lob
The First Known Reference To Warminster
The Urban District Of Warminster Official Guide 1957/8 noted that:
The first known reference to Warminster is in a document among the Canterbury MSS dated about A.D. 900 : “And Aethlem Higa went from that suit when the King was at Worgemynster, Ordlaf, and Osforth, and Odda, and Withbord, and Aefstan the Bald, and Aethelmoth, being witnesses.”
The Saxon Period In The Warminster Area
From The Warminster Official Guide And Souvenir 1928 (penned by Victor Strode Manley):
The Saxon ravages began about 500 A.D., and following on their heels came the Danes. Alfred rallied the men of Wessex at Cley Hill in 878 A.D. and forced their surrender at Westbury White Horse, thus laying the foundation of the British Empire in this district.
Warminster In Pre-History
From The Warminster Official Guide And Souvenir 1928 (penned by Victor Strode Manley):
Pre-History. Great must have been Warminster’s pristine glory, as evidenced by its wealth of archaeological treasures now housed in Devizes Museum. The first arrivals, about 5,000 B.C., were Neolithic men of the Stone Age, the fierce Picts of later history. They were the original builders of the stone circles at Avebury and Stonehenge, both in Wilts, dependent upon their cattle and equipped only with flint implements. The Celts arrived about 1,400 B.C. with a Bronze Age culture, bequeathing us many round burial mounds on all the hills from which their decorated cinerary urns have been removed to Devizes. They rebuilt Stonehenge. Battlesbury, as a hill fort, 678 feet above sea level and overlooking the town, has scarce a rival in England, with its tremendous trenches in triplicate encircling the brow of the hill. With its neighbour Scratchbury, it was re-intrenched in the Iron Age about a century before the arrival of the Romans, who built their luxurious villas below at Bishopstrow only to flee before the next invader, leaving their hoards of coins to be unearthed in our own times.