Wilfred Middlebrook, in The Changing Face Of Warminster, first written in 1960, updated in 1971, noted:
The Cannimore Stream
The upper part of this ‘crystal spring’ from Cannimore ran across the highway at Rehobath. It was about three hundred yards of open water through which cattle and travellers passed. Daniell cites the consequences of these filthy living conditions, citing two occasions when about thirty people died of typhus in one month. Small-pox and measles were common ailments.It was not until 1849, the 14th of April, that the Waterworks at the Common were opened and, still according to Daniell, Warminster’s first sewage scheme was at the Common, “all the numerous filthy open drains being removed in 1833, being replaced by a capacious underground drain.”