Category: About Warminster: Station Road

Ancient Guns Help The War Effort

During the last week of July 1941, Mr. F.S. Smart,
junior, the Warminster scrap metal merchant,
acquired 15 old guns from Salisbury Plain.
Among them were several Victorian
breech-loading pieces over 100 years old.
Their massive barrels weighed about 22 cwts each,
in addition to the carriages.

There were also German and Austrian guns
from the Great War.

The Austrian ones featured
some elaborate carving.

This photograph, taken at Smart’s scrap metal
yard at Station Road, Warminster,
shows two of the Austrian guns, and Mr. Smart’s
sons are cutting up German trench mortars.

Station Road, Warminster, 1936

The West Wilts Directory 1936, records the following details for Station Road, Warminster:

General Post Office.

Bird’s-Bryer Ash (Warminster) Ltd., coal merchants. Manager – Mr. Stanley Wilson.

Warminster Printing Works. Proprietor, Mr. S. Nutt.

A.L. Jefferies. Glove manufacturer.

Miss Thorne, Clyde Villa.

Mrs. S. Still.

Market Yard and Ground.

Wilts County Council (District Offices), Surveyor, Mr. Lapham.

E. Weekes, restaurant keeper, &c.

S. Smart, general dealer.

Station Road, Warminster, During The 1920s

1920s

A view north up Station Road, Warminster,
during the 1920s.

Behind the wall on the right is
Warminster Cattle Market
(officially opened 29th May 1922).

The wall on the left was later removed
when a tender by Maslins of Devizes was
accepted in October 1930
for building a new Police Station for
Warminster on the west side of the road.

Warminster Railway Station is visible
at the far end of the road.

Copheap dominates the background.

Bryer Ash Coal Office At Warminster Circa 1923

Photograph showing the Bryer Ash Coal Office at Station Road, Warminster, immediately north of the Post Office, circa 1923.

George Bryer Ash succeeded F. Bird & Co.

Albert George Lapham was the manager and he also offered his services as a haulage contractor.

Notice the weighbridge in front of the office.

Mr. Lapham’s home, Clyde Villa, is on the left of the picture.

The Northern End Of Station Road, Warminster

 Early 1920s

The northern end of Station Road, 
Warminster, during the early 1920s.

Warminster Railway Station
on the left of the picture. 
Richard Barrett was the Stationmaster at this time. 

Copheap dominates the background. 

On the right is the office of 
A.H. & S. Bird, coal merchants.
Their telephone number was Warminster 35.

Warminster: Station Road Was Formed In 1852

In his book The History Of Warminster, published in 1879, the Rev. John Jeremiah Daniell stated: “The . . . Savings Bank . . . [at the eastern end of the Market Place, on the corner with East Street] . . . was built in 1852, contemporaneously with the formation of the road [Station Road] to the Railway Station.”