Category: About Warminster: Vicarage Street

No.63 Vicarage Street, Warminster

Tuesday 27th March 2012

No.63 Vicarage Street, Warminster.

These photographs were taken by Danny Howell
on the afternoon of Tuesday 27th March 2012.

During the 1840s the property was a beerhouse
called The Unicorn.

The front door, with alcove at the side
for a boot scraper (scraper now missing).

The stone canopy above the front door.

We wonder how many people passing by
the front door of 63 Vicarage Street today
realise it was once the Unicorn beerhouse?

Herbert Shaw Of Vicarage Street, Warminster

Sunday 18th March 2012

Danny Howell has received the following enquiry:

Hello,
I wonder if you would be able to help me, I have been given your name by a member of the Warminster People [sic Warminster Forum] website. I am trying to trace my Great Great Grandad Herbert Shaw and I recently found out he rented number 59 (now I believe renumbered number 8) Vicarage Street, Warminster, from the 5th Marquess of Bath on 31st May 1912. I understand you keep some local records and I wondered if you might have any further information regarding that address or Herbert Shaw.
Fingers crossed in hope,
Carole.

Danny Howell has replied:

Hello Carole,
Thank you for your enquiry.

I can confirm that the property that was numbered 59 Vicarage Street was renumbered 8 Vicarage Street.

The 1911 Census for Warminster shows people with the surname Kill as residents of 59 Vicarage Street, Warminster.

The West Wilts Directory 1911 lists: “H. Shaw, 59 Vicarage Street, Warminster.”

Collins Almanac and West Wilts Directory, 1912 lists: “J.H. Elkins, 59 Vicarage Street, Warminster.”

The Warminster Directory, Almanack, Local & Village Guide, 1914, lists: “Herbert Shaw, 59 Vicarage Street, Warminster.”

But the West Wilts Directory 1914 lists: “J.H. Elkins, 59 Vicarage Street, Warminster.”

It has to be said that the compilers of some directories sometimes used slightly out-of-date information.

But it seems Herbert Shaw was a resident of 59 Vicarage Street, Warminster, circa 1911 / 1912 ~ maybe up to 1914.

By the way, the Longleat Estate sold 100 properties in a sale held on 5th and 6th September 1919, to raise money to pay death duties. On the first day of the sale, Lot 11 was: “Two stone built houses, 59 and 60 Vicarage Street, rental £26.” They were purchased by Mr. Rutter of Shaftesbury, for £340.

The above information seems to confirm that Herbert Shaw lived at 59 Vicarage Street (now 8 Vicarage Street), Warminster, for a short period.

You have not given me any other details for Herbert Shaw (such as birth, marriage or death dates, or where else he may have lived, or who is parents, wife and children were), so I am unable to find out any more about him at the current time.
Yours sincerely,
Danny Howell.

Vicarage Street, Warminster

The Warminster Town Centre Conservation Area Assessment (Informative Document), published in March 2007, noted: 

Vicarage Street is an extension of West Street, which runs into the town from the west, and is historically associated with the town’s later growth. This road is visually separated from Church Street by the meeting of a series of other roads, terraced houses and buildings of a slightly different character. The unifying characteristic between the two areas is the presence of the school, which owns most of the larger individual buildings that front onto the both sides of Vicarage Street. The purchase of the convent building from the Community of St Denys was carried out in 1994, thus allowing a visual link between this part of the senior school and the Preparatory School that is separately based on the south side of Vicarage Street. Immediately to the east of this is the Minster CE Primary School, which also fronts onto part of Emwell Street.

Middlebrook Reference To Inns And A Beerhouse At Vicarage Street, Warminster

Danny Howell writes:

Wilfred Middlebrook in The Changing Face Of Warminster, published by Bedeguar Books in March 2003, (although originally written as a newspaper serialisation in 1971 – a revision of his earlier serialisation The Highways And Byways Of Warminster written in 1949 and 1950), in his notes on the inns of Warminster referred to the Lamb inn and the Star public house, both at Vicarage Street in days gone by, before stating: “Also in Vicarage Street there was the Unicorn, now changed into a private house.”

A Boarding School At Emwell Cross House, Warminster

Danny Howell writes:

Emwell Cross House [at No.1 Vicarage Street] Warminster, was a boarding school in the late 1800s. It was run by the De Gruchy family who came to Warminster from Jersey in the Channel Islands. Professor John De Gruchy taught French and maths.

Mrs. Jane De Gruchy was in charge of the young ladies who boarded in. John De Gruchy died in September 1875 and is buried at Christ Church, Warminster. His obituary said he had few equals as a teacher, that he was punctual, unassuming and kind. Mrs. De Gruchy continued to run the school until the 1880s and then resided there in retirement until her death on 14 November 1899.

Warminster Preservation Trust’s Renovation Of 7 Vicarage Street Is About To Begin

19 January 1990

Danny Howell writes:

Key To 7 Vicarage Street Handed Over
Warminster Preservation Trust Ltd. are about to save another house in the town from dilapidation. Work will begin on Monday 29th January 1900 on 7 Vicarage Street, the former residence of the Minster School caretaker.

The house, which the Preservation Trust has bought for £50,000 from the Salisbury Diocesan Board of Education, was built in the 1840s. It will be renovated ready for private re-sale, with restoration costs and fees amounting to another £40,000.

The renovation will be designed and supervised by the Trust’s architect, Ray Kenzie of the Radley House Partnership in Warminster. It is the second project of this kind; the first one having been the restoration of 8 Vicarage Street which was finished a year ago.

The “house rescue” by the Trust, a subsidiary body of the Warminster Civic Trust and a charitable, non-profit-making association with the sole purpose of preserving old listed buildings is supported by English Heritage.

The project is financed by a grant from English Heritage of over £17,000, no-interest loans of over £7,500 from Civic Trust members, a low-interest loan of over £53,000 from the Architectural Heritage Fund, and home-improvement grants of £6,300 from West Wilts District Council. Money is still coming in from Trust members, providing cash flow until the grants arrive.

Warminster Civic Trust members and invited guests will be able to see the house, in its condition before work commences, during a visit at noon on Saturday 27th January.

Canon Roger Sharpe, Chairman of the Governors of the Minster School, handed the key of the house over to Elisabeth Collyns, Chairman of the Warminster Civic Trust, on Thursday 18th January 1990, which was the completion date of the sale of the house to the Trust.

Canon Sharpe says that he is pleased that the investment income on the capital from the sale of the building to the Trust, will be coming back to the Minster School and will be used for such equipment as cannot be provided by the local education authority.