A SHORT HISTORY OF WARMINSTER COMMON
by A. C. Halliday
Warminster Common is unique among the Warminster hamlets. Until 1783 it was common land, so earlier deeds are lacking. There has been no community church, so no vestry records exist. No graveyard was dug, so no tombstones remain. But despite this shortage of documents, it does have a long and fascinating history.
Until 1830 it was ignored, even disdained, by the town; though it begins only 1,000 yards from the Town Hall. Thus neglected, it gained such a bad name that residents found difficulty in getting work, and so were trapped in a vicious circle. Suddenly, the payment of debt in 1825 triggered off a series of improvements, which are still continuing.
On early maps, the large area between the crest north of the valley of the Cannimore Brook, its main artery, and Crockerton Heath, was called “Warminster Heathâ€. This rightly suggests a much less cultivated area than the same area which we call “Warminster Common†today.
In 1332 there was a mill at Henford, showing that already corn was being grown at the end of the Common. The country had benefited from some 250 years of Norman farming systems, during which the population had doubled, and cultivated areas had increased greatly. But the following 150 years were to be scarred with wars, famines, and plagues, during which the Common, like the rest of the country, would see food prices rise at least five-fold, and very little betterment of living standards.
By 1500, however, things were beginning to improve, and Warminster was expanding. Vegetable plots, spreading out from the houses along its main street, were pushing the grazing grounds for domestic animals out on to the Common. Owned by no-one, there was no restrictions as to its usage. Animal herders began erecting shelters along the banks of the Cannimore Brook, which was much larger and cleaner than it is today; and soon vagrants and those seeking work, and possibly even outlaws, started to join them. An untidy straggle of dwellings began to grow up along the Cannimore. This was the birth of the hamlet of Warminster Common.
1574 saw some controls. Cattle, horses and pigs could graze freely, but during the day sheep had to be kept up on the Downs, except when lambing. At night, to help fertilise the ground, and for their own protection, they would be “folded†in the valley. Like the later restrictions, these seem to have been the result of experience gained by those who worked for local farmers, rather than action by higher authority.
By 1852 a number of homeless people at the Common were putting up poor houses of mud and straw or rubble stone, with crudely-thatched roofs. Springs provided some drinking water; but most came from the Brook, which was increasingly fouled by the open drains and sewers which now ran into it. The open Common was not a healthy place to live at, in those days!
By 1600, cattle were grazed higher up the valley, with a milking point on the ancient Broad Way. A pleasant walk today up Cannimore Lane and across to Folly Lane gives some views which can have changed little since that time.
More regulations were introduced in 1668 as further areas were being cultivated.
Everyone could now graze one cow and one horse on the Common; but to gather fern and furze, used for bedding, they had to pay annually a tithe of a hen at Christmas and five eggs at Easter. The first entry about Warminster Common in the County records refers to the existence or not of the freehold rights to a house. An early map shows buildings on the sites now occupied by the Bell And Crown and the Fore Street Post Office; but both have been greatly altered since those days.
A second mill was sited, by 1690, just west of Rehobath (a farm near the west end of the Common), where signs of the weir are still visible.
A Poorhouse was erected in 1727 by Lord Weymouth; but because of a lack of any income to support it, it failed to function after a few years. Quite a number of better houses were also being built at the Common. One, at 64 Deverill Road (in recent years used as a hairdresser’s), has an authentic date-stone of 1732; and by then three inns had probably been established.
More precise rules for grazing were introduced in 1743, including one “for oxen on the field which was to lie fallow after cuttingâ€. This indicates a more sophisticated farming system than some contemporary accounts of the Common would suggest. An early and attractive house, Lawn Cottage, standing back from the lower end of Chapel Street, was probably built in 1761.
By 1770 the old “hollow-way†from Silver Street to Sambourne had been much improved. Methodists, who were now holding meetings in the village on Sundays had been shocked by the dog-fights, cock-fights and badger-baiting being organised near Cannimore Lane. Contemporary descriptions of conditions may have been somewhat exaggerated for political reasons. One of 1780 describes the houses still straggling along the Brook as mere hovels, the ground floor of bare earth shared as living space between the residents and their animals, a steep ladder giving access to a hay loft which also served as a bedroom for the whole family, sleeping together on fern and furze. But a map of 1773 shows a pattern of buildings very like that still made by the older houses here.
In 1775, Lord Bath took action to get a Workhouse established, by giving a large parcel of land to the Parish. A suitable building was constructed where the Snooty Fox (formerly the Globe Inn) now stands at the junction of Chapel Street and Brook Street, while its main income was to come from weaving.
1783 was a bad year. The Inclosure Act was implemented with a map drawn up by the local Commission. All the “open and waste†fields were divided and allocated to various bodies and individuals, who then proceeded to fence them in as their own property. The householders of the Common retained their freeholds, but lost all their own rights of pasturage and forage except on the strips of land purposely left along the established roads and paths.
Around the turn of the century a Methodist from Warminster was preaching at the Common. 1802 saw the Independents building a small chapel for prayers and a Sunday school in Bread Street, which later the Methodists also used. A few years later, a curate from St. Denys was taking Church of England services at the Workhouse. Most of the more barbarous sports had now ceased. The growth of local employment in market gardening may be shown by the opening of a beer-house called “The Gardeners Arms†(now a private residence at Fore Street).
In 1819 a Methodist, William Daniell, was appointed Assistant Overseer for the poor. One of his duties was to pay out parish relief to the poorer residents of the Common. This gave him great personal experience of the conditions under which many of the Commoners lived. These so shocked him that he vowed to do all he could to improve them.
James Ludlow, a friend of Daniell’s, joined him in 1822. They began persuading the offenders to clear away the rubbish from their doors. Three years later Daniell had a stroke of luck. Quite unexpectedly, a debt to him which had been outstanding for seven years, for services as an electioneering agent, amounting to £70, was paid. He put £50 into savings, and left it to any trust willing to build a Methodist chapel at the Common. He was convinced this would provide the vital centre necessary for the general improvement of this backward area.
In April 1826 the new Vicar of St. Denys, William Dalby, came to preach at the Workhouse. No doubt he saw for himself the conditions there. He agreed with Daniell that help was needed; and that the establishment of a religious centre should be the first step. The Vestry, however, refused to sanction any funds for this purpose. But meantime a committee to help Daniell had been formed, and wide support gained for a weekly contribution of a penny per head towards a chapel. Soon the new committee had received or been promised another £100.
Again Daniell was lucky – in 1827 a young woman gave him some land in Chapel Street which she had inherited. Daniell then bought the adjacent property. He also purchased all the stone lying at the quarry; and started to build his chapel. By September, 1827, it was enrolled in Chancery for official status; and on 1st January, 1828, it was opened, having cost only £365. He next planned a school on the site.
Almost immediately came the news that a new church, to be called Christ Church, at a cost of £1,200, was to be built on the crest of Sambourne, overlooking the Common. Completed in May 1831, it soon became the Parish Church for a very large area, which included, of course, the Common.
Things were now moving rapidly. In 1830 the unemployed had built up Brook Street with large amounts of soil to stop it being flooded from the springs above. A two-year plague of cholera started in 1831 and local health boards were set up. At some period a brick culvert had been built to bring cleaner water from higher up the valley. The Brook was diverted along the north sides of Fore Street and Brook Street, and culverted along the length of Fore Street. Into it led some 50 underground drains. The water then ran openly along Deverill Road, then underneath it, and so away eastwards, to soak away in a meadow, near what is now the gate at the sewage works.
By 1834 the streets had been named, and lit by gas from the town. But still more improvements were to come. In 1838 the inmates of the Workhouse were moved to the “Union†at Sambourne. After a few years of storing silk factory machinery, the old Poorhouse was bought and made into what became the Globe Inn (now the Snooty Fox), while the large tract of land adjacent became the Parish allotments. In 1884 property next to the Methodist Chapel was purchased, and a vestry added; and then, at last, the first school was built for the Chapel: Newtown School.
Five years later a supply of good drinking water was brought through underground earthenware pipes for the use of the Common, taking the place of the old brick conduit which had started to decay.
In 1868 a second school, the Mission School, built as a Christ Church project, was opened in South Street. This was near Cannimore Lane, where once shocking animal fights were held on Sundays. It started as a single-roomed school, known locally as “The Ragged School,†with accommodation, garden and fuel for the mistress. It expanded in 1878, and by 1900 it had 70 scholars – by which time the Chapel School claimed 100. The Mission School was closed in 1922 because of a lack of pupils; and was eventually sold in 1950, to become the attractive private house it is today.
The original Methodist Chapel School, which by then was a Junior Mixed Infant School, was not closed until 1959, when nothing but very expensive repairs could have saved it. Taken over for use by the Salvation Army, it finally became dilapidated, was sold in 1985, and was demolished. On the site and the corner opposite, seven new houses were built.
And so this brief summary of the milestones in the history of Warminster Common brings us closer to the present day. But exciting improvements still continue. A brisk walk around the area reveals everywhere modern houses being built, and old ones being carefully repaired and embellished. Large housing estates have been developed to both the east and the west but Warminster Common still retains its charm and, of course, many secrets of its unsavoury past!
The above notes were published in The Warminster & District Companion, Volume One, compiled and edited by Danny Howell, published by the Warminster & Wylye Society For Local Study in April 2003.