Category: Around And About Warminster

Information and pictures for locations in the parish of Warminster, Wiltshire, featuring streets, buildings, shops, views, etc.

The Avenue Or Beastleaze, Warminster

Victor Manley, in his Regional Survey Of The Warminster District, Volume Five, compiled in the 1920s and 1930s, listed and attempted to explain the meaning of local place names. He included The Avenue in his list, saying “The Avenue or Beastleaze” was the “lane from Station Road to Portway. Apparently part of the Roman-British track from Pitmead – Woodcock to Minster (Coldharbour).”

A Sense Of Humour ~ Cuckoo’s Nest, Warminster

Victor Manley, in his Regional Survey Of The Warminster District, Volume Five, compiled in the 1920s and 1930s, listed and attempted to explain the meaning of several local place names. He included Cuckoo Nest in his list, giving its location as “Rear of West Street, on north side.” Manley, seeking an explanation for the name, says “A sense of humour may have altered the original as a cuckoo does not make a nest but lays its eggs in other birds’ nests.”

The Location Of Elm Hill, Warminster

Victor Manley, in his Regional Survey Of The Warminster District, Volume Five, compiled in the 1920s and 1930s, listed the locations of several local places (and sometimes attempted to explain the meaning of the names). He included Elm Hill in his list, giving its location as “leading from Portway to Arn Hill.”

Herbert Christopher And His Shop At Deverill Road, Warminster

Photograph showing Herbert Christopher outside his cobbler’s shop, at the bottom of Boot Hill (Deverill Road), Warminster, in the 1920s.

Herbert Christopher served an apprenticeship with Frisby’s in the town.

(This old shop still existed in 1989 but was in a delapidated state).

Rack Close In Common Close

Victor Manley, in his Regional Survey Of The Warminster District, Volume Five, compiled in the 1920s and 1930s, listed and attempted to explain the meaning of several local place names. He included Rack Close in his list, saying it was in Common Close. He wondered if Rack Close was derived from Rick Close. Later, in another part of his list, Manley, referring to the Rack Close again, notes: “Common Close in 1756 “afterwards a farmyard’ where Wesley preached on May 5th, History Of Warminster, page 217, under “Wesleyans’-“

Arn Hill And Its Vistas

From The Warminster Official Guide And Souvenir 1928 (penned by Victor Strode Manley):

Arn Hill, Warminster
The woods on the south face of Arn Hill (about 11 acres) at an altitude of about 550 feet above sea level, and adjacent to the town, were generously given to the town by the Marquis of Bath in 1920. They have been ribboned with paths and provided with seats and shelters. The panoramas unfolded from here are magnificent, carrying the eye down into the valley where the grey tower of the Minster (St. Denys) presents a picturesque scene.

Over all looms the majestic and shapely Cley Hill, over 800 feet above sea level, a detached eminence imposing and impressive. It is conspicuous from all the country around for ten miles or more, which accounts for it being the rallying-ground for Alfred’s army before the decisive battle with the Danes at Ethandune (Edington). From it flow those tricklets of streams which go to swell the Wylye at Bishopstrow. It has been entrenched as a British hill fort and a huge burial mound crowns the summit, from which flared the beacon announcing the Spanish Armada. Longleat Park forms the background.

Warminster town, centred by St. Lawrence spire, is seen on a rise running for a mile high and dry above the meadows, leaving the Minster in splendid isolation. Christ Church looks down on the town from another high hill, and away in the distance are the green hills hiding the Deverill Valley and Shearwater, whose streams also join the Wylye.

Shifting the scene to the west we look over the open Somerset country, and on clear days it is possible to discern the houses in Frome seven miles away. Cranmore Tower at Shepton Mallet and Turner’s Tower near Bath are often visible, in fact the view extends nearly to Bristol. Under changing effects of sunshine and shadow it is a delight to watch different gradations of distant vistas, the sun brightening into colour and vivid details then fading into featureless grey.

From the north side of Arn Hill the scene changes to the last lap of Salisbury Plain, where the line of rounded hills push out in emulation towards the Wylye Valley, each a hill fort with trenches and burial mounds. Their undulating outlines seem wild and desolate, yet with a compensating grandeur, and on nearer acquaintance they are very pleasant, bespangled with innumerable multi-coloured flowers giving out an aromatic odour, the hunting ground of honey bees. The valley forms a striking contrast, with its confusion of trees and muffled hedgerows.

The Market Place And The Old Bell Hotel, Warminster

From The Warminster Official Guide And Souvenir 1928 (penned by Victor Strode Manley):

. . . . . we step into a broad and imposing street, the Market Place, with the Post Office looking down its length.

The monotony is pleasantly relieved by a small piazza on pillars which juts over the pavement. This is the Old Bell Hotel, a welcome landmark to all who travel on business or pleasure along this high road, assuring them of the best attendance in a comfortable hostelry. Happily, although the interior has been thoroughly modernised, no despoiling landlord has interfered with this interesting relic of the town’s former glory, the great corn market which Cobbett visited, and commented upon the fair dealing of the farmers who sold the corn in sacks, instead of by samples, and paid for it on the nail. In those days no less than fifty inns throve here, with piazzas in front down both sides of the street, under which five hundred wagons unloaded on market days. Highwaymen shadowed the farmers, who, in the absence of banks, were often robbed of their heavy purses on their way home. Now the merry jingle of horse bells has gone, the inns have been converted into spacious and well-stocked modern shops, banks have been built in good style, and stables have become garages. Modernity is the keynote of the town.

The Close, Warminster

From The Warminster Official Guide And Souvenir 1928 (penned by Victor Strode Manley):

A German gun captured by the Wiltshires occupies the corner [of The Close and High Street], and the War Memorial the next corner (with The Avenue and Portway) beside the Cottage Hospital. Between these [in The Close] is the Fire Station with its new motor appliances.

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