Category: Gleanings

Tuesday 28th October 2025

New book. I’m pleased to say that the second book in my Mortal Visible series of books featuring photographs of Warminster taken by myself is now available. The title is Commit Random Acts Of Kindness. Published by Bedeguar Books. ISBN 978-1-872818-61-0. The book is hardback, measures 218mm x 218mm approx., and has 100 pages plus illustrated endpapers. It features 112 colour photographs of people, places and things in Warminster, taken between 2009 and 2025. Photographs have succinct captions and there is an index. Supplied brand new and shrink-wrapped.

The price is £20 per book. Free delivery locally (Warminster and surrounding villages). If you live further away I can post (postage and packing will be extra). The book will not be available in shops. Limited edition. (The first book in the series is nearly sold out and is already a collector’s item). Only available while stocks last – first come, first served. If you would like to purchase a copy, please let me know – DM me on my Facebook page or email me: dannyhowellnet@gmail.com If you are new to buying books direct from me then remember to include your address. And dare I say it, these books make unique Christmas presents for anyone interested in Warminster!

Monday 6th October 2025

When I was a small boy in the early 1960s a favourite place to go playing was the wood on the south-facing front of Battlesbury Hill. Back then, it was mainly a deciduous woodland as I remember with beeches, chestnuts, and sycamores, and the odd yew tree – until it was cleared by the War Department, about 1965, and replanted as the more evergreen wood we know it as today.

My friends and I, who all lived at The Dene, would “go up the lane” and over Morgan’s Drove railway bridge and spend practically all day during the school holidays exploring and running about on Battlesbury Hill and messing about in Battlesbury Wood. We would take a bottle of homemade lemonade (made from lemonade crystals soaked in tap water). And mother would let us take some bread and jam with us. We kept track of the time by counting the trains that passed by below, listening out for the REME hooter, and keeping our eye on how low the sun was going down over Cley Hill way,

Battlesbury Wood was an idyllic place to our young minds. I remember at the western end of the wood was a little shed. Sometimes there was a man at the shed – he must have been a keeper or something for Tom Bazley who farmed Boreham Farm. The fields of Boreham Farm stretched as far as Battlesbury and beyond to Sack Hill where there was a thatched field-barn. The man seemed old to us children (mind you, a lot of adults looked old in those days even though they were middle-aged) but he was kind and friendly. Sometimes he would take us boys through the wood, showing us butterflies and fungi and anything else from the world of nature, telling us interesting things about what we saw. It was all very pleasant and part of our fun, but I guess today someone doing something like that would be mistakenly labelled a paedophile risk. How attitudes have changed?

Of course, there are still a lot of beech trees in Battlesbury Wood and box bushes too – the box bushes vividly remind me of my childhood. Back in the early 1960s us boys would look in the box bushes for linnets’ nests. From about the last fortnight of April onwards just about every box bush in the lower part of Battlesbury Wood would have a linnet’s nest. I can “see” those nests now – the archetypal cup shape nest of little birds like finches, built with tiny twigs and the leaves of plants, lined with feathers. Each nest would have four or five eggs. Those eggs were light blue with purple or reddish-brown dots. Of course, being so pretty, they were very desirable to boys who collected birds’ eggs. Those boys would make a little hole in each end of the egg and blow the contents out so they could add it to their collection. I was never one for that. I could never take a bird’s egg. I have loved nature and animals and birds all my life. And, I can hear my mother now telling me (one of the many old wives’ tales she and her contemporaries would often say) that if we took a bird’s egg we would get a crooked finger and everyone would then know what a horrible thing we had done.

Sadly, I don’t think I could find a linnet’s nest in a box bush in Battlesbury Wood now. Probably more difficult to see a linnet, at all, these days. I think I’m right in saying that linnets are on the red list of UK conservation groups now, their numbers having fallen dramatically.

Yesterday afternoon I went into Battlesbury Wood (it’s the time of year for looking for fungi) and I immediately noticed a difference. The lower parts of every box bush have turned grey and brown, the leaves are brittle and there are bare patches. They shouldn’t be like that; they are evergreens. They have obviously succumbed to box blight – a fungal disease that thrives in dry and warm conditions.

I can’t imagine Battlesbury Wood without its box bushes. I reckon they might have been planted by the Temple family, the Lords of the Manor of Boreham, whose land included Battlesbury. Back in the day, box was much admired as an addition to managed woodland and also in gardens where the fact it can be trimmed without adverse consequences made it ideal for little hedges in garden features.

I attach a photo I took yesterday (Sunday 5th October 2025) showing the change in the greenery in Battlesbury Wood. I wonder if anyone (Ministry Of Defence, DIO, Ecologists, Conservation Officers) will do anything to try and remedy the problem?

I posted my notes and photo on my Facebook page and gained 116 likes and 13 comments including:

Liz Duggan
It might not be box blight as this tends to affect plants that have been regularly pruned and are very dense – those plants look like they have plenty of air flow around them. However, it could be the box tree moth caterpillar.

Nick P B Dombkowski
Battlesbury Wood was always my go-to place. I still occasionally go and risk the rope swing. Mind you both box in our front garden are virtually dead. I put it down to the extremely dry spell that we had over the summer months.

Julian Stafford-Wood
Lovely to read, thank you. A lot of boxes have been damaged this year from the box tree moth, essentially an invasive species

Carol Colderick
This brings back so many happy memories . I used to live in Queensway, and just like you spent so many hours playing here with friends. I remember all the violets and primroses in the woods and cowslips on the hills.

Norma Braine
Although I was brought up in Devon so much of this post resonates with me. My playground was the cliff paths and headlands around Torbay.

Bob Davis
I used to spend a lot of time up there and in the woods by Boreham Farm. Remember sliding down the slope on the western end during the winter of 1966.

Jim Finnigan
Watched some awesome firepower demonstrations on top of that hill. A-10’s baaaaaarp!!!

Gordon Davies
You had the best of that woodland, Danny, with the old trees, shame on the WD.

Jezzie Moon
It’s so sad that children don’t learn about the countryside so much anymore x love your stories. Thank you.

Monica Farey
Great memories, the box may well grow back, mine have.

Laurie Anne Collins
I love reading your memories, thank you x.

Saturday 4th October 2025

If you are walking up the Boot Hill part of Deverill Road, Warminster, soon after you pass the Fox & Hounds public house, you may notice what appears to be the bricked-up arch of a doorway in the wall alongside the pavement. I took the attached photo only a couple of days ago, on Thursday 2nd October 2025.

This doorway once gave access to a beer cellar used by the landlords of the Fox & Hounds in days long gone by. And at one period Frank Moody, who had various businesses at Fore Street during the 1920s, including a bicycle shop, a furniture store, and also a pig-slaughtering house and a bacon factory there; he used this cellar at Boot Hill as a curing place and as additional storage for cured bacon. Frank Moody died in 1930.

This cellar also had military use during the Second World War, not with the regular army but with the town’s Home Guard. The land above it provided vegetable garden ground for the residents of Christ Church Terrace.

What I’m going to repeat next is going to sound very “Dad’s Army”.

On 19th March 1986 I tape-recorded the memories of Percy Vincent, and published them in my book Remember Warminster Volume Three. Among his wealth of recollections, Percy recalled:

“During the War I was in the Home Guard . . . We were in different sections. My section was operating by Christ Church. We took a piece of the churchyard wall at Christ Church out, opposite the Fox And Hounds pub. We took the top off the wall and dug in a bit, a hole, so that we could get in. That was our strong point against anybody coming up Boot Hill. They had to come round the corner and our fire-point lay there.”

“Opposite that was a couple of old-fashioned doors laid in the wall, where Moody’s bacon factory had some cellars, where they put the bacon. That was cold storage before fridges came about. We had a flame-thrower in there. It was just before you get to the Fox And Hounds pub, on the right. There was a wall and halfway down that wall were two wooden doors and that was the cellar belonging to Moody’s, the bacon factory people. We commanded that cellar and we put our flame-thrower in there. That was our point at Christ Church.”

Fortunately we have more written recollections concerning the cellar at Boot Hill.

Wilfred Middlebrook, who lived at Christ Church Terrace, during the war years, wrote a newspaper serialisation in 1971 which he called The Changing Face Of Warminster. In it he wrote the following notes about the cellar. He noted:

“An underground cave. The Fox And Hounds still retains its private malthouse at the rear, unused for many years. An adjacent ‘cave’ under the gardens, was once used for curing bacon; the smoke emerging from a small chimney protruding from one of the Christ Church Terrace gardens above. This cellar was used by the Home Guard during the last War as a magazine for their ammunition and explosives, complete with a sandbagged defence post in the gardens that roofed the cellar, and a matching strongpoint in the Christ Church cemetery across the road.”

“In August 1941 the newly-formed Home Guard staged an anti-invasion exercise in Deverill Road, manning the defence posts they had dug and sandbagged at the bottom of my garden in Christ Church Terrace, and the cemetery post across the road. Thunder-flashes were lobbed about the place, blowing the tops off my carrots, but the ‘enemy’ happened to win this particular round. An ‘enemy’ agent, dressed as a nun, gained entrance into my house at the point of a gun concealed within his/her flowing robes. After hiding in the front bedroom and biding his time, he finally threw open the window and bombed the lot! A few days after the Home Guard had stocked their magazine – the old Fox And Hounds beer cellar under my front garden – with explosives. My neighbour was discussing our crops. ‘Are your potatoes coming up yet?’ he asked. ‘Not yet,’ I replied, ‘but they soon will be if anything goes wrong down below!'”

I posted the photo and my notes above on my dannyhowellnet Warminster and District Facebook page and it gained 228 likes, 19 shares and 39 comments including:

Tina Randall
This is really interesting, I’ve seen the arches often and the flat area on Christ Church Terrace but it’s good to know the history.

Angie Howarth
Oh wow – so when can we open it up and start curing bacon again? Amazing history, thank you.

Vicki Towers
I always wondered what the bricked up doorways were.

Sarah Muir
Even as I child walking up to attend Sambourne School in the late 70’s I wondered what those arches were for.

Kenny Biffo Byfield
There was also a gun emplacement opposite cut out of the church wall which was manned to observe any enemy movements coming up from the Deverill Road.

Robert Lewis
Is the same Percy Vincent that had a milk round in later years? . . . . so much information that I didn’t know . . . . thank you so much Danny.

Kenny Biffo Byfield
Robert Lewis no that’s a different Vincent, Robert.

Robert Lewis
Thank you Kenny.

George Dwight
How did they NOT suspect a nun during an anti-invasion exercise! ?

Ian Gruncell
I’ve often wondered about that.

Norma Braine
A great read. I don’t know Warminster well but live in Wiltshire. I can imagine the ‘Dad’s Army’ scenario . . . . what a laugh that episode would have been! Thanks for sharing a bit of localish history and a good laugh!

Linda Stafford
We always thought it was a tunnel to somewhere, don’t think we ‘knew’ where!

Dibbley Wood
Should open them up . . . Go exploring . . . And teach the kids of today.

Gordon Davies
Dad’s Army, I think, was good for morale, made men who could not join up to do real fighting, something to do and might be useful if the Germans did invade. Just goes to show what is hidden around an old town.

Eileen Goring-Smith
I walk past here regularly so will take better notice in future.

Sheila Oaten
Fascinating piece of local history!

Tom Biss
Interesting.

Beverley McSparron
Very interesting thank you for sharing.

Sandra Major
Lovely part of history and knew Percy Vincent very well.

Joyce Snelling

Sandra Major
Is that the same Percy Vincent who was manager at Dents glove factory?

Nikki Spreadbury-Clews
Very interesting, thank you.

Bob Payne
Thank you for the history, that was wonderful.

Kenny Biffo Byfield
Bob Payne I can remember going inside that room as a lad when I lived in Upper Marsh Road, Bob. 

Bob Payne
Kenny Biffo Byfield I was too afraid to go in there, Ken.

Jezzie Moon
Thank you for all your historical information Danny.

Clare Blandford
Amazing look back in time ! Thanks for sharing.

Margaret Aiken
Thank you for sharing this information! So interesting.

Christopher Knight
Great piece of Warminster history.

Clive Moulder
Frank moody was I believe my ex-wifes grandfather.

Kenny Biffo Byfield
Leonard Crouton I knew all this from my dad and other men who were in the Home Guard during the war.

Friday 3rd October 2025

Here at dannyhowell.net we not only research and write and take photos about Warminster and the surrounding area, as well as collecting images and ephemera, we are also musos and enjoy gathering items with local music connections.

Among the audio archive we have a promo CD by Richard and Tim Steer called A Song Or Two . . . A Year Or Two. It was released by 4Real Records (www.realrecords.com), catalogue number syn2001CDS. Published by Joustwise Ltd/Peer Music, there are 13 tracks, all written by Richard Steer, who also did the cover illustration.

Richard and Tim provided the vocals and guitars; Ben Steer played accordion, and Peter Lamb was on electric bass. The violin was played by Mike Evans. Clare Lindley played violin on the song Imber Range.

I’m sure there are others who like me find that a lot of albums contain one or two great tracks you want to play over and over again, and the rest are skipped through. But, for me, this is not the case with A Song Or Two . . . A Year Or Two. All the tracks are very listenable and the skip button is not required.

I do have a favourite track though – it’s called Cannimore Sand. It has a haunting tune and lyrics about a singing thrush, firs and tree tops, and treading the sandy soil into the floorboards and the carpet when you get home.

“Cannimore’s not just a wood, It’s a living animal, There’s mud up to your knees when the stream’s in full flow; She’ll weave a spell around you with the frost on the wet strands . . . “

If you love walking in Cannimore Woods, enjoying the nature and breathing in the pine-filled air, then I guess you will relate to Richard’s heart-felt lyrics

I would imagine most of you will have seen the talented Steer family performing locally. I usually catch them at Bishopstrow Fete. They were there again last year and I got the opportunity to personally tell them how much I enjoy A Song Or Two . . . A Year Or Two.

Saturday 20th September 2025

Mystery photograph.

As well as taking photographs myself of Warminster and the surrounding area, I also purchase old photos from a variety of sources including online and flea markets. I’m fortunate too that many kind people give me old photographs and documents. Identifying scenes and people in old photographs isn’t always easy but sometimes there are clues.

The photograph shared here is 142 years old. It is an original photograph, measures six inches by four inches and is mounted on card. It came in a frame but the frame is more modern. It shows a house with two men standing outside. The man on the left is wearing what looks like a bowler hat; he is wearing a waistcoat under his jacket, and his watch chain is visible. The other man is also wearing a hat, is dressed in shirt and tie, and has a dog with him. On the back was handwritten: “Holly Lodge, Warminster. 18.8.83. Dog Toby. George, he was the horseman.” The 83 date refers to 1883.

The question is: where is this house? We know there is a Holly Lodge at Boreham Road, Warminster, but that’s an old toll house with a distinctive style. The Holly Lodge in this photograph is somewhere else. Behind the house can be seen a large field stretching away to a distant hedgerow. Of course, Warminster, in 1883 wasn’t very built up, there were plenty of fields around the town centre. The reference to a horseman suggests that George’s employer was maybe a gentleman with a horse and carriage. The address Holly Lodge, Warminster, could mean it was actually in Warminster, maybe on the outskirts or a rural part, or perhaps it means it is near Warminster.

I have yet to solve the location of the house in this photograph. Do you recognise it? Where is it?

Friday 12th September 2025

As my page is about Warminster and district, let’s go out of town to look at this photograph which I took on Friday 5th March 2010. It shows ‘The Life Of Man’ barrow in a field adjacent the western end of Bradley Road, near the Ash Oaks junction. When it’s misty or sometimes in tranquil evening twilight this place can seem eerie and atmospheric.

Wilfred Middlebrook, in his newspaper serialisation The Changing Face Of Warminster, published in 1971 noted:

Here [Bradley Road], standing well back from the road, is the Life Of Man barrow or Dead Man’s Island, an impressive and picturesque barrow or burial mound of prehistoric times that occupies the centre of a large field and is crested with graceful firs.

The Life Of Man barrow is particularly charming because of its unique situation: the dark, sombre background of Cannimore Woods emphasising the isolation of this tree-crested mound as viewed from the Bradley Road.

Manley has a word to say about the Life Of Man barrow, “a site that would allow signalling to and from most of the prehistoric camps in the district. A few yards down the field is a circular black earth patch unaffected by ploughing – it might well have been the site of Celtic ceremonial fires.”

Whatever the ancient history of this secluded spot, a huge barrow rising indeed like a veritable Dead Man’s Island in the centre of the field, there must have been an uninterrupted view of the surrounding heights including Cley Hill before the firs of Cannimore were planted. Now it is but another intriguing name on the map of Warminster.

____

The aforementioned Victor Strode Manley, in his Regional Survey Of Warminster, Volume Two (unpublished), compiled c.1930, noted:

Life Of Man ~ Barrow between Warminster Common and Shearwater.

On a sandy upland adjoining the [Bradley Road] Reservoir, and having Cannimore Valley at its north and Shearwater at its south – both places providing springs – reached from Warminster via Bell Hill and Botany Road, or Dry Hill, Crockerton, lies a field known locally as “The Life of Man”. Whether this name is associated with any folklore or is the popular pronunciation of some Celtic place-name, I cannot discover.

At first it looks like a twin-barrow but a closer examination sees it has been a large barrow cut through at some time, perhaps in search of plunder. The site would allow signalling to and from most of the camps in the district.

A few yards further down the field is a circular black earth patch, the same size as the barrow. No ploughing can cause it to disappear.

_______

Of the field itself I (Danny Howell) would like to add:

This field was once part of Warminster Heath and the area of the field closest to Warminster is said to have been the location of a skirmish during the English Civil War (1642 – 1651). When I was working for A. J. Legg & Son, the agricultural contractors of Home Farm, Boreham, in the late 1970s/early 1980s, two teams would go farm to farm around the area, for several weeks each spring, cutting grass, rowing it up and making silage in clamps to provide feed for cattle during winter. One farm we did this for was Tascroft Farm. I’m talking now about the time that Tascroft Farm was farmed by Ted Young. He was a lovely man. He rented the farm from the Longleat Estate. One of the fields we foraged the grass for silage for Ted’s cows was the one referred to above, with the Life Of Man barrow. Ted told me that from time to time he had seen pieces of human bone come to the surface in the field. He reckoned that these bones were from men killed in the skirmish here during the English Civil War. I do know that one day when I was with the silage making team in the field, we stopped when the forage harvester had a breakdown. One of my work colleagues noticed something in the surface of the soil which a tractor had disturbed. He bent down and hooked out of the soil a musket ball. It wasn’t very big but was heavy for its size, so we guessed it had been made of lead. He put it in the cab of his tractor, bagging it as a souvenir. So, it seems this field, like so much of the Warminster area, is steeped in fascinating history.

When I published this photo and accompanying notes on my Facebook page it gained 90 likes and 13 comments including:

Marion Baxter
Such a shame they’ve cut all the trees down on it. Have fond memories of Dead Man’s Island when living in Bradley Road.

Robin Ellison
Marion Baxter when they cut them down?

Marion Baxter
Robin Ellison I think it was some time last year.

Tiffany Jane Williams
I was so so sad they cut done the trees on it… I wonder how they managed to get permission to do that?

Amelia Jane
Tiffany Jane Williams They are obliged to, there would never have been trees planted on a burial mound and tree roots can compromise the archaeology. The owners are actually being brilliant guardians and I was delighted to see they have fenced the mound off to protect it and provided a gate for access.

Charlotte Rivers
Amelia I’m glad you explained that. I was annoyed about it, but I didn’t understand. Thank you.

Geoff Cooper
As a kid in the 70s we new it as dead man’s island.was definitely haunted!

Leonard Crouton
We knew it as “Devils Mount’ when we were kids and the legend I heard was if you walked on it and still had the dirt on your shoes 24 hours after your visit you would die. The same rule also applied if the dirt was transferred onto another persons shoe. Needless to say we never went on it.

Pauline Armour
When I was a young girl living at the Tynings at Bradley Road whenever we passed by there on the way to Shearwater we always had to be quiet so that we didn’t disturb those resting there.

Amelia Jane
Thanks so much for this Danny, I’ve previously searched for more info and drew a blank.

Nina Burton
I never knew that this was it’s name, but I often used to walk our dogs by there and into Cannimore Woods. It was then always very quiet and peaceful.

Amelia Jane
If you visit, please take a rubbish bag as there are often beer cans, etc., left there.

Diane Sketchley
Thank you Danny. all your posts are fascinating and interesting. Keep posting.

Sunday 7th September 2025

Whatever happened to all the boys and girls who loved to BMX – 40 years ago or more in Warminster? Do you remember the BMX track that was beyond the western end of the Portway Lane playing field. Were you at the very first BMX event held there or any subsequent meets? What make and model of BMX bike did you have and where was it acquired from?

50 BMX riders attended the first ever races meeting of the Warminster Wizards BMX Club on the evening of Monday 2nd July 1984. This not only “christened” the new BMX track at the far end of Portway Lane, Warminster, it also resulted in great fun for everyone who took part. Medals were awarded to the race winners as follows:

Five to Six Years Old ~

Richard White, Simon Mead, Rowan King.

Eight to Nine Years Old ~

Michael Kervel, Richard Hathaway, Jonathan Clapp.

Ten Years Old ~

David Coleman, Lorna Harris, Mark White.

Eleven Years Old ~

Steven White, Chris Mingo, Jason Bevis.

Twelve Years Old ~

Adam Shepherd, Stuart Magee, Tony Sargood.

Fourteen Years Old ~

Glen Pearce, Simon Brock, Richard Magee.

Fifteen Years Old ~

Kelvin Pearce, Shane Sargood, John Morris.

___________

I took this photo of the BMX track at the western end of Portway Lane Playing Fields, Warminster, during August 1986. The gas storage containers at Furneaux Lane (Gas House Lane) can be seen in the distance (they no longer exist). And the BMX track is long gone too.

When I posted this photo and accompanying notes on Facebook it gained 80 likes and received 43 comments including the following:

Gemma Stone
I remember it well was across the road from my grandparents house. I still got some scars from coming of my BMX here.

Matthew Brock
Takes me back to, coming a cropper on the table top.

Loma Harris
Loved this track. My best years there. So many memories x.

Ben Smith
I remember the first time I rode that track. I belive on the last bit there were a few small bumps. I remember not seeing one of them (blended into the ground) and fell off. I only remember it as I can still remember the pain of my nads hitting the crossbar. Good times!

Will Mckee
White lightning lol.

Babs Hayward
When l moved on the Portway estate nearly 50 yes ago the young lads raced around the field on their motor cycles. Got woke up most Sunday mornings along with the lovely sound of the Minster Church bells peeling. That was my alarm call on a Sunday, didn’t need to have to set my alarm clock. And when they built the BMX Track we had to buy a BMX bike for my son Andrew, he was about 14 at the time. We got it second hand. Them days are LONG GONE NOW Xxx.

Michelle Finnigan
I remember this track so well. Lots of fun memories.

John Slade
I had a Yes Titan TX, remember the track very well, fell off a lot.

Angela Saunders – Dix
Spent virtually all my childhood on that track with the gang. Such great memories, thanks for sharing dannyhowell.net

Glen Pearce

dannyhowell.net warminster and district
Glen Pearce Thank you for sharing the pic of your trophies!

Damian Mead
I loved this track.

Martin Woodham
Loved the bmx track.

Stella Hardy
A memory from Warminster wizards, Derby British champions qualifiers:

dannyhowell.net warminster and district
Stella Hardy Thank you for sharing this.

Lee Kennedy
Kye Kennedy they were the days! X

Marc Young
My god I know most of the winners, I was in the Corsley Cyclones BMX club at the time.

Chris Curtis
Didn’t have the BMX but did do First Aid cover there with Warminster Red Cross.

Carl Jenkins
James May sadly before our time.

James Curtis
Looks like a proper bmx track like we had in Bournemouth, before they wrecked it.

Ant Miller
Used to love BMX, I had a Haro Shredder,GT Dyno and finished with a Brian Curtis.

Laura Loobie
Need a new one my son would love this. x x x

Will Mckee
I still got the scars and the memories!!

Stella Hardy

Robin Ellison Loma and I raced wizards track so many times . . . Chris Mingo , Damian Mead , Kev O’mahony, Mike Baggs

Loma Harris
Stella Hardy we definitely did Stella. Great times x

Mike Kervell
I still have my trophy from that night at my mum’s house.

Paul Batchelor
Thank you Danny, for all the documentation you have done over many decades which has become an invaluable source of historic interest to all Warminster people.

Duncan Cockburn
Shameless plug I know but if anyone fancies reliving their youth, BATH BMX CLUB has a brand new start gate and probably the steepest, smoothest Velosolutions berms in the country. They host regular open practice, races and coaching and loan out bikes, helmets and gloves, of all sizes, for free. Current club riders age from 4 to 60 and count amongst its members British and European Champions and even sent riders to the World Championships. Club Champs this coming Sunday if you just wanted to see how things have changed.

Friday 29th August 2025

I posted this on my Facebook page.

The Warminster Bypass opened nearly 37 years ago. I have had in my possession for many years (although I can’t remember exactly how I acquired it) an unusual item of Warminster Bypass memorabilia. And it’s something that is functional too. It’s a chopping board with a handle. And there’s a hole in the handle so it can be hung in the kitchen.

The wording across the top of the board reads: “Warminster By-pass opened 29th November 1988.” Below that heading is a black and white illustration of Copheap and below that is a stylised sketch (not to scale and not totally accurate) of what is meant to be Warminster town centre. There are signposts pointing the way off the Bypass to Bath, Frome, Weymouth, Southampton, and Town Centre. Among the buildings depicted are Warminster Railway Station and Christ Church. The Marsh, east of Christ Church is shown and signposted.

One building, near the centre of the town sketch, is differentiated by being coloured orange. It is the building that was the office and printing works of Warminster Press at Station Road. (This building has since been demolished to make way for the entrance and access road to the Waitrose car park.) On the roads in the town centre are depicted some lorries: two orange ones both labelled “Print”, and uncoloured lorries labelled ink and paper. A motorcycle is shown, having left Warminster Press and turned left out of Station Road, gathering speed and leaving exhaust smoke as it goes up what is meant to be East Street. The word “proofs” can be seen on the back of the motorbike. All of this seems to suggest that this illustration was printed by Warminster Press. Maybe the board was produced for Warminster Press to give as complimentary gifts to their customers?

The Bypass is shown with vehicles bumper to bumper in both directions. Some of the lorries shown on the Bypass are labelled Tesco, Yeoman, Benchairs and Cuprinol. Maybe these companies were clients for stationery and brochure printing by Warminster Press? One lorry is labelled “Crunch Quarries” – maybe this is some sort of joke or signifies how happy everyone was to have the many stone lorries diverted out of Warminster Town Centre?

Does anyone have any details about this item? Was it, as we think, produced with the involvement of Warminster Press as gifts for their clientele? Does anyone else have one of these? Or do you have other items of unusual Warminster memorabilia, either commercially produced or maybe you have obtained a relic of something old or from something that no longer exists in Warminster?

The post on my Facebook page gained 35 likes and 11 comments including:

Charlotte Rivers
Rob’s eldest son William Fryer, who also worked at the press, will be able to answer your question. It was Rob’s sense of humour

William Fryer
My Dad produced this as his corporate Christmas gift in 1988 to celebrate the bypass being built. He gave them to his customers and suppliers. He owned and ran the Warminster Press which occupied the site that is now the entrance to Waitrose. You drive through his old office when you enter and leave the supermarket.

Heather Witless Whitmore
I also had one until quite recently. Yes, it was produced by Warminster Press & given to me by the late Rob Fryer, of WP. I also had a commemorative mug with a similar design, sadly also no longer.

Gordon Davies
Heather Witless Whitmore. Mr Rob Fryer was a very nice man. He helped Colin French and me several times.

Andy Eade
Patricia Eade I remember we had one! Likely Dad received this from Warminster Press. Do you recall? Julie Goodsman?

Patricia Eade
Andy Eade You’re quite right we did have one. It was given to us by Rob Fryer. He did a lot of printing for our business. I think I might still have it, although I haven’t seen it since I’ve moved. It could be in a box I haven’t gone through yet.

Julie Goodsman
Andy Eade I think ours was the key rack. X.

Andy Eade
Julie Goodsman Yes!! I think you’re right!

Julie Goodsman
Andy Eade A gift to Dad as he used to have his catalogues printed by Warminster Press. X.

Patricia Eade
Julie Goodsman Warminster Press used to print all our compliment slips, headed notepaper and memo paper.

Mari Booker
I can remember in the 1960s writing an essay about the plans for the bypass with photographs of all proposed intersections. Where is it now?

Monday 25th August 2025

New book. I currently have available a book featuring some of my photographs. The title is Luke Eggoton Was Here. Published by Bedeguar Books. The book is hardback, measures 218mm x 218mm approx., and has 100 pages plus endpapers. Features 107 colour photographs of people, places and things in Warminster, taken during the last 15 years. Photographs have succinct captions and there is an index. The book is the first in a planned series of at least three volumes. Supplied brand new and shrink-wrapped.

The price is £20 per book. Free delivery locally (Warminster and surrounding villages). If you live further away I can post (postage and packing will be extra). The book will not be available in shops. Limited edition. Only available while stocks last – first come, first served. If you would like to purchase a copy, please DM me on my Facebook page or email me: dannyhowellnet@gmail.com Please remember to include your address or where you would like your book delivered to.