Category: Food and Drink

Torwood Georgian Dining Room

1998:

Your personal invitation to Torwood Georgian Dining Room.

Monica Baker,
24 Boreham Road, Warminster, BA12 9JR.
Telephone 01985 216049.

Torwood Georgian Dining Room.
Tables must be reserved.
Open for very special evening meals on
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Please arrive from 7.30 p.m. for dinner at 8.00 p.m.
. . . . and Sunday Lunch,
arriving from 12.30 p.m. for lunch at 1.00 p.m.

Regret – Credit cards not accepted.

We are not licensed so operate a “Bring Your Own”
drinks service but we have all the facilities to chill
and serve your wine and drinks, and stock a small
selection of soft drinks for your convenience –
corkage is included in the standard charge of £14.50.

All party sizes are fully catered for, from the intimate
supper for two, right up to the dinner party for sixteen.
Please feel free to phone and discuss your personal
requirements with Derek and Monica Baker:
01985 216049.

Parties of 12 guests or more can request the exclusive
use of the facilities when booking.

We can cater for business lunches, meetings and functions,
ranging from coffee and sandwiches to a full five course
meal. Just call us.

We are also able to cater in your home for that very special
Dinner Party – menus and prices on request.

Torwood (built in 1797) has been owned by the same family
since 1852. Given by deed of gift through each generation,
it is now in our care and remains our family home.

Torwood is perfect for that intimate dinner for two, a private
party celebration or just a different night out with friends.

Five courses from just £14.50 including corkage!

The Real Meat Company

Some notes first published in the Heytesbury Extravaganza Souvenir Programme, Saturday 9 September 1995:

The award winning Real Meat Company offer an alternative product and service to that available from the dominant supermarket led retailing business.

The company was founded in 1986 by the husband and wife team: Richard Guy and Gilly Metherell, operating from East Hill Farm, Heytesbury. The guiding principles of the business are Quality, Purity and Welfare. These principles are maintained by adherence to a self imposed set of codes for the raising, transportation and slaughter of livestock.

The Real Meat Company Codes:

* Ban all growth promoters and reserve drug use to therapeutic use only.

* Ban all practices which affect the animal’s freedom and/or well being and which are performed solely to cheapen livestock production.

In order to monitor these strict codes on the home farm and other Company supply farms, random checks are carried out by the Bristol University School of Veterinary Science, a body independent from the Company and the meat industry in general. Additionally, members of the public are granted instant access to any of the supply farms upon request, and can see for themselves this unique farming practice,

The Company campaigns strongly against the practices of intensive factory farming and supermarket control by producing its own Real Meat News Letter which highlights some of the extreme practices and misleading wording common in certain quarters. They strongly believe that the best traditional farming methods not only benefit the livestock but offer the customer a product of the highest quality, food without unnatural additives,

Farming based upon such an ethos in today’s “fast, efficient” western world has its critics and problems. Cost is usually highlighted as the major problem. The Real Meat Company is a sustained commercial organisation which obviously needs to trade successfully. They do this by offering consumers a very high quality product of exceptional taste. The Company is now in its tenth year of operation, demonstrating that there is a long term market for the traditional meats no longer available in modern supermarkets.

Should you require further information about the Company then please telephone Warminster (01985) 840436 or write direct to them at East Hill Farm, Heytesbury, Wiltshire, BA12 0HR.

Ales At The Church House, Warminster

Reg Cundick and Danny Howell in the book The Inns And Taverns Of Warminster, published in November 1987, stated:

The Church House Ales
During the 15th century it was customary for people of the outlying parishes to attend the mother church for festivals of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide (particularly the latter). Ales were brewed at the Church House to provide refreshment for the large congregations attending the festivals. The profits from the sale of the ales went to the Church; and in Warminster some of the revenue (until about 1600) was made available to the Chapel of St. Laurence. Church Ales were abolished after the Reformation but the practice continued in Warminster until the 1800s.

Both the Inclosure Award and the 1801 Survey Of Warminster list the Church House. It was situated in front of the Parish Church of St. Denys’, between the great yew and the road to Bath. It was demolished in 1813 and had been used for some years previously as a house for the sexton. The land the Church House occupied is now part of the churchyard.

A cottage in Ash Walk, opposite the main gateway to the churchyard, was then purchased and demolished, making way for the building of a new house for the sexton. The brewing of ales was transferred to here. A notice in 1814 advertised: “A Church Ale at the Sexton’s House”. The practice terminated in 1826.

Fish Filleting Planned For Woodcock Industrial Estate

Wednesday 28th January 1987

Brixham Fisheries (Devon) have applied to the planning department at West Wiltshire District Council for a change of use at Unit 10, Woodcock Industrial Estate, Warminster, for fish filleting, chilling, cold storage and packing.

Refreshment And Accommodation In Frome

From Frome Official Guide, 1980:

The visitor and shopper are well served for places in which to drop in for refreshment or in which to stay. There is a wide choice of good cafes, restaurants and public houses in the town centre. The George Hotel opens its welcoming doors to the Market Place. This bright and comfortable hotel has a particularly brisk, bustling atmosphere on market days. Nearer the outskirts of the town the Portway and Mendip Lodge hotels continue to give the good service that is their hallmark. For those who prefer the informality of a guest house there are several available. An accommodation list may be obtained from the Tourist Office at St. John’s Cottage, Church Steps, just off Bath Street.

Everything Was A Penny A Slab At Sergeant Oborn’s Shop, Warminster

An anecdote by Mary Hatton; from her recollections Sights, Sounds And Smells Of Bygone Days, penned in September 1970:

An appetising smell I have overlooked was from the shop which was part of what is now Heading Mitchell [at the High Street, Warminster]. It must have been a very old shop indeed because my mother knew it when she was a child. It was a very small, dark shop and one had to go down two or three steps to enter. It was kept by Sergeant Oborn and he was a huge man, well over six feet tall. He only sold slabs of rice, peas and bread puddings (all like rocks), and faggots. Everything was a penny a slab. How he made a living I cannot think. You could not buy sliced cooked meat in those days.