Category: Community (Warminster)

Topics about organisations and activities in Warminster.

The Ursuline Convent At East Street, Warminster

Monday 18th March 1991

Irene Pickford, of Warminster, writes:

May I appeal for information about the Ursuline Convent that was at East Street, Warminster?

The property is now known as Yard Court, previously Yard House, and before then The Mansion.

The Ursuline nuns were in residence from 1906 to 1919, during which time they opened a school for ‘boarders, day boarders and day scholars – moderate terms’.

Perhaps someone remembers their grandmother or mother talking about the nuns, the convent and the school?

Any information. memories, or photographs would be appreciated.

No More Parking At Portway Surgery, Warminster

Monday 18th March 1991

Portway Surgery. The PRIVATE land and surrounding PRIVATE parking area at the old surgery will be closed to further access from Friday 22nd March 1991.

The Doctors would like to thank all those who asked for permission to park there, but all vehicles must be removed by the above date or a charge will have to be made to recover them.

Reducing The Business Rate For Corsley Sub-Post Office

In December 1990 Mrs. Stephanie Chandler made the news, with her attempt to get the business rate for Corsley Sub-Post Office reduced. Mrs. Chandler, who rented her home from the Longleat Estate, said the Post Office and Shop was open five mornings a week, but in an effort to lessen the rate she was paying (£400) she had stopped selling grocery items during the previous two months. The District Valuer, Mr. D. Farris, was quoted in the press as saying: “If the size of the shop is reduced, the business rate will be reduced and back-dated to when the alterations were made.”

Sir Harry Secombe And Highway

Some recollections by Danny Howell:

“During early autumn 1990 I received a telephone call from a producer at HTV, in Bristol, asking if I could suggest some suitable locations in the Warminster area for the Highway programme. I was told that the programme in question was to be broadcast on Remembrance Sunday and that the locations should have a military connection.”

“I suppose I was asked about locations, because I had worked during the previous year, suggesting locations and supplying script details for Along A Wiltshire River which featured Clive Gunnell. That series had been shown on HTV.”

“I knew what the Highway programme was about because I had seen it on Sunday teatimes. It was a religious programme, not in the same vein as BBC’s Songs Of Praise, but filling a similar God-slot on tv. The format was really Sir Harry Secombe visiting a different location each programme, usually with a theme, and in the programme he would sing some hymns and meet and talk to various people, usually asking them about their experiences and their faith in God. Sometimes there would be other music, like a choir, and sometimes guest singers. Each programme was 30 minutes.”

“The programme makers told me they were going to Imber but needed other places to film interviews and places to film Harry Secombe miming to songs and hymns pre-recorded by him in a studio.”

“They asked if I knew of a pleasant garden where Harry could be filmed singing a particular song. I suggested Brigadier Proudman’s garden behind Mill Cottage at Bishopstrow, where there were some lovely shrubs and flowers, and a backdrop of the little iron footbridge over the mill race. They got in touch with Brigadier Proudman and he agreed. They went there to film but the day they chose it poured down with rain and the blooms and colours didn’t look their best on the tv screen.”

“I also suggested that Copheap would be a good place to film an interview, for two reasons – it gave good views of Warminster and it was a memorial to Warminster’s war dead, with its Lych Gate plaques and the Path of Remembrance. They took me up on that suggested location as well – that’s where they filmed Sir Harry talking to Mrs. Sarah Jones, the widow of “H’ Jones who was killed in the Falklands.”

“I also suggested that they go to the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Sutton Veny. The producer pricked up his ears when I told him about the area’s connection with Anzac troops. I got the impression he was previously unaware of this. He immediately said incorporating something about the Australians and New Zealanders would add a lot to the programme. So they went to Sutton Veny, as well, for the programme. They filmed Sir Harry singing Waltzing Matilda at Sutton Veny.”

“When they came to Warminster to do the filming I was given the opportunity to meet Sir Harry. He was exactly like he was on television. He asked me things like “Did I live locally?” and “Do you watch the programme?” He came across as very pleasant and most sincere.”

Sir Harry Secombe Visits Imber For Remembrance Sunday Programme

November 1990:

A former inhabitant of the ghost village of Imber on Salisbury Plain talked to Sir Harry Secombe for the Remembrance Sunday edition of the HTV programme Highway.

Viewers will see Molly Archer-Smith recall life in the village which was evacuated in 1943 and has been used as a training ground for the Army ever since.

Molly Archer Smith is a member of the Dean family, who, with the Hooper family, formed the farming backbone of Imber. She meets up with Sir Harry in the ruins of her old home at Seagrams Farm and talks about the events of 1943, how everyone reacted and also talks about the annual pilgrimage.

The tiny village of Imber has been regularly used for training from before the First World War, but the Army bought it outright in 1932, except for St. Giles Church, the Baptist Chapel and the Bell Inn pub. When the American troops arrived in 1943 it was deemed a good place to train for street fighting in preparation for D-Day. The village was evacuated just before Christmas 1943. The villagers were never to live again in their homes. Once a year, on the first weekend in September, the Church at Imber is re-opened for two memorial services.

Sir Harry found that most of the original buildings of Imber have been razed to the ground. One of the few surviving buildings, the Church, is the location for the singing of The God Of Love by the Salisbury Cathedral Choir. Sir Harry sings Lead Us Heavenly Father and Keep The Home Fires Burning.

Sir Harry also meets Mrs. Sarah Jones, the widow of Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Jones, known affectionately as “H’, who died in the Falklands while leading 2 Para in the attack on Goose Green. She and her husband spent two years stationed in Warminster. Mrs. Jones now spends a lot of her time working for the Falklands Family Association, formed in 1983 after the Government arranged a trip to the Falklands for widows and families. She speaks of the importance of going to the actual location, and of the support she has had from the Army and the public at large. A painting of Lt. Col. Jones, just before he fell, now hangs in the mess dining room at the School of Infantry, Warminster.

The Warminster area is steeped in military tradition, with a close relationship between the soldiers stationed at the School of Infantry and at Battlesbury Barracks with local people – many soldiers have married local girls. Colour Sergeant Danny Malone, who has just returned to Warminster Barracks, with the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rangers, met and married a local girl, Christine, while based at the camp in 1976.

Sir Harry Secombe talks to the Reverend Kester Carruthers, the Chaplain responsible for developing the relationship with the community, and he has conducted many marriage services.

Highway will also feature actor Bernard Cribbens who did his National Service in the Parachute Regiment, and Angela Richards who sings It’s A Lovely Morning. Sir Harry also visits other places in the Warminster area, including the Anzac War Graves Cemetery at Sutton Veny where he sings Waltzing Matilda.

Soldier Soldier

Danny Howell writes:

“I’m sure there will be some readers of this blog who will remember a television series called Soldier Soldier. It was, for want of a better description, “an army soap opera”. It started broadcasting in June 1991 and ran for seven series until 1997. Actors Robson Green and Jerome Flynn starred in the first five episodes, and a song they sang in the fourth series, a rendition of Unchained Melody (which had been a hit for the Righteous Brothers way back in 1965) proved popular with tv viewers. Simon Cowell pursued Green and Flynn and they signed a recording contract with him. Their version of Unchained Melody, produced by Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, reached No.1 in the British singles chart and was not only the fastest selling single in UK chart history at that time, but was also the biggest selling single of 1995. The ‘b’ side of the single was White Cliffs Of Dover.

Prior to production of the first series of Soldier Soldier, and it must have been late 1989 or in 1990, I was the Deputy Curator of the Dewey Museum in Warminster, and I was contacted by someone from the world of tv drama working in advance of the series. They told me the series would be about soldiers and their interaction with a town with a garrison or an army base. Warminster was not going to be the actual setting or a location for filming – it was, as it turned out, set somewhere in the Midlands with no real place name being mentioned.”

“The reason I was contacted was because they wanted answers to questions about a town having an army base. They also particularly wanted to know what the style of the street signs in Warminster was like, what colours were the tourist information signs here and what was the design and colours of items of street furniture, like lamp posts, street benches and litter bins, in Warminster. They asked me to take some photos and send the photos to them, which I did. They also wanted to get copies of posters of military connected events in Warminster – things like quiz nights and bingo at the United Services Club, playgroup activities near the Army Married Quarters, etc. I suppose they wanted these to decorate the film sets where necessary. They wanted any thing to give the filming sets a touch of reality. They did specify that any posters or copies of posters I sent them were not to have dates too big or too visible on them. Once I had sent these things off I never heard from the producers again. I’ve no idea if anything I told them was used by them or whether any of the posters were portrayed. I didn’t watch any of the Soldier Soldier series. It was produced by Central Television.”

Gunner Seagoon

The Wiltshire Times And News, Friday 26 October 1990, included a photograph of Sir Harry Secombe standing next to a field gun. It was titled “Gunner Seagoon,” a reference to the character of Neddy Seagoon played by Harry in the 1950s wireless show The Goons.

The caption for the photograph read:

Entertainer Sir Harry Secombe, who presents ITV’s religious programme Highway, was filming last week on and around Salisbury Plain for the show’s Remembrance Day edition.

Filming took place in the “ghost’ village of Imber, Warminster’s Copheap memorial and the ANZAC war graves at Sutton Veny.

Sir Harry, a gunner in World War Two, was also reacquainted with a familiar piece of military hardware, a twenty-five pounder field gun.

Warminster Civic Trust ~What Is Happening In Warminster (Problems Aired)

Wednesday 15th August 1990

Danny Howell writes:

By taking part in a national audit of the environment, “hard facts about what is happening in Warminster” have been aired by Warminster Civic Trust.

The Trust Chairman, Councillor Chris March, said “The Trust is committed to promote high standards of planning and architecture, but within the current planning regulations this is practically impossible. The result is shoddy, characterless, out of keeping estates going up on every available piece of grassland.”

Mr. March continued “Developers are already poised, just waiting to build along the route of the recently opened bypass. Farmers and landowners will find it hard to resist the offer of astronomical sums when they are made. The County structure and local plans at present do not allow for further large developments, but we are told by the District Council planning department that they cannot withhold permission indefinitely. The developers, who have got time on their side, will eventually get their way.”

Mr. March was commenting on Warminster Civic Trust’s part in the audit of the UK environment. He said “We were delighted to take part in the audit because it will highlight environmental issues concerning everyone in Warminster, ranging from planning and architecture to traffic and transport.”

Mr. March added “We saw this as a chance to air some of Warminster’s problems at a national level and we didn’t pull any punches with what we had to say. Hopefully, our grass roots opinions, with others gathered by the audit, will help to shape future policies nationally, which in turn will be realised on a local basis.”

The questionnaire submitted from Warminster noted that although the town has been described as unattractive, it does have a pleasant mix of style of buildings, but new properties are out of keeping with the traditional scene.

Warminster’s litter problem was described as “bad”, the problem being that people don’t use the bins, and the fine for dropping litter is no real deterrent. More litter wardens are needed.

Fouling by dogs, on footpaths and verges, was another problem, and ‘no go’ areas , says the Trust, should be designated.

The majority of Warminster residents appear happy with their household rubbish collection, but the Trust has noted that when rubbish is dumped in wrong places it attracts more to the same site.

Warminster has an adequate public tip, and although the town also has a bottle bank and containers for waste paper collection, it has no such facility for can recycling.

Holes in the road were a notable problem in Warminster. A new bill could be put through Parliament to ensure liaison between those who dig up the roads, plus prompt reinstatement of any road works.

The number of occupied shops in the town centre has decreased says the Trust. Accommodation above some shops is underused, which has led to the buildings looking scruffy. The overall variety of shops, in the last five years, has decreased and the loss of department stores is regretted.

More pedestrianisation is called for.

Warminster Civic Trust, in an effort to continue tackling planning and environmental matters affecting the town, has now revamped itself by setting up four working parties.

The planning working party will examine planning applications and anything concerning the town structure plan. It will be chaired by Helen Rowley.

The environmental working party will focus on matters including litter and graffiti, and will be chaired by Elisabeth Collyns.

The amenities group aims to help promote all forms of leisure facilities from sports grounds to footpaths and rambling. It will be chaired by John Peddie.

The public relations working group will handle the Trust’s publicity, advertising and promotional events. It will be chaired by Danny Howell.

Corn Dollies At Corton

Down Wiltshire Way will be broadcast on BBC Wiltshire Sound, on Sunday 5th August 1990, after the One O’Clock News. Presenter Gerry Hughes will visit Corton and among his interviewees is Angela Witt who makes corn dollies. The programme will be repeated on Saturday 11th August, at 6.30 a.m.

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