Category: Community (Warminster)

Adrian Phillips, in the book The Warminster Trail, compiled for the Warminster Festival 1989, and published by Aris & Phillips Ltd., wrote:

The present Minster Church was founded in 1258 by the Normans and substantially rebuilt and refurbished in 1887-9 by Sir James Erasmus Philipps, appointed Vicar in 1859.

The Norman origin of the Vicars of Warminster is reflected in such names as William de Heywood (1306), Thomas de Chelreys (1324), Peter de Sevenok (1345), John de Hingham (1348) and others.

One interesting entry is a Vicar “William Fydian (1448) executed”!

One of the curious aspects of the church is its position – right at the far edge of the town. This means that either the town has moved since the early Middle Ages or the Church was built in a very odd place. Could it be that this move occurred after the Black Death in 1348-50? Instead of being clustered around its church its nucleus was moved east, to the present Market Place. This was a common phenomenon at that time when as many as two thirds of the population may have perished. This does not however explain the building of St. Laurence’s Chapel q.v. in the High Street which predates the Black Death, though it may well have been rebuilt at around that time.

As you will see, the Church now has a tower, though it once had a spire on top of it, but this was never rebuilt. Parts of the Minster date to the Norman period but the most substantial are fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The perpendicular windows and the clerestory make the interior appear light, elegant and roomy.

The interior has suffered many alterations down the years. A balcony that ran along the north and south aisles of the nave has been demolished. They were originally erected because “the parishioners were very numerous, and there was not convenient room for them to sit, stand and kneel in Divine service and sermons”.

In 1770 an organ gallery was added to the west end of the church, and an organ of 1792 installed to replace that of 1630.

In 1759 the Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments and Creed were painted in letters of gold over the arch in the east end, and in the nineteenth century the vestry added.

Many local characters are recorded in the parish records which date back to 1556:

In 1564 on July 19 Will Maggott was the first to die of the plague;

In 1631 on April 27 died one William White, glover and ancient bachelor;

In 1632 on April 29 William Festall, the town cowherd died.

Between 1678 and 1732 the dead had to be buried in a woollen shroud or be fined the sum of £5 – a fortune to a labourer who might earn 5s. a week. Presumably the wool trade was sufficiently prosperous after that date not to need such compulsory subsidy.

Mistakes also occurred, when, for example, the daughter of John and Betty Haines was accidentally christened “Charles”, no doubt to the considerable discomfort of the godparents.

The oldest of the eight church bells dates back to 1770 and were recast in 1960. Until 1839 the ropes hung down into the church; in that year a new passage was made and the loft converted into a belfry.

Perhaps one of the most striking features of the church is the magnificent yew tree which stands in front of it. This dates back to the 14th century and must be one of the oldest living things in Warminster. There are many legends connected with yew trees in churchyards, but perhaps it is significant that it was planted when the supremacy of the English long-bow was at its height and that it was really there to ensure a good supply of weapons for the army.