Category: Community (Warminster)

Topics about organisations and activities in Warminster.

The Three Mariners, Warminster

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

The Three Mariners, Warminster
The Three Mariners occupied a site on the north side of East Street, immediately opposite the present entrance to Carson’s Yard. The inn was up for sale in 1706 and was mentioned again in 1715 (WRO 1399/10 and 1399/11). There does not appear to be any other record of it or any details about when it closed.

Following life as an inn, the building was converted into a private house. From about 1824 onwards it was the home of various members of the two families, namely the Carsons and the Toones, who ran the nearby ironworks known as the Wiltshire Foundry. The last of these, William Carson Toone, emigated to Canada in 1903. The house, which was known as Inglebury at that time, was put up for sale by auction, at the King’s Arms Hotel, Warminster, on 18th September 1902. The auctioneer, Claude Barber, referred to the fact (on the authority of Toone’s solicitor, Mr Wakeman) that the property was once a licensed house known as The Three Mariners.

Henry Faulkner opened his “Fancy Bazaar”, selling toys and stationery, on the ground floor of the property in June 1904. After 1915, Ernest Stiles had the shop, selling drapery and furniture. By 1923 it had become a retail outlet for George Bush & Co., who were house furnishers. The building, which was three storeys high, was purchased and demolished after 1968 when plans were proposed for developing the site. This area, behind the General Post Office, is still vacant and awaiting redevelopment today.

The Swan Inn, Warminster

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

The Swan Inn is recorded in the 1801 Survey Of Warminster at Plot No.427 on the north side of the Market Place.

It was once in the hands of the Pool family. When William Pool died, aged 37, in 1802, his wife continued the business for many years afterwards.

Page 47 of Rambles In And Around Warminster (written in 1883) notes Mrs Pool’s reputation as a remarkably careful business woman. Apparently, a sixpence belonging to her had broken in two, so she sent it to a brazier to be mended. He accomplished the work so neatly that the sixpence was spent without difficulty, but the satisfaction of his customer was very much lessened when she received his bill for seven pence for mending the coin!

Mrs Pool was still at the Swan Inn in 1822-1823 but had left by 1830, when the occupier was John Gingell. Mrs Pool, who moved to North Row, Warminster, died in 1844, aged 81.

By the time the 1838 Survey Of Warminster was compiled, the inn had closed, having changed into a private house. Joseph Vidler Toone, who came to Warminster from Salisbury, about 1853, converted the house into a chemist’s shop. Toone was in business here until about 1880 when he sold out to Charles James Rawlings, a chemist from Frome. Toone moved to Bath, where he ran a chemist’s shop at New Bond Street, but returned to his former Market Place shop in Warminster before the end of the 19th century. Toone retired to Bath about 1901; the Market Place premises were then used as a tearoom and restaurant by Mrs Frances Down. From the mid-1920s to the late 1930s Mrs Amy Butler ran a millinery business at the building, which later returned to life as a chemist’s shop when Boots opened their Warminster store. They still trade from the same building, west of the Bath Arms, today, but have extensively modernised the property.

The Katherine Wheel, Warminster

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

The Katherine Wheel, Warminster
Recorded by both Daniell and Halliday, the Katherine Wheel is supposed to have been in existence in 1710. Halliday gave its location two doors above the Market Place. This suggests it was on the south side of East Street, east of the entrance to the area we know today as Carson’s Yard. This information is unconfirmed and there is no reference to an inn of this name in the 1801 Survey Of Warminster.

The Butchers Arms, Warminster

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

The house now called Portway Villa, on the west side of the road at Portway was formerly an inn called The Butchers Arms.

In the 1783 Inclosure Award Of Warminster the owner of the property is given as the Rev. W. Slade and the tenant is recorded as W. Lambe.

Daniell recorded this inn, so did Halliday who stated that it had also been called The Carpenters Arms.

Prior to the 1801 Survey Of Warminster it had closed as an inn, and was then the residence of Benjamin Everett, the son of a local clothier who lived in a larger house further south along Portway.

For a time the former Butchers Arms was used as the “manse” for the Minister of the North Row Baptist Chapel, Warminster.

The Bear Inn, Warminster

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

The Bear Inn, Warminster
The Bear was situated on the east side of The Anchor in the Market Place. The site, on the north side of the street, is occupied today by Paynes the newsagents. These premises were formerly (before Paynes) International Stores and before that they were the shop and office of an ironmonger called Hurlstone.

The 1801 Survey of Warminster records the Bear Inn under Plot 421 but (according to an additional entry in the record of the Survey) by 1803 it had been sold to John Pring, druggist. Daniell and Halliday both suggest that its origins go back to the 1700s and Halliday also states that it was once called the Cross Keys.

The Bird In Hand, West Street, Warminster

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

The Bird In Hand (at West End – now West Street, Warminster)
The second inn of this name in Warminster is recorded in the 1801 Survey of Warminster. Its location is given as West End, and George Warren is listed as the owner. It probably adopted the name of the High Street inn (when that closed in the mid-1700s).

There is no mention of The Bird In Hand at West Street in Pigot’s National Commercial Directory 1822, so it must have ceased to exist by that time. As far as can be ascertained, it was on the site of a house known today as Westhaven, the former Orphanage of Pity for Girls at West Street. The orphanage was founded in 1867 by the Rev. Sir James Erasmus Phillips, Vicar of Warminster.

The Bird In Hand, High Street, Warminster

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

The Bird In Hand, High Street, Warminster
There were two inns with the name The Bird In Hand in Warminster. They were both recorded by Daniell and Halliday.

The first-known and probably the earliest was located by Halliday at High Street, and being in existence in 1740. He noted that about 1830 it was Mr. F. Seagram’s house. Seagram was a surgeon who lived at The Chantry. This house, which still survives on the north side of the High Street today, and is currently a dental surgery, could have been built on the site of The Bird In Hand.

The Plough, Beerhouse, Warminster

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

The Plough, Warminster
The Plough was a beerhouse on the south side of George Street, east of the Were Walk. In the 1838 Survey of Warminster it is recorded as Plot No.828, with the landlord James Bristow. He was still there in 1844 but was unheard of after the late 1850s.

The Plough only had a beerhouse licence, which prohibited the sale of spirits. A beerhouse licence, issued under the rules of the Beerhouse Act of 1830, cost £2 per annum and allowed a householder assessed at the poor rate to retail beer from his own house.

error: Content is protected !!