Category: Community (Warminster)

Topics about organisations and activities in Warminster.

Warminster ~ Christmas In Wartime

From The Wiltshire Times, Saturday 30th December 1939:

Warminster. Christmas In Wartime.
Last year the severe weather made Christmas a fireside festival. This year the blackout had the same effect, and all reports speak of family reunions and family parties rather than visiting. Petrol rationing, too, kept many at home who had been in the habit of going farther afield for Yuletide enjoyment.

Rail traffic was heavier than usual. A curious fact noticed by railway officials was that Salisbury was attracting Warminster people for Christmas shopping, to the exclusion of Bath.

At the Post Office it was the busiest Christmas ever, but the Christmas Day delivery was completed by 12.30 p.m.

Landlords At The Old Bell, Warminster, 1822 – 1939

1822. William Reeves. The Bell.
1830. John Evans. The Bell.
1844. James Welch. The Bell.
1848. James Welch. The Bell.
1852. Charles Dredge. The Bell.

1859. Charles Dredge. The Old Bell Inn.
1865. Charles Dredge. The Old Bell Inn.
1867. Charles Dredge. The Old Bell Inn.
1879. Charles Dredge. The Old Bell Inn.

1875. Charles Dredge. The Bell And Railway Hotel.
1880. Charles Dredge. The Bell And Railway Hotel.

1899. Thomas Humphrey. The Old Bell Inn.
1903. Thomas Henry Humphrey. The Old Bell Inn.
1907. Thomas Henry Humphrey. The Old Bell Inn.
1911. James Lidbury. The Old Bell Inn.
1912. J. Lidbury. The Old Bell Inn.
1915. James Lidbury. The Old Bell Inn.

1920. Herbert L.S. Lidbury. The Old Bell.
1922. Herbert Louis Salmon Lidbury. The Old Bell.

1925. H.L.S. Lidbury. The Old Bell Commercial Hotel.
1927. H.L.S. Lidbury. The Old Bell Commercial Hotel.
1931. H.L.S. Lidbury. The Old Bell Commercial Hotel.

1933. Herbert Louis Salmon Lidbury. The Old Bell.

1935. H.T. Lane. The Olde Bell Hotel.

1936. H.T.S. Lance, The Old Bell Inn.

1939. H.T. Lane. The Olde Bell Hotel.

The Sisters Of Mercy At St. Denys Home (The Convent), Vicarage Street, Warminster, 1939

St. Denys Home (Convent), Vicarage Street, Warminster, 1939:

Name, date of birth and personal occupation ~

Ellen M. Knights. 8 October 1860.
Sister of Mercy. Mother Superior.

Margaret Smithwhite. 4 November 1869.
Sister of Mercy. Principal of Mission Training College.

Kathleen M. Andrews. 26 April 1875.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Margaret Frost. 19 August 1873. 
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Helen M. Hoskin. 12 March 1877.
Sister of Mercy. Music Mistress.

Mary Rumball. 19 January 1880.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Kathleen M. Browne. 4 December 1880.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Enid F. Sprigg. 27 May 1880.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Rachel Slocock. 1 December 1878.
Sister of Mercy. Nurse.

Margaret E. Turner. 25 October 1884.
Sister of Mercy. Teacher.

Maud A. Jenkyn. 4 December 1878.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Ida A. Howard. 11 November 1881.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Tryphena L. Hiscock. 1 June 1889.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Mary S. Laxton. 30 August 1875.
Sister of Mercy. Incapacitated.

Beatrice Warren. 9 June 1885.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Ada Walker. 13 December 1884.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Ida M. Le Chavetois. 6 June 1886.
Sister of Mercy. Teacher.

Alice A. Hollingsworth. 28 October 1888.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Constance W. Clarke. 28 August 1893.
Sister of Mercy. Teacher.

Mary F.A. Proctor. 21 October 1898.
Sister of Mercy. Incapacitated.

Jenetta Richardson. 24 January 1897.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Dorothy E. Jones. 2 December 1894.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Gertrude Baldock. 12 June 1905.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Sybil Oates. 17 September 1899.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Constance M.S. Thomas. 22 April 1906.
Sister of Mercy. Teacher.

Florence M. Crouch. 13 July 1899.
 Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Dorothy Jefferys. 5 December 1885.
Sister of Mercy. Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Ida M. Mummery. 15 February 1905.
Domestic Duties.

Edith M. Boldirston. 8 May 1903.
Sister of Mercy. Teacher.

Christmas 1937 At Warminster

From The Wiltshire Times, Saturday 8th January 1938:

Christmas At Warminster. Unseasonable Weather.
The most unseasonable weather consisting mainly of fog, tended to keep most residents indoors over the holiday and the streets, especially on Christmas Day, presented a strangely deserted appearance. Parcels dealt with at the Post Office were 10 per cent up on last year, and letters 20 per cent up.

The West Wilts Golf Club, Warminster

The Warminster Official Guide, issued under the auspices of Warminster Urban District Council, published August 1936, noted:

The West Wilts Golf Club, founded in 1891, has a course of eighteen holes on Arn Hill, laid out by the famous professional, J.H. Taylor. Improvements have been made since, the links purchased from the Marquess of Bath, and a new Clubhouse erected.

The brochure issued by the Club states: “The surface is gently undulating downland, covered with deep elastic turf of the finest and closest texture such as many an inland course would pay a king’s ransom to possess. The superlative quality of the grass and fairways neither become muddy or water-logged in winter, or hard and fiery in summer, in the run of the ball.”

The course is one of the best in the south of England, is rarely overcrowded, and offers excellent facilities on very moderate terms.

The Warminster Water Supply

The Warminster Official Guide, issued under the auspices of Warminster Urban District Council, published August 1936, noted:

Water Supply. Several copious springs in the Greensand of the Shearwater area have so far yielded an ample supply. Analysis has shown the water to be of excellent quality, soft and entirely free from suspended matter.

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