Halve, The / The Half / Half Lane / Alf Lane / Blue Ball Lane (in Warminster)

The Halve (The Half) At Bugley, Warminster

The Halve, at Bugley, Warminster.
It has also been referred to in the past
as “The Half” or “Alf Lane”.

The Halve, which runs from Victoria Road
to the Warminster Bypass
(vehicular access to the Bypass is denied
but there is a stile for pedestrians)
was formerly a cart track
which led to Norridge Woods.

The Halve these days is used by farm vehicles
and pedestrians, particularly dog-walkers.

But the area around this tranquil scene will change
forever when hundreds of houses are built
for the West Warminster Urban Extension.

Photographs taken by Danny Howell
on Wednesday 12th March 2014.

The Halve, Warminster

Sunday 27th January 2013

The Halve, Warminster,
seen from its junction with Victoria Road.

Photographed by Danny Howell
on the afternoon of
Sunday 27th January 2013.

Blue Ball Path, Warminster, Mentioned In Public Rights Of Way Survey

Danny Howell, in 2003, noted:

Blue Ball Path at Warminster is mentioned in the Survey Of Public Rights Of Way under the National Parks and Accesss to the Countryside Act 1949 1950-1959 and an Unofficial Commencement on a Public Footpath Map under the Rights Of Way Act 1932, 1935 (Document G16/132/51 in the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office).

A Spectral Funeral At Blue Ball Lane, Warminster

In his Folklore Of The Warminster District, published in 1924, Victor Manley says:

“At midnight a spectral funeral haunts Bugley, finally disappearing down the lane at Blue Ball, a disused inn.”

Varied Vegetation At Half Lane, Warminster

K. J. McEnnes, in Gleanings In Natural History, in the Warminster Miscellany, 1 July 1862, takes the reader on a nature walk:

“Crossing the fields at Bugley we enter the bye lane [Half Lane] by the Blue Ball and steer for Norridge Wood, the scene at once changes, the Geological formation is a total change from that we have just passed, this being on the Clay, and vegetation to a great extent is equally varied . . . “

He goes on to describe the Meadow Cranes-bill or geranium, the spindle tree whose wood is in general request by watch and clockmakers for cleaning the pinion holes, and he also mentions sedge, wild Valerian, Herb Bennet, Butterfly Orchids, Ramsons, and Birds Foot Trefoil. He concludes by mentioning the delightful fragrance of the beans in an adjoining field.