Category: Gazetteer

A geographical dictionary providing reference information about places and place names in Warminster and other civil parishes in the surrounding area.

Point Pond In Great Ridge Wood

Tuesday 30th August 2005

Brian Redhead, in Months In The Country, first published by the Ebury Press in 1992, wrote:

“Oliver Rackham, who knows about ponds, reckons that the oldest man-made pond in England is probably the one called Point Pond which is in Great Ridge Wood near Salisbury. He says that pond was first dug before the Bronze Age, by a Stone Age man.”

Ken Watts, in Droving In Wiltshire, innThe Trade And Its Routes, published in 1990, referring to the old drove road which runs through the Great Ridge Woods, connecting Corton (Field Barn) with the Hindon Fair site on Cold Berwick Hill, stated:

“Near the Roman road on the Great Ridge the drove forks, to pass either side of Point Pond (929 361), now merely a muddy depression, but once perhaps a waiting place one mile from Hindon Fair, particularly as “Penning Wood’ is shown (at 923 358) on the old 2 and a half inch Ordnance Survey.”

Danny Howell writes:

“When I visited Point Pond in the summer of 2005, it was rather shallow, the water probably no more than two or three inches deep. The pond appeared to be nothing more than two small depressions in the ground, side by side. The area to the south of the pond had recently been cleared of all its trees (conifers), which had obviously changed the location from shady to being openly sunlit. I must admit seeing the pond with only shallow water and looking rather non-descript, not to mention the shorn state of the surrounding area, was something of an anti-climax for me. Having read of the pond’s importance in the droving days and having assumed the pond would be big and deepish, in a glade of deciduous trees, I felt rather let down. If only I could have seen it in its true glory, complete with a flock of sheep or herd of cattle watering from it, with the drovers looking on?”

Danny Howell adds:

“Richard Witt (born 1944), of Sundial Farm, Corton, remembers the pond supporting bullrushes, and Richard’s twin brother Robin says it was once a place for newts.”

Dachshund Lost Down A Rabbit Hole At Ludlow Farm, Warminster

Tuesday 3rd August 2004

Warminster Fire Brigade was called to Ludlow Farm, at Bradley Road, at 2 p.m. on Tuesday 3 August 2004, when a Dachshund dog which had gone down a hole after a rabbit failed to resurface. The Brigade spent over an hour digging and looking but without success. By Monday they still hadn’t heard from the owner whether the dog had reappeared or was still missing.

Grass Set On Fire By Children At Sambourne Road, Warminster

Danny Howell writes:

Children set light to the grass on the high bank, on the eastern side of Sambourne Road, Warminster, on the afternoon of Monday 12th July 2004. An open space (with the old name Beds Feet) adjacent to the scene is often frequented by youngsters and is a well-known area for litter and graffiti. After running away from the fire the children returned to try and put it out, but panicked when they were unable to, and they ran away again. Warminster Fire Brigade successfully dealt with the situation at 4.00 p.m. They are asking children to heed the danger of playing with matches, even when long grass is damp due to the showery weather.

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).

Class 5, St. George’s RC Primary School, Warminster, Singing Carols At The Beckford Centre During December 1999

Class 5, from St. George’s RC Primary School, Woodcock Road, Warminster, pictured during their visit to the Beckford Centre at Gipsy Lane, Warminster, in December 1999, when they sang carols to the senior citizens of one of the day clubs. Some of the children are in school uniform, some are wearing biblical costumes. Among the schoolchildren pictured are:

Chloe Griffiths, Alice Trimby, Harriet Reid, Tabitha Tripp, Sarah-Jane Webb, Helen Worrall, Hannah Monkcom, Patrick Bidgood, Jason Pinnell, Nathan Wills, Wayne Marchmont and Georgia Moran.

Warminster Bridge Club – Results, October 1999

Warminster Bridge Club

Results

5th October 1999:
1. Jose and Peter Cambridge. 100 points.
2. Tessa Attwater and Reg Dockerty. 93 points.

7th October 1999:
1. Sue and Jock Linsell. 283 points.
2. Angie and Mike Shepherd. 258 points.

12th October 1999:
1. Jose and Peter Cambridge. 93 points.
2. Angie and Mike Shepherd. 79 points.

14th October 1999:
1. Don Burgess and Frank Coltman. 210 points.
2. Mary and Roger Giles. 180 points.

19th October 1999:
1. Jenny and Mike Roe. 97 points.
2. Blanche Johnston and John Kayes. 83 points.

21st October 1999:
1. (N/S). Don Leatham and Ernie Cashen. 227 points.
2. (N/S). Jose and Peter Cambridge. 179 points.
1. (E/W). Joan Steer and Laurie Meale. 200 points.
2. (E/W). Finola and Alan Peckham. 198 points.

26th October 1999:
1. Alan Merrills and Laurie Meale. 96 points.
2. Gillian Wood and Basil Hobbs. 79 points.

28th October 1999:
1. Mary and Roger Giles. 135 points.
2. (joint). Jose and Peter Cambridge and Don Burgess and Frank Coltman. 121 points.

Rubbish Sealed The Fate Of Primrose Wood

From The Explorer, the newsletter of the Warminster Open Spaces Society (WOSPS), Friday 8th January 1999:

If a piece of ground is covered in rubbish and unattractive, there is a stronger case for building on it. Sadly, Primrose Wood (by Safeways car park) could have been saved from development but the fact that it gathered rubbish (and young people at night time) sealed its fate.

Note from dannyhowellnet: The Primrose Wood referred to above is what was the copse (near the Western Car Park) west of Flers Court – the name Primrose Wood arising from the fact that Primrose Lane, which connects Weymouth Street with Sambourne Road, ran alongside the southern boundary of the copse. Not to be confused with Primrose Wood north of Home Farm at Boreham (Primrose Wood at that location being a local name for Temple’s Plantation). The development at Primrose Wood near the south-west entrance to the Western Car Park was named Coppice Close.

error: Content is protected !!