Saturday 18th September 1999
A little monkey which had escaped from Longleat was shot and killed in the Lake Pleasure Grounds (Town Park), Warminster, this afternoon, Saturday 18th September 1999.
It seems death by rifle bullet was necessary “amid fears for public safety”.
1960s
Danny Howell, writing in June 2024, remembered:
There was, and still is a strip of woodland running alongside the northern edge of Top Park at Bishopstrow. During the 1960s, myself and my childhood friends referred to this strip of woodland as “Beehives Wood”. That wasn’t an official name or recorded name; it was just the name us boys called it. We gave it that name because on the north side of that woodland, between the wood and the private road that connects Big Gates, north of Home Farm, with Cox’s Drove, near Bishopstrow Farm, placed on an area with a stone surface, were a long line of beehives, kept by some bee-farmer whose name is now forgotten. The beehives must have been there with the permission of Bert Legg (who farmed Home Farm). In the 1990s I asked Bert who the beehives and bees belonged to but Bert couldn’t remember. It had completely escaped his memory.
Today there is a narrow roadway through that woodland connecting the private road with the back entrance to Bishopstrow House hotel. It’s near where the Legg family of Home Farm continue to have the dung heap for the farm. The narrow road has a gate. The hotel in recent years has used that back entrance for deliveries, out of sight of hotel guests.
Prior to the road being made through there, there was a fairly large hole or dip in the woodland there, maybe about 10 feet deep, and it was filled with several old tree stumps and the a lopped bough or two. If you were making your way along and through Beehives Wood, east to west or vice versa, you had to skirt round those stumps in the dip, keeping close to the fence. The fence there comprises the old-fashioned railings from Temple’s time. Like I say, it was necessary to skirt round the stumps, rather than try and climb over them, which would have been hard work. There were gaps between the stumps and boughs and you could never be sure your if one of your feet or legs would go down into a gap. If that happened you might hurt yourself. Those stumps were obviously pushed out and the dip filled, and a couple of yards of the railings removed, when the hotel wanted to create the back way into its grounds.
What I do remember about those stumps in that dip was that I saw, on several occasions, during the mid-1960s, a family of weasels there. From a distance, from the private road, you could see them scurrying about. If you approached slowly and quietly you could get a better look. You could see at least four or five weasels sat there or playing about. Of course, if you made a noise or they saw you, they would soon disappear under the stumps or rush off into the undergrowth nearby. They were a delightful sight and I’ve never forgotten seeing them.
From The Warminster Miscellany, 1 July 1861:
On the 22nd ult. [22nd June 1861] James Bayly, Esq. trapped a full-grown otter on the banks of the river at Pitmead, it measured 4ft. 2ins. from snout to tail, and weighed 20lbs. This is the sixth otter captured in our river within a short space of time. Till recently the animal was a stranger to this neighbourhood. It is extremely tenacious of life, and in this instance after the capture of the animal it was a work of much difficulty to kill it. The skin is now in the hands of Mr. King, to be stuffed, and will add another to the numerous and valuable specimens of natural history in Mr. Bayly’s possession. These animals must be regarded as inveterate enemies by all admirers of the Rod. The devastation they commit amongst the fish is very great, as unless pressed by extreme hunger, they consume only a small portion of their prey, confining themselves to the thick flakes about the shoulder and back, leaving the remainder of the carcase to less fastidious feeders.
In Chapter XL, “Persons And Things Of Note,’ in his book The History Of Warminster (published 1879), Rev. John J. Daniell, noted:
“30 Dec. 1756. Norway rats were first seen as near to us as Bishopstrow. Before this time we had only a small timid black rat.” (This black rat is the old English native rat, as distinguished from the brown or Norway rat; he is much slighter, and of a jet black colour. Black rats are now very rare in England, being nearly exterminated by the greater weight, strength, and fierceness of the Norwegian species. But the agility of the black rat is marvellous; he is one mass of muscle. Driven before the larger race, he is found only in the higher part of houses, in ceilings, thatch, wainscoatings, and under eaves).
