Category: Days During 1939

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.

Warminster Is Noted For Agricultural Produce

Hutchinson’s Pocket Guide for Hampshire and the Isle Of Wight, Wiltshire and Dorset, published in 1939, mentions:

Warminster is a market town noted for agricultural produce and malting. St. Deny’s Church belongs to the fourteenth century, and there is a chantry, dedicated to St. Lawrence, built in the time of Edward I.