Category: Trade: Lime Burner

The Disused And Ruinous Lime Kiln At Arn Hill, Warminster

Friday 12th September 2014

Photographs taken by Danny Howell on Friday 12th September 2014 of the last survivor of three lime kilns which were once worked on Arn Hill, Warminster. The survivor is now ruinous and partly clad in ivy ~ perhaps a candidate for a preservation project which may save it as an interesting feature for passers-by, tourists and historians to see.

The lime kiln is situated within the fork of the Lime Kiln Path and the Arn Hill Pleasure Grounds Path.

John Halliday’s Notes On Lime In The Warminster Area

John Halliday, in his Warminster notes compiled during the 1980s, wrote:

“Lime. Made from strongly heating limestone to make quick lime, then soaking with water to form lime wash, or with sharp coarse sand, lime mortar; or finer sharp sand for plaster, often mixed with chalk (ground) and hair (cow). Lime kilns frequently found in the Warminster area. A good example on south slope of Arn Hill on old winter-used road.”

Messrs. R. Butcher & Son, 1900

The Pictorial Record, Volume III, no. 26. September 1900, included:

Among the most important of local concerns is the large building and contracting business of Messrs. R. Butcher & Son, which dates back some seventy years. A great uncle of the present proprietor, who carried on the trade of a plasterer only, was the founder of the concern, but in the hands of his successor, Mr. James Grant, it became a general decorating business. Then the present owner’s father became proprietor, and since his decease, building, joinery, masonry and other departments have been added. Mr. Butcher also trades extensively as a line burner and lime merchant, renting the quarries on the Downs near the town, where the lime burning has been carried on for generations. The product is a very superior one, and is in demand practically in every centre of the building trade in England, Mr. Butcher’s enterprise being mainly responsible for this, he having made what was previously a local trade into one of large outside connections.

The general building and storage yards are at 14 Church Street and 2 Silver Street, there being at both places a large and comprehensive stock of builders’ and contractors’ materials. There are good joinery shops, stores for painters’ and decorators’ materials and impedimenta, masons’ sheds, glaziers’ shop, stables and other indispensable adjuncts of an all-round business.

Scaffolding, flag stones and stone rough or wrought, can be supplied in any quantity, as well as timber, lime, cement, and the materials of the building trades generally.

The firm contract for the erection and equipment of buildings, and have a large general jobbing business. As paper hangers and decorators, too, they hold a leading place, and are equally at home in plain and elaborate work of this class. Estimates in this or other departments are furnished free, and work can always be put in hand and finished promptly. Mr. Butcher personally superintends everything, and being himself a thoroughly practical man, bred to the business, this is a guarantee of satisfaction to his clients.

Warminster Lime Kiln (At Arn Hill) And Adjoining Field To Let By Tender

Friday 9th July 1886

To be let, by tender, the Warminster Lime Kiln [at Arn Hill] and Field adjoining, for a term of Seven, Fourteen, or Twenty One years. It is now and has been for many years past in the occupation of Mr. R. Butcher. Tenders are to be sent to Henry Trollope. No.3 Silver Street, Warminster, on or before the 9th day of August next. H.T. does not bind himself to accept the highest or any tender. – Silver Street, July 9th, 1886.

The Lime Kiln And Part Of The Quarry At Arn Hill, Warminster, 1838

The Warminster Enclosure Award, 1838, lists Ann Tavender as the occupier of the lime-kiln and part of the quarry at Arn Hill, also a nearby garden, plantation and paddock. The copyholder is Elizabeth Shirley.