When Warminster was young, it was, like all young things, quite small. R.W. (Bob) Smith was a Wiltshire County archivist, and he produced a sketch to illustrate what Warminster may have looked like at the end of the Anglo-Saxon period and for some 150 years after the Battle of Hastings.
By that time, Warminster was well established, but you may notice on Bob’s sketch, that there is a stream flowing between Silver Street and Emwell Street. This stream now flows through pipes underground, but that stream is almost certainly the reason why Warminster is here at all. If you wish to settle anywhere, you must have access to a reliable supply of water and that was a reliable supply. When the Church arrived to convert the Pagan Anglo-Saxons, they would have found it necessary to have their own supply, and that would be why they settled close to the serpentine stream, which is just outside the area of Bob’s sketch.
An interesting feature of Bob’s sketch is that he has drawn a cross where the obelisk now stands. The monks usually set up a cross in a town and this is where they would draw a crowd to listen to the new gospel. Before the obelisk was built, there was a cross on this site, and the area was known as Emwell Cross. I suppose you deduce that there was a well nearby.
The Warminster of Bob’s sketch is little more than a village, no George Street, no Vicarage Street, but it was quite able to support the tradesmen that would be needed to supply the needs of a farming area. However, by about 1215, with King John on the throne, the barons were becoming very rich and powerful, and one way of making money was to have a successful market town.
Our local Lord of the Manor decided that he would have a market town.
By Eric Peddle
