All towns are unique. Some towns are special. Warminster is unique and special.
Warminster has a very special name. A minster, like a monastery, was a centre for monks, but there is an important difference. The monks in a monastery tend to keep themselves away from the world and spend much of their time in prayer and study.
The monks in a minster were required to spread the gospel to the surrounding area, and they set up crosses in marketplaces and other suitable places, where they would preach their message to the local people who were rarely Christians. We are talking of the time when Pope Gregory sent Augustine, along with a group of monks, to recruit Christians to become missionaries and bring the message to the pagan Anglo-Saxons.
There is scholarly debate about whether the church in Warminster was a minster. It was established in an open area, close to a supply of fresh water, and these conditions would be far more necessary for a large establishment than for a simple church.
The little river, coming from the area around Cley Hill, flows close to the church, but it flows through fairly flat country. Under these conditions, a small river has to find its way “down” as best it can. It does not have the energy to force a straight line, and the result is a stream that meanders. Streams like this are said to be serpentine. They resemble a snake, and an old word for a serpent was a worm (possibly pronounced “warm”).
So, we have a minster beside a stream that looks like a worm. I’ll leave you to put two and two together.
Warminster’s name was well established before the Norman conquest of 1066. William, or one of his close cronies, decided to translate the name of the town into French, and the town became Guerreminster (“guerre” being the French word for “war”). The name Warminster has nothing to do with conflict, so it goes without saying that the locals were not best pleased, and as soon as possible, it was Warminster again.
In those early days, the road from Salisbury to Bath did not pass close to the church. It ran along what is now Westbury Road and then into Copheap Lane, so any official visitors that the church may have had needed to approach the church from the main road using the footpath, which still exists.
Probably the most interesting artefact in the Warminster museum’s collection is a seal matrix. Official documents were sealed with sealing wax, and the matrix was the small stamping tool that left the official imprint in the wax. The matrix would have a ring at the top, so that the matrix could be safely attached to a belt that the official or the messenger was wearing. The matrix in the museum is broken. It has lost the top fixing ring, so it can no longer remain attached to a belt. The broken matrix was found in a garden next to the path from the church to the road.
Oh! Warminster is full of interest.
Pictured: The seal
