Warminster Museum: Silver Street

Well, most of this is Silver Street, but the two closest buildings on the right are in George Street.

Frederick Hutton made stands for bicycles. He moved into this building, formerly the Castle Inn, when the pub closed in the 1890s. He did not stay long, and the building was taken over by Claude Wilcox. Wilcox set up Warminster Motors there in 1905.

The large building next door to Mr. Hutton was Corrymore, the home of the Low family. William Low was a corn merchant’s clerk. Mrs. Low looked after their three children but, with the help of a live-in servant, she also ran a boarding house. At the time of the 1901 census, they had five boarders.

The Magnet, now Farmers Hotel, was strictly for non-alcoholic liquid refreshment. Silver Street was a very suitable place for such an establishment, because just along the road (unfortunately not easily visible on this photograph) was the Temperance Hall.

This building has been many businesses over recent years and is now Bad Hair. The entrance to the Temperance Hall was originally centre front of the building but if you visit Bad Hair today, you may notice that to go into the Bad Hair salon you walk through a very thick outside wall, because the street door goes into what was originally a separate building.

The group of children on the left are standing in front of the New Inn. This pub closed shortly after the picture was taken and the building became the local headquarters of the Conservative Club. Later, the building later became one of the many antiques shops that were in Silver Street for a short period. It is now Bride by Design.

This picture has been coloured by hand. The tinting artist has made a very good job of colouring much of the picture, but perhaps he was working in poor light, because the Obelisk, at the end of the street, is green.