WARMINSTER, an ancient market-town of Wiltshire, England, is situated on elevated ground, at the western extremity of Salisbury Plain, near the Somerset border, on the river Wily, and on a branch of the Great Western Railway, 17 miles south-west of Devizes, 21 north-west of Salisbury, and 105 south-south-west of London by rail. It consists chiefly of one street about a mile in length. The parish church of St Denys is an ancient stone structure of various styles, the south porch and tower being of the time of Edward III., the chancel Perpendicular, and the nave of the 18th century. It is now (1888) undergoing complete restoration at a cost of <£9000, the nave being in process of entire reconstruction. The town-hall was erected by the marquis of Bath in 1830. Among the benevolent institutions are the free school, established in 1707 by the first Viscount Weymouth, the missionary college of St Boniface (1860), the community of St Denys home (1866) for training young women to assist in missionary work, the Wilts reformatory for boys (1856), the cottage hospital (1866), the almshouses for four aged women (1873), and an orphanage. The town possesses a large silk mill, engineering and agricultural implement works, and malt-works. There is a considerable agricultural trade. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 6370 acres) in 1871 was 5786, and in 1881 it was 5640....
Warminster is probably of ancient British origin, and the neighbourhood is remarkable for the number of its barrows. The old Roman road from Old Sarum to Bath skirted Warminster to the north. Camden supposes it to have been the Roman Verlucio, and, although this conjecture is probably wrong, there can be no doubt that it was a Roman station of importance.. The barrows within the entrenchments at Battlesbury camp, a little to the east, indicate an earlier than Roman occupation, but the entrenchments were probably themselves the work of the Romans. A great variety of Roman remains have been found in the neighbourhood of the town. Warminster was a royal manor in the time of Edward the Confessor, and as such was free of taxes and assessments. In Domesday the name occurs as Guerminster. It then possessed 30 burgesses and probably a total population of over 400. It was bound to provide a night’s lodging for the king and all his retinue. Its early importance was chiefly owing to its situation at the junction of the roads from Bath, Frome, Salisbury, and Shaftesbury. It remained a royal manor till the reign of Henry II.
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