Warminster, Wiltshire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Warminster. You may be able to find further references to Warminster in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Warminster hundred Bartholomew
Warminster market town and parish Bartholomew
WARMINSTER a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred Imperial

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Warminster within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
William Cobbett Aug. 31st Aug to Sept. 4th, 1826: Salisbury to Highworth 10
William Cobbett Sept. 29th to Oct. 2nd, 1826: Ryall to Burghclere 5
William Camden Wiltshire and Hampshire 4
Daniel Defoe Letter 4, Part 2: Somerset and Wiltshire 4
William Cobbett Sept. 6th to 11th, 1826: Highworth to Malmsbury 1
Celia Fiennes Wiltshire and Dorset 1
Celia Fiennes Bath via Warminster 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Boreham 0 2
Upton Scudamore 0 2
Bishopstrow 1 2
Pitmead 0 1
Norton Bavant 1 2
Dilton 0 2
Westbury Leigh 0 3
Corsley 0 2
Longbridge Deverill 1 2
Westbury 4 3
Sutton Veny 0 2
Chapmanslade 0 2
Dilton Marsh 0 2
Heytesbury 10 4
Tytherington 0 2
Bratton 3 2
Hill Deverill 0 2
Horningsham 0 2
Longleat 1 2
Standerwick 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Warminster. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
GUERMESTRE John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
VERLUCIO William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
WARMINSTER John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
WERMINSTER William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.