Warminster, United Kingdom

The market at Warminster was the focus of the town's prosperity, with significant wool, clothing and malting trades established by the 16th century and continuing to be the economic backbone of the town until the 19th century. The market also included a significant corn trade throughout the period and was regarded as the second largest corn market in the west of England in 1830. Unlike many markets of the time where farmers would take only samples to market, Warminster's corn market required a sack from each load of corn to be available to customers; each purchase was to be agreed between 11am and 1pm and paid for by the end of the day.

The town had a large amount of accommodation for visitors to the market, and in 1686 it was ranked fourth for number of places to stay in Wiltshire, with 116 beds. By 1710 there were approximately fifty inns and alehouses in the town. The town was an early adopter of the Turnpikes Act to improve the roads around the town. Unlike many roads improved at the time which would link to towns, Warminster chose to improve seven roads around the town, all under 3 miles (5 km) long.

By the late 18th century some 200 dwellings had been built under squatter's rights near Warminster Common, many of them substandard and overcrowded. William Daniell, a 19th-century Methodist minister, reported the reminiscences of a woman born there in the 1770s: unplastered hovels with earth floors, and piles of filth which poisoned the Cannimore Brook, bringing typhus and smallpox. The people were considered rude and drunk criminals. Daniell and members of the clergy were keen to help the residents, and by 1833 the area was considered clean and respectable.

The town centre was redesigned after 1807 when George Wansey, from a family of clothiers in Warminster, left £1,000 (equivalent to £79,486 in 2025) to improve the town, provided his money could be matched by local fundraising. The amount raised was spent on demolishing houses to widen roads. In 1851, a railway line from Westbury was opened, and then in 1856 the line was continued to Salisbury. The railway had a devastating effect on the town's market, which fell away almost to nothing; the shops and inns lost most of their business, and the local industries declined.

In 1907, a committee was put together to advertise the town, creating a town guide and advertising in national publications. The committee could not come to an agreement with Lord Bath over the location of a new hotel.

The headquarters and factory of luxury glovemakers Dents moved to the town in 1937, where it has remained since.

Between 1937 and 1965, a significant military presence formed at Warminster, with the addition of camps, a permanent barracks at Battlesbury, married quarters, a School of Infantry, and workshops for vehicle repairs.