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Question
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In one of his books, Ralph Whitlock refers to a lost village called Warminster Green , near to Downton. Where was it, and are there any traces of it today?
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Question asked on
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04 July 2011
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Answer
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Originally part of the Downton tithing within the parish of Downton Warminster Green was by the nineteenth century one of the three main settlements comprising the village of Redlynch. Andrews and Dury's map of 1773 shows development on the northern edge of the green and at Bohemia (then marked as Bohema) as well as Redlynch proper. A Wesleyan chapel was established there in 1812, the parish church of St Mary in 1837 and a National school in 1839. Development continued in the nineteenth century around the triangle of roads forming the village, including The Foresters' Arms public house, a vicarage, a new school in 1878 and a church hall in 1912.
Why was the village called Warminster Green? 'The place-names of Wiltshire' offers no specific suggestions: the name means “the church by a winding riverâ€. Whether this is a reference to the church at Downton which, in 1086, was in effect a minster church, or to a now-lost chapel by the unnamed tributary of the Blackwater River to the north of the village must remain an open question. Odder still is that by 1876 the village was known as Lover, and, again, 'The place-names of Wiltshire' is silent on the meaning, though 'The Redlynch book' suggests strongly that Lover is a corruption of 'lower', as in 'Lower Redlynch'. This explains why the name is pronounced to rhyme with clover rather than plover, though I believe the post-office used to do a roaring trade postmarking social communications around St Valentine's Day, and it may still do.
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Bibliography
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Andrews, John and Dury, Andrew: Andrews’ and Dury’s map of Wiltshire, 1773: a reduced facsimile. (Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1952; WRS vol. 8).
Gover, J.E.B. and others: The place-names of Wiltshire (Cambridge UP, 1939; EPNS vol. 16)
Crowley, D.A.: A history of Wiltshire, vol. 11: Downton Hundred; Elstub and Everleigh Hundred. (Oxford UP for the Institute of Historical Research, 1980; VCH 11).
Ordnance Survey: Wiltshire Sheet LXXVII NW. Sc. 6â€: 1 mile = 1: 10 560. Edition of 1927 (Ordnance Survey, 1927.
Pasmore, R., editor: The Redlynch book (Redlynch: Redlynch Map Project Group, 1989), p. 5.
