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Question
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Did Salisbury have a barracks in 1840?
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Question asked on
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17 March 2006
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Answer
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No, Salisbury has never been a garrison town in the sense in which Aldershot, Winchester or Portsmouth were, although there were many occasions on which troops were billetted in the city. The two regiments (the 62nd and 99th Regiments of Foot) which later combined to become the Wiltshire Regiment were originally raised elsewhere, and by the time of the merger in 1881 the regimental depot was at Devizes, in the Le Marchant Barracks, built in 1878. The nearest to Salisbury where the regiment has been stationed is Tidworth, at various times since the summer of 1914.
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Bibliography
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Gillson, R.M.T.: A short history of the Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh’s) (62nd and 99th Foot) from 1756 to 1936 (Gale and Polden, [1936]), p. 23
James, N.D.G.: Plain soldiering: a history of the armed forces on Salisbury Plain (Hobnob Press, 1987), p. 61 and ff.
Kenrick, N.C.E.: The story of the Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh’s) (Gale and Polden, 1963), p. 103.
