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Warminster

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Warminster
Statistics
Population: 20,100
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:ST875455
Administration
District: West Wiltshire
Shire county: Wiltshire
Region: South West England
Constituent country:England
Sovereign state:United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county: Wiltshire
Historic county: Wiltshire
Services
Police force: Wiltshire Constabulary
Fire and rescue: {{{Fire}}}
Ambulance:Great Western
Post office and telephone
Post town: Warminster
Postal district: BA12
Dialling code: 01985
Politics
UK Parliament: Westbury
European Parliament: South West England
Image:Flag of England.svg

Warminster is a town in western Wiltshire, England, by-passed by the A36, and near Frome and Westbury. It has a population of about 20,000 and is part of the West Wiltshire district.

Contents

[edit] History

The town was first settled in the Saxon period, though there are the remains of numerous earlier settlements nearby, including the Iron Age hill fort Battlebury Camp and Cley Hill, the latter a site operated by the National Trust.

The town's prosperity following the growth of the wool trade in the Late Middle Ages caused the erection of many magnificent structures, including the Minster Church of Saint Denys, in a yew grove sacred from pre-Christian times, and including an organ originally destined for the then under-construction Salisbury Cathedral.

In the 1960s and early 1970s Cradle Hill became famous as the centre of a flap surrounding UFOs and crop circles with at least one author claiming that as many as 5000 UFOs had been witnessed in the area.

It is perhaps related that Warminster is the home of the Warminster Training Centre — formerly the Army's School of Infantry — and abuts Salisbury Plain, which is dotted with Royal Artillery training ranges.

[edit] Further reading on the UFO phenomena

[edit] Supportive

  • Shuttlewood, Arthur (1978). The Flying Saucerers. London: Sphere Books.
  • Rogers, Ken (1994). The Warminster Triangle. Warminster: Coates and Parkers. ISBN 0-9531753-3-2.

[edit] Skeptical

  • Dewey, Steve and John Ries (2006). In Alien Heat: The Warminster Mystery Revisited. San Antonio, Texas, US: Anomalist Books. ISBN 1-933665-02-5.

[edit] External links


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