Warminster (/ˈwɔːrmɪnstər/) is a historic market town and civil parish in south-west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain.

The High Street and Market Place have many fine buildings including the Athenaeum Centre, the Town Hall, St Lawrence Chapel, The Old Bell and a variety of independent shops.

The origin of the root Wor is wara, the genitive plural of the Old English noun waru meaning "those that care for, watch, guard, protect, or defend."

Their specific ethnonym is unknown, though it likely was related to the native name of the oppidum at Battlesbury Camp during Sub-Roman times.

The town's name has evolved over time; it was known as Worgemynstre in the early tenth century and was recorded as Guerminstre in the Domesday Book.

[2] The noun minster derives from Old English mynster meaning monastery, nunnery, mother church or cathedral, and was given to the town by Saxon settlers in the seventh century.

[3] By the 10th century, Warminster included a royal manor and an Anglo-Saxon minster, with the residents largely associated with the estate.

[4] 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.

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 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.

[7] 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.

[16] The Baptist chapel in North Row, off the High Street, was built in 1810 using red brick with stone dressings; by 1829 there were 250 in the congregation.

[21] St George's Roman Catholic Church, Boreham Road, in the Diocese of Clifton, was built in 1922 to designs of Bristol architect Sir Frank William Wills.

[22] James Erasmus Philipps, vicar of St Denys from 1859 to 1897, raised funds in 1860 to found a college for young men in a house on Church Street.

[25] Warminster has one Grade I listed building: Portway House, to the north of the town centre, built for a wealthy clothier in 1722.

The Bath stone house has a seven-bay front flanked by later extensions, and is set back from the road behind ornamental ironwork dated 1760.

[34] The Athenaeum Centre, designed by William Jervis Stent and built in 1857, is Wiltshire's oldest working theatre and has been showing films since 1897.

[41] The former hamlets of Bugley (west of the town on the Frome road) and Boreham (east towards Bishopstrow) are now part of Warminster's suburbs.

[43] The Domesday survey of 1086 recorded 104 households,[2] largely craftsmen for the royal demesne, but the population had grown by 1377 to 304 poll-tax payers, making Warminster the tenth largest village in Wiltshire.

[3] Warminster's clothing trade suffered greatly in the early 19th century, as there was no suitable river to power machinery during a period of industrialisation.

[48] The coming of the railway line from Westbury in 1851, continued to Salisbury in 1856, had a devastating effect on the town's market, which fell away almost to nothing, and the shops and inns lost most of their business.

However, by that year the town had begun to adopt new trades in brewing and iron-founding, which eventually grew enough to mitigate the loss of other business.

[4] During the 20th century, Warminster's economy became more dependent on the British Army and its associated service industries, but other new businesses also came into the area, such as intensive poultry farming, banana ripening, and shoe manufacture.

[4] Warminster has a library, museum, theatre, sports centre with pool, and a selection of independent shops and restaurants, as well as a thriving community, including a choral society called 'The Athenaeum Singers'.

Annual events in the area include an illuminated carnival, a vintage bus run and heritage open days.

[50] Facilities at the Lakeside Pleasure Grounds (run by Warminster Town Council) include children's play activities, tennis courts, a skate park, children's splash pool and a boating lake leading to the Henford's Marsh nature reserve;[51] the park was opened by Thomas Thynne, 5th Marquess of Bath, in 1924 on the site of the town's former rubbish tip.

[52] About 4 miles (6 km) to the west is Longleat, the country house of the Marquess of Bath, and its estate which has included Longleat Safari Park since 1966; the first drive-through safari park outside Africa, it is home to over 500 animals, including giraffes, monkeys, rhinos, lions, tigers and wolves.

[61] The licence was first held from 2001 by 3TR FM (Three Towns Radio; referring to Warminster, Westbury and Frome) but from 2008 went through several changes of ownership and station name.

[79] Warminster Town Football Club began around 1878 and the site at Weymouth Street was renovated and expanded in the 1990s;[80] they play in Division One of the Western League.

[81] The Marquess of Bath is the President of Warminster Rugby Club which began in 1977 and in 1997 established its base at the West Wilts District Council owned Folly Lane multi-sports site.