Warminster.-- market town and par., Wilts, on W. border of Salisbury Plain, 9 miles S. of Trowbridge and 20 miles NW. of Salisbury by rail, 6370 ac., pop. 5640; P.O., T.O., 2 Banks, 2 newspapers. Market-day, Saturday. Warminster derives its name from an ancient nunnery. It has a chapel of time of Edward I., an endowed grammar school, town hall, market house, &c. The making of broadcloth has long ceased, but there is malting, and a considerable local trade. Roman antiquities have been found.

(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))