ARTICLE BY DANNY HOWELL IN WILTSHIRE PHAB MAGAZINE
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The Wiltshire PHAB Magazine, issue No.38, for June to August 1989, features an article by Danny Howell on The Lake Pleasure Grounds in Warminster. The article is an edited version of the account which was included in the Warminster & District Archive magazine, No.4, 1989. There are no photographs with the PHAB article but the cover of this issue of the PHAB magazine features a line drawing of the Bandstand, Boat House, and Lake, as drawn by Ken Bettany in 1977.
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The PHAB article reads as follows:
.Warminster is particularly lucky to have a really pleasant and delightful park so close to the town centre. It boasts a large boating lake with two islands and several breeds of ducks, a putting green, a bandstand, tennis courts, and the King Edward V Memorial Playing Fields with a paddling pool for children. Many residents and visitors alike have proclaimed the park the best in any they have seen during their travels round the world. This compliment is all the more remarkable when you consider that this part of Warminster was formerly the town’s refuse dump.
.The Lake Pleasure Grounds, to give the park its proper name, were originally laid out in 1924. The idea for this amenity had been suggested some 13 years previously, as a way of commemorating the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary (1911), but the First World War delayed any progress. It wasn’t until after the hostilities that plans were put into operation. The cost of constructing the Park was £8,000; half of which met the wages of those employed. Mr. C.H. Lawton, the Surveyor to the Warminster Urban District Council, devised, planned and supervised the scheme which saw the removal of the rubbish dump. The lake is filled with water from the Were, a small stream, which flows through the Park (where it is known as the Swan River) and later joins the River Wylye at Calveswater. The Were rises near Cley Hill and gives its name to the town of Warminster, which was formerly known as ‘Worgemynster’ (which means the minster or Saxon church on the River Were).
.The Lake Pleasure Grounds remain to this day a source of enjoyment for young and old. A recent addition in the park has been the Lakeside Centre, below the slope of the Ridgeway, as a meeting place for the town’s senior citizens. Everything blends into the attractive surroundings of the well-tended gardens, always ablaze of colour and interest and a living credit to the Council gardeners who help to make Warminster such a delightful place to live, work and relax in.
.D. Howell.
