The Old Bell Hotel

A Memory of Warminster.

Well not my memories exactly, but those from my father's diaries. He was John Welch and married a Peggie Richens who had grown up in Warminster. They married in the Minster Church and he left immediately for the war. When he came back he was stationed in Westbury for a while and wanted to make the area his home. He spoke of having tea and going to dances at the Old Bell. The entries stopped and in his next diary he was back in Essex, but we stayed at the Old Bell in the early 50's and although small I can remember coming out of the door and walking through the colums, which seemed huge then. We visited the Jeffries, Audrey Jeffries still lives there and an Aunty Biddy came to see us and we visited The Frazers who ran a small school in the area. She had married and remarried but we still called them by that name. They had a small girl called Nicola but I don't know what happened to all these people. Some moved on and some left us for good. They seemed good times, they were holidays and the weather always seemed sunny.