Warminster School

Warminster School, located on Church Street, was built between 1705 and 1708 and endowed in 1707 by the 1st Lord Weymouth, as noted by an inscribed tablet above the entrance. The building is constructed of local rubble with occasional ashlar blocks on the ground floor and wider yellow courses on the first floor. It features a plinth, a first-floor string course, and a moulded eaves cornice. Rusticated quoins are present, and the roof is tiled with coped verges and gable-end chimneys. The symmetrical facade has seven bays, with a slight central break. There are seven hipped dormers with two-light glazing bar windows. The ground floor features cross stone mullion and transom casement windows, which are slightly taller than those on the first floor; the three central first-floor windows retain original leaded glass.

A central doorpiece, attributed to a design by Christopher Wren from the 1670s or earlier, and originally from Longleat, was repurposed and modified for this building. It features Bath stone engaged Corinthian columns with an entablature and bracketed cornice. Half pilasters flank the jambs, with an architrave over the doorway, a carved keystone, and fruit and drapery swags in the spandrels.

The school is set back from the road, with a hipped lean-to addition to the left, featuring two ground floor windows. To the right is a three-story range in painted brick with a slate roof, likely dating to the early 19th century, with two windows on the upper floors.

Inside, a notable panelled room, possibly a staff room, contains an ornamental fireplace, also said to have originated at Longleat. Features include swagged Ionic capitals, flanking shell niches, an egg and dart cornice, and a ceiling painted by an Italian prisoner of war in 1944. The east front of the school follows a similar design but has a plainer central doorway within a simple stone surround. Small, square, rusticated piers mark the corners of the garden along Church Street, and they incorporate a 16th- to 17th-century female statue and fragments of a possibly 15th-century piscina. Similarly styled gate piers with ball finials are located on Ash Walk. A mid-19th century wall, approximately 16 feet high and constructed of coursed and squared stone, encloses a large area to the east, with a greenhouse on the north side. Notable former pupils include Dr Arnold and Dean Stanley.