Although the settlement of Warminster dates from Saxon times, the downs around the today's town were occupied by Iron Age people who left their earthworks, including hill forts and barrow mounds, behind them. Battlesbury Camp is one of the major Iron Age hill forts in Britain.
During the Civil War (1642-1645) the town is thought to have changed hands at least four times between the Royalist and Parliamentary supporters. When James II came to the throne in 1685 the local gentry and the Wiltshire Militia supported him against the Duke of Monmouth who was defeated.
When the writer William Cobbett visited the area in 1826 he found it a fertile and productive region of, for the most part, arable farming with also the rearing of thousands of sheep. He said the stock production yielded "beautiful meat - the best I have seen anywhere." And, he described Warminster as "solid and good."
During the First World War thousands of soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada were camped in the villages around Warminster, prior to the invasion of France. Sutton Veny and Codford have ANZAC cemeteries (here lay the victims of a flu epidemic) and an annual ANZAC Day service is held on the Sunday nearest to 25th April.
 
Today Warminster is still a busy and attractive Town
Following the demise of the Corn Market a host of rural and light industries developed including silk throwing, paint manufacture, banana ripening, barley breeding, greeting card production, gloving, shoe making, and packaging. Many of these have now, in turn, gone but the town has maintained its links as a military centre
Warminster today is a residential area with a population of approximately 20,000,. The architecture, based on local rubble stone, Chilmark and Bath stone, and brick and tiles from nearby Crockerton, reflect the days when Warminster was a busy coaching centre. Among the surviving buildings are the Anchor and Bath Arms inns and the Old Bell hotel.
Within easy distance of the town is Lord Baths Estate at Longleat famous for its Safari Park and Centre Parc.