We continue looking at former shops of Warminster in our closing weeks of our Then and Now series on the town.
This week we move just along the road from Lucas and Foot, the subject last week, to look at Kendrick's in the Market Place.
The town hall in Warminster was the focal point of the town's business and social life in 1898 and remained so up until the 1960s.
Next to the town hall in 1898 was the property of Herbert Turner's house furniture and china shop.
Later this was Turners and Willougby, a store that specialised in nursery furniture.
The fully glazed showroom on the upper floor, facing the Market Place, was a vast showroom displaying a full range of perambulators.
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Later this property was shared between a drapers and an electrical shop.
Paddocks was the name of the drapers, where the women of the town used to buy all the items to make clothing as well as furnishing drapes.
The electrical shop was Kendrick's, selling all sorts of electrical goods. It was the third store in the town to stock television sets.
The two shops eventually became one as A Kendrick and Co and were remodelled, losing the glass-fronted showroom and revealing the original upper windows of the property.
The shop closed for business before 1980.
The site next to the historic town hall, modelled on Longleat House, was redeveloped in a controversial style in 1980.
Today the site is taken up by Halifax building society and the Oxfam shop, while until recently the shop next door was home to Barnardos.
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