On the outskirts of Bristol, there is a village that many of us have probably seen signs for or may even have travelled through. However, according to locals, it seems this South Gloucestershire spot is not a place where people stop.
Situated just off of the A4174 Ring Road, the properties on Warmley’s High Street are a mish-mash of architecture and structures from a range of dates and times gone by. If you take a walk down side streets you might find yourself in between two very different eras of homes or face to face with an old telephone box which look as though they could have been picked up from a moment in time and plonked down among the barbers, hair salons, Post Office, Tesco Express and the industrial estates that all call the village home.
Warmley locals tell us it has a few “random” elements to it. The village is home to its own ‘forest’, skate park, caravan dealer, wellness centre, memorial garden, timber yard, museum, dog agility centre, care home and even a surf shop.
There are also the less unusual village staples including a bakery, business centre, cake shop, pharmacy and petrol station. Then you have the local church, many a local pub, school and even a visitor centre for Bath Ales brewery.
And that’s before we’ve mentioned all of the businesses that have made their home in the industrial estates you’ll find here – from the British Red Cross’ First Aid Training to the Corum Office Park, bathroom suppliers, kitchen fitters, graphic designers and engineers.
It arguably appeals to a wide variety of age ranges and sits comfortably alongside lush countryside, while still having key links and bus and cycle routes into Bristol and Bath. But what keeps people here for so long? And what could entice people to stick around in the future?
‘A proper little village’ once upon a time
One business owner in the village is Mandy Shipp, who spoke to Bristol Live back in 2022. Ms Shipp said she has been working at the MJS Hair & Beauty salon in Warmley for some 30 years, coming here at the age of 16 and commuting from Brunel College (where she was training) to the village every day on her moped.
She lives in Staple Hill, just along the ring road, and told Bristol Live: “Warmley was a proper little village until the ring road was put in, now people just seem to cut through here on their way to places.
“The Tesco wasn’t there. Instead there were more shops – a butchers, a fancy dress shop and others.
“The house over the road has a bit of the feel that Warmley has – it’s a bit eccentric. It used to be offices and the flats next to it were originally the stable to the house, before becoming an electronics place – where you’d buy your appliances and pay for your electricity.
“Lots of people do commute into town from here and back again nowadays, and there are lots of people choosing to live here because, I suppose, the houses in the centre are a lot more expensive.”
Mandy added: “I like to get involved with the community. I have been doing hair for generations of the same families and so I know a lot of local people. I used to take my kids to the local panto at the village hall and there are a couple of schools nearby so it’s good for families.”
This village may be a place best-loved by its local residents, but the hustle and bustle of businesses is definitely bringing more people to this neck of the woods.
The social media generation
Another business which seems to be utilising Warmley’s location and traffic links to the best of its ability is Black Rose Barbers – one of two local barbers located on the main High Street.
Its owner Callum Thomas runs two branches – one in Keynsham where he has grown up and the other in the eye-catching black building along Warmley High Street. Formerly a beauty parlour named ‘Sepia’, the building is home to a business that has been passed down from one generation to the next.
Callum said: “My mum didn’t own the building but ran the business, Sepia, and I remember coming back from school and being sat down in front of the TV in this very building while my mum would do nails.
“Then when Sepia was gone and the woman who owned this building didn’t want it anymore, I jumped at the chance to turn it into my own business. It’s a great location because it is out of the way and people pass by and spot our building, which stands out like a sore thumb.
“Everyone comes through here on the way to work as it’s the road people would use to get to Bath and usually barbers will place themselves in busy town centres where there’s lots of competition and you could get a bit of rivalry and end up becoming a bit lost among them.
“So that’s why I have chosen here on the High Street. The good thing about being a barber is that you can place yourself anywhere nowadays – even your back garden – and with social media you’ll still get clients.”
Painted in black and gold, with an interior to match, stylish blue LED lighting, a basketball hoop on the wall and sports playing on the TV, it’s clear that Callum is offering something a bit different to the more traditional barber shops.
He told Bristol Live: “We take bookings, while the other barbers offer a walk-in service and we’re trying to appeal to a much younger audience by offering skin fades and beard trims.
“We try and up-market ourselves and get most of our work through social media and we’re getting sunbeds and offering botox here as well soon.
“Plus with the schools around here, we get a lot of younger customers who would rather pay that extra fiver and come here to get something a bit more modern. Then they tell their friends who tell their friends and so on.”
Callum brought many of his clientele to his Warmley branch from Keynsham, but told Bristol Live that many people in the village weren’t sure about his barber’s colour scheme when they first set up shop.
He said: “We had a few comments about having a black building. I think because Warmley is an ‘older area’ and locals wanted to keep a sense of authenticity.
“But we wanted it to stand out and I think Warmley is a bit of a ‘through town’ where people just drive past, so to have something which stands out a bit more means that potential clients will remember us and want to come back to check us out.”
Some of the residents going about their day to day work when we visited believed that maybe offering commuters more parking might make them stick around for longer, while others simply felt that Warmley was really a place for the people who live and work here.
Full of history
And, while more families are also looking to call Warmley home in modern times, the village still retains much of its history. Warmley has some minor landmarks and links to wartime, which historians from Bristol and further afield would be keen to explore.
The Kingswood Heritage Museum is the largest independent museum in South Gloucestershire and is located inside an 18th Century brass mill, complete with an ice house, windmill tower and gardens home to grottoes, echo pond and even an enormous statue of Neptune.
There’s an idyllic former pin factory and a war memorial. There’s even a wartime bunker.
Part of the Midland Railway (now the Bristol and Bath Railway Path) travels through the village, with its own station cafe that has served up celebrities and cyclists alike (and won awards for its loos) – and even a well-preserved signal box.
And the iconic ‘Webbs of Warmley’ sign that adorns the bricks by a block of flats is a symbol of the former bike shop that locals can’t bear to part with.
Sitting almost equidistant between the centre of Bristol and Bath, Warmley may very well be a village that people pass through on their way to other places, but it knows what makes it special and the people who live here know it, too.
This article was first published in January 2022 and was republished in February 2025.