Warminster Township is located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States and was formally established in 1711. It is 13.7 miles northwest of Philadelphia and had a population of 32,682 according to the 2010 U.S. census.HistoryThe town was called Warminster Township as early as 1685, before its borders were formally established in 1711. It was originally part of Southampton Township, which was founded in 1682 by William Penn. Warminster was named after a small town in the county of Wiltshire, at the western extremity of Salisbury Plain, England. Warminster, Pennsylvania was mostly settled by English and Scotch-Irish after William Penn received a grant of land in the area from King Charles, II.Warminster began as a small farming community and remained that way throughout most of its history. As recently as 1955, the township had no residential subdivisions and only one housing complex, Lacey Park on Street Road, the site where the Battle of Crooked Billet occurred during the Revolutionary War that resulted in a resounding defeat for George Washington's troops.Warminster's Craven Hall is included in the National Register of Historic Places listings in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Warminster's most significant historical figure was William Tennent, an outspoken religious leader and educator.Warminster's Naval Air Warfare Center, previously called the Johnsville Naval Air Development Center and then the Naval Air Development Center, operated from World War II until it closed in 1996. Its site was acquired by the U.S. Navy from the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation in 1943. The Center initially served as a weapons development and airplane testing facility. It then became a training center for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. The facility developed a prototype "black box," best known as the indestructible recorder of cockpit conversations and information in the event of a crash.
