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Roundway Abbess
Read moreIn around 670AD, a important Saxon lady was buried on Roundway Down, close to Devizes. She was laid to rest on a wooden bed, wearing
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School medal awarded at Frances Elliott’s School for Young Ladies
Read moreSilver school prize medal inscribed Mrs Elliott’s Ladies Boarding School, Devizes on one side and A Reward of Merit from Mr Burgess, teacher of dancing
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Devizes Castle
Read moreDevizes Castle features on the town’s crest and looms large in this market town’s history, but you would be forgiven if you walked past without
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Alfred Cunnington’s Private Telephone System
Read moreThis is the earliest commercial telephone in Britain, made by Alfred Cunnington in 1877 to connect his wine merchant business at the Old Town Hall
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Far from the Madding Crowd – 1967 film
Read moreMany scenes in the 1967 film of 'Far from the Madding Crowd' were shot in Devizes. The production turned Devizes Market Place back in time
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39-41 Long Street – who lived here before the Museum?
Read moreThe Wiltshire Museum is housed in 5 buildings - 2 Georgian town houses, a Georgian school, a Victorian entrance and a 1980's gallery. The buildings
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WW2 in Devizes: The Home Front
Read moreThis remarkable photograph shows the Parade held to celebrate 'Salute the Soldier Week' in early June 1944. US troops from their base on the outskirts
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WW2 in Devizes: Prisoner of War Diary
Read moreAlthough referred to as a diary, it is more accurately described as a humorous account of the daily life of a prisoner, written in rhyming
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Devizes 18th Century Annual Cucumber Feast
Read moreNo person shall be permitted to shew cucumbers raised in hot houses or stoves; they must prove the cucumbers to be of their own raising.
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George Eliot and Devizes
Read moreDuring work in our Library and Archive, one of our volunteers discovered some interesting connections between George Eliot and Devizes. Newspaper cuttings of Eliot’s visit
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Battle of Roundway Down
Read moreEngland. 1642. The First English Civil War has just begun with King Charles I fleeing London to Oxford after attempting to arrest members of Parliament
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Thomas Lawrence – the ‘go to’ Georgian portrait painter from Devizes
Read moreThomas Lawrence was born in Bristol in 1769 and moved to Devizes in 1773, when his father became landlord of the Bear Hotel. Devizes was
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Richard Sandell’s Bracket clock
Read moreThis bracket clock has pride of place in the Long Room of our Library. It has not worked for many years, but has been restored
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Norah Ussher
Read moreIn 1979, Alexis Taylor was sorting through her Great Aunt Norah’s belongings after her death. In a chocolate box titled ‘A present from Weymouth’ she
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The tale of Wiltshire Moonrakers
Read moreUS WUR CLEVERER THAN ‘E-AH, US DIDDLED ‘E ALRIGHT. In a pond up ‘Vizes way – smugglers ‘ad ‘idden a keg ‘o brandy & us
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Roundway Archer
Read moreBeaker from Roundway Down. A 3D model of the Roundway Beaker is featured on the BBC Civiliations Augmented Reality App – available for modern smartphones
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Half Length Portrait of an Unknown Man by Sir Thomas Lawrence
Read moreThomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was a portrait painter born in Bristol, and the youngest of 16 children. In 1772 the family moved to Devizes where Lawrence’s
Devizes
