External lectures, talks and walks

We offer a range of talks to a range of groups and societies, including local history societies.

Standard talks include:

• Gold from the Time of Stonehenge -  the Wiltshire Museum is the home of the best Bronze Age collections in Britain. The talk outlines the remarkable craftsmanship and stunning objects found with the burials of the chieftains, important women and priests who used Stonehenge for their ceremonies.
• The Story of Stonehenge
• Wiltshire's White Horses - Wiltshire boasts 13 white horses, carved into the chalk hills, out of a total of 24 in Britain.  Several of them are well known to the people of Marlborough, being very visible to motorists going about their daily business.  David will be talking about the stories of Wiltshire’s White Horses and their impact in the landscape. He will also touch on the ways that they have been interpreted by artists, including Eric Ravilious, featured in a record-breaking exhibition held at the Wiltshire Museum in 2021.
  
• Un/Common People: Folk Culture in Wiltshire - Wiltshire is rich in folklore with songs, stories, customs and folk crafts scattered across the landscape. These folk traditions have been collected, shared, embraced, forgotten, re-invented and re-imagined over time and many more traditions are being created right into the 21st Century. In this talk, explore the folklore of Wiltshire through stories and objects displayed as part of the touring Un/Common People: Folk Culture in Wessex exhibition. Find out more about folklore collections in the archives, the stories, songs and folk art shared throughout Wiltshire's history and the vibrant traditions and customs taking place in Wiltshire today.
• John Piper in the South West - Wiltshire Museum are launching an exhibition in March 2026 to celebrate how the artist John Piper (1903-92) responded to the landscape and architecture of the south-west of England, including Devizes, his favourite market town. Piper’s work is widely popular and this exhibition is an opportunity to demonstrate the diversity of the inspiration he found in the landscapes of Wiltshire and Dorset, with loans never before displayed in the area illustrating a wide range of subjects from the neolithic monuments of Avebury and Salisbury Plain, to the 18th century gardens of Stourhead, the grandeur of Lydiard Park and the Jurassic profile of the Isle of Portland. Barrows, grand houses, townscapes, church architecture and elemental landscapes will all feature in an exhibition that explores the heart of Piper’s vision.
• WW2 in Devizes
• The Story of Devizes - with a focus on the archaeology of the town
  
• Devizes Then and Now - historic photographs
• The Making of the Kingdom of Wessex: Saxon Wiltshire - David looks at the evidence from North Wiltshire of how the Saxons came to settle in England as the power of the Roman Empire had faded and England had become a failed state. Men and women were buried with their treasured possessions that showed their status in life, providing a vivid picture of how society was organised. The coming of Christianity and the rise of the Kingdom of Wessex was challenged by Viking invaders, before King Alfred led the fight-back, leading to a flowering of learning and culture.
• Devizes Assize Court - a new home for the Wiltshire Museum. Including updates on the latest developments in this exciting project
• Devizes Castle - Norman Stronghold to Victorian Folly.Tracing the story of Devizes Castle, once the stronghold of Empress Matilda in the first Civil Ware with King Stephen. The talk also looks at how the castle was brought back to life in the 1900’s.
• Eric Ravilious and Wiltshire (linked to our Eric Ravilious: Downland Man exhibition held from Oct 2021-January 2022)
• Eric Walrond: a Caribbean Author in Wiltshire - The story of Eric Walrond, the award-winning author of Tropic Sun, who was at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance, an Africa American cultural movement that flourished in the New York of the 1920s. He came to Wiltshire to live in Bradford on Avon, worked in a factory in Melksham and spent time in Roundway Hospital, Devizes.  Eric was the subject of an exhibition at Wiltshire Museum in 2024 and the talk examines his time in Wiltshire during WW2, his experiences of racism, his writing and the political issues he sought to tackle.

We can bring data projector and screen. We normally ask for a £45 donation plus travelling expenses.

Many of the talks are given by our Director, David Dawson. This is a short biography - David is the Director of the award-wining Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, and is an archaeologist who has worked in museums in Sussex, Canterbury and Oxfordshire. For more background, please see David's staff page.

Walks and tours

We can offer a number of walks to local archaeological sites, including Marden Henge, West Kennet Long Barrow, North Wessex Downs (Alton Barnes White horse, Adam's Grave and Knap Hill) and the Stonehenge Landscape. Contact us for details.