Devizes

We have spent a short time in Devises which has been enjoyable in the sunshine. We took the Wadsworth brewery tour which included a visit to the sign writers shop, all the Wadsworth pub signs are still hand painted, no vinyl lettering or photos. There Coopers workshop, although they don’t have their own master cooper they employ a freelance one as required the do have a workshop and staff to repair their wooden barrels, this was followed to a trip to the stables to see their two Shire horses, I have never met such a friendly horse ever before, he just loves attention, like a great big dog. Of course the tour ends in their bar for sampling the product.

We also visited the Parish Church which was an interesting place as it has some drawings of the green man in it which of course was a pagan symbol for fertility. The town is absolutely full of interesting buildings that have a blue plaque on them. These are put up buy The Trust for Devizes and are paid for from money left to the trust by one of the council surveyors. There is more information on these buildings Here 

There are also a set of medieval town trail plaques in lots of the old streets and a leaflet about these is available from the Tourist Information Office

The local canoe club were very active in the bright sunny weather but I am not sure the water was that warn, however some of them did end up in the water and you can see a couple here standing on top of their canoes. That is only going to end one way.

This week Devizes are hosting a food festival and today was the first day with a food market, One of the things on offer was Devizes cheesecake which is suppose to be baked to a secret receipt only know in Devizes, but it looks as if someone told Google. They were selling it at £2 a slice at lunchtime, but when we passed again at half four it had dropped to 4 slices for a pound. That wont help the diet much.

Devizes is also home to the Wiltshire Museum, its not over large but it is very well laid out with some good exhibits. The museum building itself has been there since 1873. Some of their exhibits include gold from Stonehenge and stone age tools.