We recently visited Devizes which is a lovely market town in Wiltshire.
First of all we headed to the Wiltshire Museum which is in the town centre. Its free for children and if you have English Heritage membership you can get in for half price.There is plenty of town centre parking but the museum itself does not have its own car park. There had museum trail booklets that the children could do going round and when completed they got rewarded with a sticker. As you enter there is an exhibition area about the Romans with mosiacs, Roman artifacts and dressing up things which the boys enjoyed. From there you go through to an exhibition all about the stone age, which Wiltshire kind of specializes in. The museum is really hands on so you could look through microscopes,, put together pieces of pottery, make Stonehenge out of foam blocks etc in this area. They also had gold items from the time of Stonehenge which had recently been found. The museum covers various time periods from Victorian schooling to the English civil war, the Bronze age, prehistoric, etc and has some reconstructed huts and a "Barrow" which children can go inside. The boys dug for fossils, made flour, did brass rubbings, dressed up, coloured, drew and generally had fun doing all the different interactive things on offer. The museum is not that big so an hour or so would probably be long enough to see it all. They have a small shop on site as you exit which had various things themed around the Stone age. From here we headed to the nearby Hillworth Park on Queens Road which has had a recent £20 million pounds investment in it. It was great for all ages with the park split into a play area and equipment for the under tens, tennis and basketball courts, a play area for older children including a climbing wall and zip wire etc, and an outdoor gym area for all to use. It also had a reflection pond, cafe and aviary with cockatiels, budgies, love birds etc in it and lovely gardens. The park is free and has adequate free parking spaces. Finally we visited the Caen Hill Locks which are just outside of Devizes. You follow the Bath road following signs for Rowde. The Caen Hill Locks are a flight of 29 locks that rise 237 feet in under 2 miles and are worth a visit if you are in the area. There is a car park on site which is owned by British Waterways and you can get a ticket from the Cafe located at the top of the flight of locks. The cafe sells really nice ice cream which was a real hit with the boys and it was a lovely area for a walk. Due to the sheer number of locks many of the narrow boat owners appreciate a helping hand to open and close the lock gates and were very accepting of the boys helping them. There are lots of side ponds with various waterfowl in them and there are lots of signs telling you about the wildlife that can be seen in the area. Devizes turned out to be a lovely town that easily kept the boys amused for the day and I'm sure there are other places to visit in the town that are also worth seeing. |
About Me.I'm Ruth. A mum to two boys and a believer of learning through experiencing. Archives
October 2016
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