What to do with the kids in February!

Lots of workshops coming up at the Museum during February ...

YOUNG WANHS: Rock Detectives - Saturday 9 February. Be a Rock Detective: Discover more about rocks and fossils through a variety of activities. Sessions led by the Wiltshire Geology group. Using a variety of geological experiments and activities find out about different rock types, volcanoes, earthquakes and fossils.

HALF-TERM HOLIDAY ACTIVITY: Dinosaurs - Tuesday, 12 FebruaryDinosaur themed crafts - come and see our Fantastic Fossils exhibition and be inspired. Make Mammoth inspired brooches, fossil fabrics and bags and more.

HALF-TERM HOLIDAY ACTIVITY: Crafty Cards - Wednesday 13 FebruaryCome along and make a card for your Valentine, or a pop-up card, try quilling, or make a card just for fun.

HALF-TERM WORKSHOP: Their Past - My Present - Thursday, 14 FebruaryA junior genealogy workshop for 7-11 year olds interested in finding out about their family history. Workshop runs from 10.15am to 12.45pm.

GOING IN CIRCLES - FAMILY WORKSHOP - Sunday, 17 February

Have fun with geometry, mini-crop circles, face-painting and more ...   FREE EVENT.
To accompany the Measuring the Land exhibition in our Art Gallery, activities for all the family, including more about the myths, mystery and maths of crop circles, plus ....

Times and costs vary for workshops - check the website for details and book on-line.

Entry to the Museum will be FREE during the February half-term, Saturday 9 February to Sunday 17 February.  Check the website for opening times.

Saturday lecture - 'The Medieval Cistercian Abbey at Stanley and its Impact on the Region'

Saturday 9 February, 2.30pm, by Dr Graham Brown.

Nothing today survives of Stanley Abbey (near Chippenham) but this talk will explain more about the Abbey, the Cistercians and their methods of managing their lands.

The monastery was founded in 1151 in the royal forest of Chippenham and suppressed by Henry VIII’s commissioners nearly 400 years later in 1536. During this time the Abbey was influential in transforming the landscape, in some cases by clearing land, draining marshland and cultivating it, while in other cases they adopted an already exploited landscape and adapted it for their own needs. Stanley Abbey was a Cistercian monastery and the monks were distinctive in their ideals and their methods of managing their lands. Nothing survives today of the Abbey apart from some earthworks marking the position of the church and some conventual buildings. The monks acquired extensive tracts of land in Wiltshire.

Before retiring in 2010, Dr Graham Brown was a Field Archaeologist with English Heritage for eighteen years. He previously served in the Army for 29 years. He is co-author of a book on The Field Archaeology of Salisbury Plain Training Area (2002) and co-editor of The Avebury Landscape (2005), and has written several papers that have been published in the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine. He was awarded a PhD for his research on Stanley Abbey.

Booking:

Recommended. To contact us:
* Tel: 01380 727369 (office hours Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5pm)
* Send an e-mail.
* or book on-line – includes a booking fee.

Please note, payment is required with booking. We reserve the right to automatically cancel bookings 7 days before the lecture if payment has not been received.

Saturday afternoon lectures start at 2.30pm and last approx. one hour.

Our Lecture Hall is accessible via a lift if required, has a hearing loop and air conditioning. 

A ghostly winter walk ...

On Friday 1 February John Girvan will be leading another of his popular ghost walks around Devizes.  Meet 7pm Devizes Market Place.  Pre-booking recommended - contact the Museum for tickets - 01380 727369, wanhs@wiltshireheritage.org.uk or online.

Tickets cost £5.50 for adults and £3.50 for children.

Wiltshire Landowners in 1066

A Saturday afternoon lecture by Dr Chris Lewis -26 January 2013, 2.30pm.

We would understand the effects of the Norman Conquest much better if we knew more about who owned England in 1066 and what happened to them after the battle of Hastings. The names of pre-Conquest landowners were recorded in Domesday Book, but for the most part without distinguishing people of the same name among the confusion of Edwins, Godrics, Azurs, and Ælfstans. A research project at King’s College London is now systematically working through the material for the whole of England, identifying hundreds of individual landowners - great and small - for the first time. We are writing biographical profiles, creating maps and tables and widening our knowledge of English landed society at the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. This lecture presents the results for Wiltshire: it explains who owned Wiltshire in 1066 and suggests what happened to them when the Normans came.

Chris Lewis has been a Research Fellow at King’s College London since 2010, working on Profile of a Doomed Elite: The Structure of English Landed Society in 1066. He has published extensively on late Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, and previously worked for the Victoria County History in Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, and Sussex.

Lectures commence at 2.30pm and last approx. one hour.  The Lecture Hall is accessible via a lift if required, has a hearing loop and is air conditioned.

Book on-line, email wanhs@wiltshireheritage.org.uk or telephone 01380 727369 (weekdays Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm).

Visiting us this month?

We have temporarily made some changes to our opening times to allow us to focus on our exciting Prehistoric Wiltshire Galleries project. From 31 December the Museum will be CLOSED to visitors on Mondays and will open at 11am on Tuesdays.  

We will reopen on Mondays from 25 March.

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience, but it will be worth it once the new galleries open in early-Summer 2013.

For more information about our opening times, and charges - visit our website.

Young WANHS - an Introduction to Archaeology.

Saturday 12 January 10.15am to 12.15pm - for 7-14 year olds interested in archaeology and history. 

Come along and find out about excavating and recording archaeological objects, how to identify, measure, weigh and record them.  Learn about archaeological illustration and drawing sections.  Finally, create a mini acrylic canvas of an object.

The Young WANHS club is held on the second Saturday of the month from 10.15am to 12.15pm and pre-booking is essential.

If you would like more information about the club or activities, please contact the Education Officer, via email or on 01380 727369.

Cost:   £4 per child, per session