Museum celebrates £150,000 grant success

Wiltshire Heritage Museum is celebrating an award of £150,000 to help create a new prehistory gallery at the museum.

The new gallery will feature Britain’s richest Bronze Age burial, found at Bush Barrow, near Stonehenge. The finds from the burial have been described by the Daily Mail as ‘Britain’s first Crown Jewels’ that once belonged to the ‘king of Stonehenge’. The gold finds will be on permanent display in Wiltshire for the first time in generations.

The Museum is home to the best Bronze Age collections in Britain, and the new displays will be at the heart of a revitalised museum, which will also feature a lift to enable access to all the museum displays. The new gallery will be developed in collaboration with the planned new Stonehenge Visitor Centre.

The award is of one of 34 Grants totalling £4 million from the DCMS / Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Scheme that will improve displays and facilities at 34 museums up and down the country. Culture Minister, Barbara Follett said, “We are fortunate to have so many excellent museums and galleries in this country, with fascinating collections and dedicated staff, providing a really great visitor experience for the public. These grants help ... good quality museum projects that will enhance displays and interpretation

Chairman Bill Perry said, “This substantial grant is a major step forward towards our goal of putting the gold objects from the Stonehenge Bush Barrow on permanent display and creating new galleries to display our important prehistoric collections. It is the first success in our fundraising campaign that we launched in May this year.”

Director, David Dawson said, “This is fantastic news for the Museum, our visitors and for Devizes. We are now working closely with English Heritage and Salisbury Museum on the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre, and our new displays will encourage thousands of people to discover Devizes”.

The Fundaising Campaign for the Museum was launched in May 2009 in a story carried by the Daily Mail and the Bush Barrow finds were featured in a BBC News report.

Find out more from the DCMS Press Release about the award.

Building Stonehenge - see the result!

Julian Richards led a very successful day building Stonehenge! Lots of people came to help, and we succeeded in building a complete trilithon - and you can see just some of the people who helped!

Many thanks to Pete Glastonbury who took the photographs.

Build Stonehenge in a Day! Bank Holiday Sunday

Come and help Stonehenge expert Julian Richards build Stonehenge at Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Long Street on Sunday 30 August 2009. Everyone will be able to help construct (out of cardboard and wallpaper) and decorate Trilithons and bluestones to recreate a smaller version of Stonehenge. The activity will take place in the Museum car park - or in the Lecture Hall if this summer's 'Barbour queue' weather continues. Come along at any time between 11am and 3pm. Entry is free.

Bank Holiday Film Show – Bringing Back Memories Of Devizes 40 Years Ago

Carnival Parade, 1969 and the Heart of Wiltshire, 1969 are the two films chosen by Devizes and District Cine & Video Club for this years Bank Holiday Monday Film Show. The films will be shown at 11am , noon, 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 3.30pm. Entry is free!

Devizes International Street Festival - Bank Holiday Monday!

It's the 10th anniversary of the festival and it will be the biggest ever with an evening finale of fireworks, lights and music presented by The World Famous. It's a big, family event, with continuous all day programme of international Street Arts and live music, kids entertainment, food, drink and festival stalls.

The Museum will feature a film show, and will have a stall in the Market Place for the day.

Bands include: No 1 Station, Gee Baby I Love You, Shooglenifty and the Jaipur Kawa Brass Band. The Street shows will include: Fraser Hooper, Nakupelle, Chapeau Magique, Musical Ruth, Bedlam Oz, Bicycle Ballet, Alice & Alice, Raz'Bitumes and many many more.

For more information, see theDevizes International Street Festival Website.

Rock and Fossil event - Bristol, 31 August

On Bank Holiday Monday, 31 August, between 10am and 4pm, the annual 'Rock & Fossil' event will take place on the Bristol & Bath Railway Path at Saltford near Bristol. This popular day provides an opportunity for the public to talk to experts about local rocks, fossils and minerals and to bring along some of their own examples to have them identified.

For more details, see the Geology in the West Country blog