Events from your Community

Are your family holiday snaps fading? Have pests nibbled the only image of your Victorian great-grandmother? Are you struggling to store those glass lantern slide photographs you inherited? Book in to our workshop and join archive conservator Sophie Coles to learn about the best way to look after your photographs followed ...more

Workhouses, prisons and asylums could be very grim places – they conjure up images of Oliver Twist, hard labour and ice baths. They could also be very un-Dickensian: some workhouses even gave tobacco to their inmates or paid for the men to be shaved by a barber. The records of these institutions can give you an invaluable ...more

VE Day and the aftermath of the Second World War marked the beginning of a huge period of change across the country, from ‘slum’ clearances and ambitious building programmes to the beginnings of the permissive society and sweeping social change. This talk will introduce you to how these issues affected Wiltshire and ...more

Have you ever looked at the names on signposts or on a map and wondered what they meant? Place names have been called ‘signposts to the past’ and they can reveal a surprising amount of information. This talk will help you interpret the names you see around you and shares the hidden meanings of some of Wiltshire’s ...more

Join County Local Studies Librarian Julie Davis for an introductory hands-on explore of the Local Studies collection at Devizes Library. Ask questions, find out about Julie’s personal favourites and locate useful items for local, family and house history. Discover the library’s history gems and become more confident about navigating and accessing this wonderful collection. Free. more

Wiltshire is known as the county of Chalk and Cheese, and is well-known for its cheese and dairy industries. We are celebrating Local History Month this year with local cheese maker Ceri Cryer who has revived the traditional Wiltshire Loaf, a semi-hard cheese popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, which she makes at the ...more