Wiltshire Museum

Wiltshire Museum has occupied a former grammar school and two adjoining Georgian houses on Long Street since the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, a charity founded in 1853, opened it in 1874. Its collection runs from Palaeolithic flints to medieval finds, but the pieces that draw people in are the Bronze Age gold ornaments recovered from Bush Barrow, near Stonehenge, alongside other objects excavated across the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. Director David Dawson and curator Lisa Brown oversee a programme of temporary exhibitions alongside the permanent archaeology and natural history displays. The museum is independent of council ownership, run by its founding society with support from grants, and is currently raising funds to move into the restored Devizes Assize Court. Long Street sits a short walk from the market place, past the canal basin.