Once again the Arts Society has joined with other local organisations to sponsor and decorate a Christmas tree at St John's church. The theme of our tree this year is Christmas Time and the tree is decorated with clocks, watches and quotations about time. Do visit the Exhibition; it is a lovely place to take grandchildren and is open every day. There are lots of trees there from local schools and organisations.

During the 2022/23 year six members of the Arts Society heritage group made Iron Age clothing for children visiting Devizes Museum, either as part of a school group or as independent visitors, to wear. Items made include tunics, dresses, skirts and cloaks. The group was surprised to find on researching the project, that people living in the Iron Age wore brightly coloured garments of linen in red and blue; they even had plaid fabric.

Members of the museum Young Explorers group were very happy to model the costumes though whether they actually wore baseball caps in the Iron Age is a point to be pondered.

Hopefully our members will take their children, grandchildren and friends’ children to our wonderful museum to try the costumes themselves.

Thank you to all who contributed materials for the project.

Any members who would like to be involved with future heritage projects should initially contact theartssocietydevizes@gmail.com

Although The Arts Society UK has a long history of successfully achieving in this area, the National Congress decided not to continue funding these projects. While the projects can still continue, funding is now up to individual groups and the church or diocese. Another important consideration is that the insurance that usually covered these projects no longer applies. Hopefully this would be covered by the church.

We are still looking for volunteers to continue our joint work with Pewsey Vale.

On 1st May 2022 the Devizes and Pewsey Vale Church Recording Group presented our latest church record to the Church of St. Peter, Milton Lilbourne.

We have now completed the records on six local churches:

• The Church of St Peter, Milton Lilbourne — May 2022
• St Peter’s Church, Charlton St Peter — November 2019
• St Stephen’s Church, Beechingstoke — May 2018
• St Andrew’s, Etchilhampton — March 2016
• St Matthew’s Church, Rushall
• St Nicholas’ Church, Wilsford.

An album containing more photos from our church recording activities can be viewed by clicking here .

Members of The Arts Society Devizes, working with colleagues from The Arts Society North Wiltshire, have completed the third phase of making children’s replica costumes for the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes.

Pleas to members of both Societies produced a wide range of fabrics, haberdashery and jewellery all of which were put to very good use in recreating costumes of both the medieval and Tudor periods. The costume design work was led by Sue Flood of The Arts Society Devizes and the overall production coordinated by Jennie Harding of The Arts Society North Wiltshire.

Seamstresses from both societies produced a wide range of costumes the purpose being to create examples of clothing from all classes of society so children visiting the museum are able to appreciate the contrast between the lives of the poorer and wealthier people.

The garments have been designed and produced with great skill and imagination, workers taking home donated material and returning with caps, aprons, ruffs, bodices and beautiful gowns and breeches, all of which can be seen and worn at the Museum.

We hope to engage in further production of costumes in the coming seasons.

This relatively new area of volunteering is designed to provide a more interesting way of letting people of all ages know more about various important historical venues around them by checking their powers of observation. The Trail sheets are also available online.

Our latest is at the request of St Mary’s Trust in Devizes, before the church is rearranged to become a multi-purpose venue. Our group of volunteers are: Sue Tovey, Cherry Wedrychowski, Anna Bishop and Rosanne Russell.

The Arts Society Devizes launched its first church trail for children at All Saints’ Church in West Lavington.

In January 2015 we welcomed 48 seven to nine-year-olds from Dauntsey Academy Primary School to All Saints’ Church, West Lavington to take part in the society’s first trail. School staff and members of The Arts Society Devizes, led by Anji Scofield, helped the children with their trail, having fun finding out about the church and answering questions such as ‘where is the holy washing up done?’. It was wonderful to see the children have so much fun learning about the building and its history.

The trail guides visitors round the church looking at its architecture, history and furnishings with the aim of encouraging people to explore and learn about the building, so that they are inspired to visit other churches.

The trail can be completed at any time the church is open, with trail sheets available for people to use. The PDF copy of the trail sheet can also be viewed by clicking here. An album containing more photos of our church trails can be viewed by clicking here.

Our aim is to cover as many of the significant places in Devizes and the surrounding area, beginning with St Mary’s and going on to St John’s and St James. If you are a church member and would like us to undertake one for your place of worship, please contact us on our e-mail: theartssocietydevizes@gmail.com