This is a rather esoteric view of part of our local town of Devizes.
Devizes is some distance from the sea but on the longest day of 2009 one part of it was swarming with sea gulls.
This part was the small lake in the town which stands beside St James’ Church and is, for reasons unknown, called The Crammer.
At times, the Crammer is swimming with water fowl but I daresay they were busy elsewhere at this time. The Crammer doesn’t offer much scope in the way of nesting sites.
Across the road, on the Little Green an outdoor church service was getting under way.
The road in the background is called Southbroom Road. In places it has something of a Georgian look to it.
The service featured a brace of bishops. In purple we have the Anglican Bishop of Ramsbury whilst in mostly black we have the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clifton. In orange we have a local believer who seemed to be serving as the warm up act for the important chaps who followed.
Devizes Town Band - a few of them - provided the music for this event.
Back on Southbroom Road, we looked down a carriage arch.
Once upon a time the area behind Southbroom Road was a rabbit warren of alleyways and courtyards with terraces of tiny cottages and little workshops. That’s all gone now.
From Southbroom road we moved into Sidmouth Street where Roses the butchers have their premises and their lovely tile animals. These tiles have been moved on the shop premises because they were low down and getting damaged.
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Further down Sidmouth Street there is a small square called Albion Place.
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This little corner has a recent addition – the Devizes Pyramid. Once side concentrates on an association with sheep and another shows a castle – not like the present Victorian mock castle. The third side shows a narrow boat in a flight of locks. Rather nice, I think.
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That’s modern, but I think of Albion Pace as being a bit art nouveau in style.
A wrought iron balcony rests on a solid old porch. The shop fronts all have a balcony above as well.
The building at the far end of the place carries the name of composers near the top.
Some are not so well known.
These names continue onto the front of the building as well.
The building is now the home of the independent Devizes Books but of course, it has a musical past as befits a structure actually known as Handel House.
Of course, once upon a time this was a music shop but by the time I moved to the area in 1970, the music shop (run by the Oliver family) had moved into one of the smaller premises in Albion Place. It’s good to see the old names and traditions being kept.
But one gets the new as well as the old in this area. Devizes has the Wiltshire Police headquarters and the helicopter which doubles as an ambulance is kept at the HQ so frequently flies over.
If you stand in front of Handel House you look straight up Monday Market Street. I do not know when the Monday market was last held. Thursday is the main market day in Devizes.
We move on. The main shopping street in Devizes was The Brittox.
On a Sunday this is really not the main hub for many of the smaller shops stay closed on this day. It looks very quiet along the street which was pedestrianised in the 1970s..
Devizes High Street has never seemed all that major although I imagine it once was a main commerce area.
Our walk took us back to the Green in Devizes and an area with the unlikely name of ‘The Island
This area is near the multi junction which people still call the Blue Star Corner. There used to be a Blue Star Garage there but this has been a Quickfit tyre and exhaust centre for many years now. The Island does seem like a place of tranquillity in the hubbub of the main road interface in town.
It now was time for home so farewell from these odd little snippets of Devizes.
