WSHC blog

Tags >> garden

In November 2011, BBC TV will be broadcasting a series of four programmes based at Avebury Manor, a National Trust property in North Wiltshire set within the renowned, prehistoric stone circle of Avebury. The purpose of the collaboration between the National Trust and the BBC has been to restore parts of the interior of the Manor; features will include a Victorian kitchen, together with a kitchen garden of the same period. 

Avebury Manor
Avebury Manor
Ref: P45015

 


 In the centre of Devizes is an unassuming building, not very different from those red-brick houses flanking it. It has large, airy two-by-two pane sashes with typical segmental arches which contain a shaped keystone. Behind the net curtains can be glimpsed a cosy living room, and a pretty garden beyond. This is The Grange and it was once the old Devizes jail, or bridewell, in Bridewell Street.


The Old Bridewell, Devizes

 The Old Bridewell, Devizes

The Bridewell started life in 1579 as a timber-framed building in the street which now bears its name. It was established after the opening of the Bridewell prison in London in 1556 as a new type of prison to deal with the growing numbers of those regarded as rogues and vagabonds or the idle poor. This example had been followed in Oxford in 1562, Salisbury in 1564 and Norwich in 1565. It was burnt down twice and rebuilt: after a fire in 1619 and another more serious fire in 1630, but still in timber, much of which survives today.