Devizes

Devizes, a municipal borough of Wiltshire, near the Kennet and Avon Canal, 50 miles WSW. of Reading, and 20 ESE. of Bath. It lies high at the mouth of Pewsey Vale, between the thinly peopled tracts of Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs. According to Dr Gnest, the old name Divisa or Ad Divisas marked the ancient boundary between the English and Celts; anyhow, as a town, Devizes owes its origin to a splendid castle built here by Bishop Roger of Salisbury about 1132. It was stormed by Cromwell in 1645, and now is represented by mere fragments. There are two churches with much interesting Norman work; a market-cross (1814), commemorating God's judgment on a perjurer in 1753; a fountain with a statue of Sothern Estcourt (1879); a good museum; and a large corn exchange (1857). It has manufactures of snuff and malt, and is the seat of an important corn-market. From Henry VIII.'s time till about 1820 Devizes was a great cloth mart; now its chief manufactures are snuff and agricultural implements. It returned two members till 1867, then one till 1885. Pop. (1851) 6554; (1891) 6426. See A History of Devizes (1859).