Warminster's Museum will also suffer from reduced hours.

The recently announced cuts in Library hours will also have

an impact on the Dewey

Museum, housed within the

same building.

Warminster is lucky to have a free museum right in the middle of

the town.  It means it is easy for people

to wander in and out, as often as they like, spending as much or as little time as is available. 

 But how many people know what treasures can be found there?  Who has seen the drawers full of fossils or

the centuries old coins found in a field? 

What about the remains of the Roman villa found at Pit Meads and what

was it they found when the Bypass was built?

 The museum is named after Harold Dewey who served on the

council from 1919-68 and acquired a local history collection which forms

the basis of the exhibits.  

 Like all museums it has much more in its store than it is

able to display.  An upstairs room has

rows of boxes carefully labelled and stacked on shelves. Curator Alwyn Hardy has specially marked one box which he says he will

rescue if the fire alarm sounds.  It

contains a Sunday School Day Book with records created in 1786. 

 One of the most remarkable collections, given by Victor

Manley, is kept in a specially made chest of drawers.  Mr Manley, b 1889, was a teacher at Sambourne School and a keen amateur archaeologist.  He presented his collection of fossils to the

Council in 1928 to be displayed in the Town Hall.  Carefully laid out in the glass topped

drawers are specimens from eight geological strata. Apart from five small

gastropods and a sea pen most of the names are unpronounceable.

 The Museum also houses pieces of old agricultural equipment

like the wooden breast plough hanging on the wall. An enormous shiny metal

helmet raises the question of how impossibly hot it must have been to wear near

the flames?

 An amazing map pinpoints the exact places where ancient coins

have been found around Norton Bavant.  A

Mr Taylor discovered them over a period of 30 years and the 40 or so coins are

also on display.  They raise the question

of how much more is there still to be found buried in the fields or under our

houses?

 One discovery was made in 1785 when the remains of a Roman

Villa were unearthed at Pit Meads in a field which had been known to be full of

stones.  Some of the fragments picked up

are on display alongside a reconstruction and drawings of the patterns on the

tiles.

 Why not brighten a dark winter day by a browse around the

Museum before the library’s opening hours are cut?

Picture gallery to follow.