Bed and breakfast availability
Devizes b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Devizes and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Devizes, Wiltshire. An old market town situated on the edge of the downs, Devizes is an attractive place to spend time, and a good centre. The town first grew in importance after the old Norman castle was built, but this was later destroyed - or “slighted” as he liked to put it - by Cromwell, and a 19^th-century crenelated edifice has been built on the same site.

Although there are l6^th-century buildings in Devizes, as, for example, the Elm Tree Inn, the town is particularly rich in l8^th-century building. Brownstone House dates from this time, as do the Wool Hall and Greystone House. The Bear Hotel is particularly interesting. During the 18^th century Thomas Lawrence, who put posts to guide travellers across the plain from Salisbury, was the landlord here. It became a fashionable hotel and Mrs Siddons, Mrs Thrale and Fanny Burney all admired the landlord's charming small son, who later became Thomas Lawrence the painter.

In the large Market Place the cross erected in 1814 is interesting for the moral story it tells. Ruth Pierce asked Heaven to strike her dead if she lied during a quarrel over money. Heaven obliged: “She instantly fell and expired”, reads the inscription.

Devizes has three extraordinarily attractive churches. St John's dates back to the 12^th century with a Norman tower. In the 15^th century the nave was rebuilt and aisles added. There are also 16^th-and l9^th-century additions. The Beauchamp Chapel is particularly lovely and holds many monuments. The Norman stone vaulting to the chancel is interesting. St Mary's boasts a stone-vaulted 12^th-century chancel, but the nave, aisles and tower were rebuilt in 1436. St James's has a handsome late-Perpendicular tower, but the church was mainly rebuilt in 1832.

There are some agreeable walks round the town, either down the Kennet and Avon Canal, which has 29 locks between Devizes and Caen Hill, or to Roundway Down, where the Round-heads were beaten in a battle in 1643. Oliver's Castle, an ancient camp on a small hill, is ¾ m. away.

Nearby attractions: Stonehenge

Nearby towns: Amesbury, Calne, Chippenham, Marlborough, Melksham, Pewsey, Warminster

Nearby villages: Alton Barnes, Alton Priors, Avebury, Beckhampton, Beechingstoke, Berwick Bassett, Bishops Cannings, Bremhill, Bulkington, Calstone Wellington, Cherhill, Cheverell, Chittoe, Compton Bassett, Coulston, East Kennet, Erlestoke, Hilcott, Keevil, Lacock, Marden, Market Lavington, Marston, Patney, Potterne, Roundway, Rowde, Seend, Semington, Shaw, Stanley, Steeple Ashton, Stert, Studley, Urchfont, Whitley, Winterbourne Monkton, Worton, Yatesbury

Have you decided to visit Devizes or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Devizes bed and breakfast (a Devizes B&B or Devizes b and b)
• a Devizes guesthouse
• a Devizes hotel (or motel)
• a Devizes self-catering establishment, or
• other Devizes accommodation