Green light for Wiltshire Museum redevelopment plans

Wiltshire Museum in Devizes has been granted permission to restore and redevelop a former court building to use as its new home.

The museum’s planning application and Listed Building Consent for the restoration of Devizes Assize Court was approved by Wiltshire Council earlier this month.

The 19^th-century Grade II* listed building will provide a new home for the museum and allow more space to showcase its Designated collections, which are drawn from the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site and from across Wiltshire.  

The new space aims to become a community hub in Devizes serving both visitors and local people, with its own café, dedicated learning space, multi-use event space and gardens and new galleries – facilities that cannot be provided in the current building.

The restored building will be fully accessible and include lifts and a Changing Places toilet.

Caroline Kay, the chair of Wiltshire Museum, said: “We are grateful to the local planning authority for their careful consideration and approval of our comprehensive planning and listed building consent applications. This essential enabling step moves us and our supporters to a further position of confidence that this is a deliverable project for the people of Devizes, Wiltshire and beyond.”

Wiltshire Museum and the Devizes Assize Court Trust have been working together on the redevelopment project, which is titled Assizes for Devizes: Unlocking Wiltshire’s Stories.

The project received initial funding support of £300,748 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund in June 2023 and recently completed its Development Phase, which saw it develop architectural plans and a robust business case, alongside designs for the museum’s new galleries and a programme of community activities and events.

The project partners will submit a Delivery Phase application to the Heritage Fund later this year, with a decision due shortly afterwards.

The museum is working with Purcell Architecture and wider design team to develop proposals that “blend conservation, sustainability and new build interventions to create a museum that is inviting, inclusive and reimagines the display of the internationally significant collection”.

Clare Phillips, conservation associate at Purcell, said: “This planning success is rooted in team’s collaboration with the museum and community groups to restore the Assize Courts, which are in a desperately poor state, into a vibrant new museum teeming with community activities.”

The approval of planning permission means that the museum can now submit funding applications to a wider range of trusts and foundations, as well as seeking support from philanthropists and benefactors.

If its application to the Heritage Fund is successful, work will start on the Assize Court building in 2026 with a target opening date of 2030.

Peter Troughton, Chair of the Devizes Assize Court Trust, said: “This is excellent news that Wiltshire Council have seen fit to approve and support the vision of this project to relaunch Wiltshire Museum into the restored Devizes Assize Court, so long neglected, for the benefit of the town of Devizes and the county as a whole.”

The museum announced last week that Queen Camilla had agreed to become its first royal patron.