The Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes has been awarded £58,200 from the Heritage Fund Lottery to work on plans to create new Bronze Age galleries. As the galleries project will cost more than £200,000, the museum will need to contribute between £20,000 and £30,000.
     Rich finds from burials in the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site will feature in the new galleries, as well as the unique gold and amber finds that define the Bronze Age Wessex culture and are currently locked away in the museumís vaults.  The most famous among items these are the 4,000-year-old finds from Bush Barrow, including a gold lozenge, belt hook, stone mace and richly decorated bronze dagger.  The new displays also plan to include objects excavated from Upton Lovell and Manton, as well as more recent finds from Marden Henge, near Devizes.
     The plans being developed by the Wiltshire Museum will link with the new English Heritage Stonehenge Visitor Centre and new galleries planned by the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. Museum director David Dawson exclaimed: "This award is fantastic news for us. We will be able to inspire visitors to the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site with the stories of the people who built and used these iconic monuments."

Edited from Gazette & Herald (29 March 2011)