Walking the Devizes Bounds Eastwards.

OS map of the medieval "Bounds" of Devizes, marked with green spots on the map.

This is the easterly 3.5 miles of the "Devizes Bounds," with the other 3.5 miles circling the western half of the town.  The walk is our annual traditional "New Year´s Day" walk, making the old boundary of Devizes.  This year´s walk looks in doubt at the moment, as the weather has been so dreadful, that all the tracks will be knee deep in mud and impassable.  The forecast for Wednesday January 1st 2014, is for torrential rain!  Me thinks, we will not be venturing out.

St Mary´s Church viewed from near Jump Farm.

During the English Civil War cannon were placed hereabouts, as Cromwell´s army fired at the soldiers of King Charles 1, who had become trapped in the town and sort refuge in the three medieval churches.  Cannonball holes can still be seen in the stonework of the church towers. 

The squat tower of St John´s church (centre) which bears cannonball holes left by the fighting in 1643, and viewed from the nearby cannon emplacement.

The Crammer, the setting of the "Moonrakers Saga."

I took a short cut whilst walking the "Bounds" and came home via this little pond, where the bird gather to be fed by caring passers by and little children.

The plaque giving the history of the "Moonrakers" story.

Some smugglers hid their contraband beer barrels in this pond, to hide it away from the local police.   The smugglers came back one night to retrieve their booty, and when the police turned up again, the men said the were innocent, and were only trying to rake the reflection of the moon out of the pond.  The police thought they were mad locals, and the police rode off on their horses!    

This saga is repeated in many towns in England, which only goes to show that maybe we are all mad!   People born and breed in Wiltshire are called, "Moonrakers."