Preparing Two Talks for the DEG in Braunschweig.

Leaflet for the Town Walking Trail

The Avebury information leaflet, giving inside a detailed map of the area.

The city of Braunschweig has a thriving English German Association and each month they hold a meeting with a guest speaker, who gives an interesting talk in English about some aspect of life in GB.  I talked to the group last year about the Kennet and Avon Canal, and this year I will give two talks, one about  "My Life in Devizes" and the other about "Avebury, a Prehistoric Landscape."   I've gathered together some leaflets on which I will base my talks, and will enhance them with my photographs and anecdotes. 

The Medieval Town Trail in Devizes is marked with thirteen wall plaques, each giving information about the particular spot at which it is placed.  The one below marks the spot in Couch Lane where,  in medieval times,  the edge of town  met open farmland.  Devizes has an interesting and turbulent history, royalty once lived in the castle and a famous Civil War battle was fought on Roundway Down.  In the middle ages it was a prosperous town,  and when the canal opened in 1810, it bought new opportunities for trade.  Many Devizes civic buildings date from this time, when Bath stone arrived by barge for the construction of the fine Town Hall, Corn Exchange, and other buildings.

Plaque No.12 giving information about Couch Lane, which was once on the very edge of the town, where it met farmland.  Most people in medievel times spent their entire lives working on the land.  They lived hard lives, infants died young, and life expectancy for the poor was about 40 years of age, although the wealthy could expect to live into old age.