Devizes double location

Saturday 28th June 2008

This investigation took us to the historical town of Devizes in Wiltshire and we had two destinations this time to cover. The team for tonight consisted of myself and my daughter from Phoenix, Chris and his son from Wessex and Maria and James from Twilight. Also on this investigation we had the pleasure of Pete and Nettie joining us who I have worked with many times before.

The first of the destinations was to be Roundway hill. Here at Roundway Hill or "down" a very infamous battle of the Civil war that broke out in 1642 played out which was to lead to the deaths of many men. The battle was fought on the Downs between Roughridge Hill, King’s Play Hill, Roundway Hill and Morgan’s Hill. Initial attacks by the Parliamentarians were repulsed and the Royalist Cavalry, despite attacking uphill, put the opposing cavalry to flight and pursued them for three miles across the Downs to a steep hillside. Many of the Parliamentary men and their horses were killed in what became known as the ‘Bloody Ditch’. Hopton, realising that a battle was taking place, emerged from the town and his infantry helped turn the Parliamentarian retreat into a rout. Waller escaped to Bristol but his army was almost totally destroyed. We all made our way to round-way hill and reached the destination about 8.45pm. The light was still with us so we took the opportunity to get our bearings and have a look at the areas where the battle was fought. We then made our way towards the area where the "bloody ditch" is. We followed the path along the top of the ridge and Chris asked Pete if he had worked out where the "ditch" was. Pete said as he passed a part of the path he could hear moaning as if many were in pain. The area where Pete pointed out the direction of the moaning to be was in fact the infamous bloody ditch. We continued our walk around the hill fort stopping to take in the view. Pete and I felt that most of the energy was more centered around where the ditch was so we made our way back again. While at Roundway hill Pete and I also experienced pain in our abdominal area. For me the pain was not like tummy gripes but more centred deep inside and sharp. The light was failing now and we agreed that the area felt flat, still and calm so we decided to relocate back to Drew ponds woods.

Drewsponds woods is a nature reserve built on the old mental asylums grounds once known as Roundway hospital. The Mental Asylum located at Devizes, opened 19th September 1851, is a structure of Bath Stone, in the Italian style from designs by Mr. Thomas Henry Wyatt, architect. The asylum has been repeatedly enlarged since its was first built and would of now been able to hold about 1,004 patients. The land that belonged to the asylum consists of nearly 159 acres. In 1924 it was called Wiltshire County Mental Hospital until 1948. Then renamed Roundway Hospital. The Hospital closed its doors for the last time in 1995 and some of the inpatients were moved to Salisbury Hospital. The grounds now a nature Conserve has a mass burial site for patients and Staff. The staff's final resting place was and still is marked by gravestones. Patients graves were not marked. To get to the woods you have to walk through what used to be the hospital grounds and make your way along a path down into the woods. Here you can visit the site which once used to be a public Inn. Only the foundations and steps still remain of the Little pub and we took the opportunity to go inside. While taking pictures Nettie was sure the Pete had put his hand in front of the lens but he was adamant he had not. We took some time here and then decided to move onto the burial grounds. Once through the stone doorway the atmosphere changes but it is not a scary feeling. Here we chatted about some of the history of the place and Maria said she was so comfortable here she would be quite happy to camp here for the night (though James pointed out that would be a bit difficult as it is on a slope). We then made our way up the path and here before you get on the main path there are two headstones almost completely sunken in the ground. I showed the team where they were and while we were stood around taking pictures Erica thought I had put my hand on her shoulder. I said "I did!" and repeated what I had done so she could feel it but she said, "No mum, I knew you did that but this was on my other shoulder". We then made our way along the main path and here you come across two more graves and a sign with some history of the place. These graves we found are not in situ! They have been moved onto the path where they will not be missed and placed next to the information signpost for people to see a good example of the graves that are still visible on the grounds. After a while we decided it was time to go back as it was getting late. We took the opportunity to walk through the grounds of the old hospital which to me is far more sinister in atmosphere than the woods.

Even though this investigation was a quiet one for activity it was still a very enjoyable evening that was made even more enjoyable by the fact my daughter came along and joined us.

I would like to thank once again Wessex and Twilight for helping to make the evening so much fun and I would also like to welcome our newest member Erica Baldwin to the team.