Archaeology.

At the beginning of 2012 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant to Westbury Heritage Society to enable a community investigation of several sites of historical and archaeological importance in the town and local area.

The aim of the WHAT (Westbury History and Archaeological Tour) project was to bring together current knowledge about these sites as well as carrying out geophysics surveys on three of them.

After a series of training talks and a visit to the English Heritage Archive in Swindon, dates were set for the surveys. Volunteers from the local community, the Heritage Society and the U3A, led by a group of professional archaeologists, used equipment including resistivity meters and radar to search for the remains of buildings at moated sites at Bratton and Penleigh and on The Ham. Later analysis of the results produced evidence of previously undiscovered buildings on all three sites.

The results of the research and reports on the surveys are now available as a presentation to view in Westbury Heritage Centre or taken out to local organisations.

Clubs and societies can book this presentation by contacting the Heritage Society.