IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Old Park, DEVIZES, SN10 5JR

Furze Hill Lane (behind us in this image) becomes Hartmoor Road

This road was originally the main route to Potterne, used by coaches, carts, horses and people on foot, it leads down towards Five Lanes and Whistley Road, via Furze Hill Lane. Devizes sits between the chalk downland of the Pewsey Vale and the low lying pasture land of the west Wiltshire, on a spur of upper greensand, part of which is seen here on the left of the photograph.

In the days when Devizes Castle was seen as one of the most splendid constructions in Europe, this route would have been used as the main thoroughfare between the Bishop of Salisbury's land at Potterne and the seat of power at Devizes. In later years, until the 1750s, this was the only main road to Potterne. Today it leads to Furze Hill Lane, Five Lanes and Whistley Road. On the right of the photograph is evidence of Devizes' geology - the upper greensand on which the town is built.

The farmhouse and attached cottage range date from the late 18th or early 19th century. Listed, grade II, with details at https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1258949 Seen from Hartmoor Road.

From almost opposite Hartmoor Farm, a footpath starts. It soon divides, with one branch running to Potterne Road and the other branch running to Potterne village.

The roots are at the side of Hartmoor Road as it descends the escarpment in what is probably an old holloway.

At this point Furze Hill Lane ceases to be a byway and becomes a public road. Slightly further on it also has a change of name and becomes Hartmoor Road.

I'd like to think this landscape is probably much unchanged, apart from the addition of the former council houses in the distance. Although many of the hedges look less than 200 years old, there are a number of well-established trees, suggesting a more wooded appearance than is evident now. The sweeping gentleness of the landscape here is pleasing and best enjoyed towards the end of the day.

Seen from Furze Hill Lane. This is about as far as you can go on the public road, though the lane does continue as a "Byway open to all traffic". The houses on the opposite side of the valley are to the south of Devizes.

This view looking west, shows arable land that now occupies the position of the deer park once attached to Devizes Castle. Once covered in hundreds of trees, the "Old Park" was marked out by a "Park Pale", a wide bank built to keep the deer in place, helping to provide plenty of sporting opportunity for Edward 1st. The original Park Pale can be seen to the left of the photograph.