Our Venue
This page contains important information about our venue and about travelling to Devizes.
It also has details of a ten-day crop circle tour which includes attendance at our conference. You can click on one of the images below, or scroll down the page to find out more.
Our Venue:
The Ceres Hall, Corn Exchange, Devizes, UK
The Corn Exchange, Devizes, is located in the pretty market square in Devizes town centre. Built in 1857 it has a Bath stone front with Corinthian columns and a statue of the goddess Ceres on the roof. Once used for the trading of wheat and barley, it is now a modern events venue with excellent facilities.
The main lecture programme is held in the beautiful and appropriately named Ceres Hall located on the ground floor. Recently redecorated, the hall provides stunning and radiant space for the conference. Our registration desk and traders will be located in the front lobby and we also have use of the Merchant's Suite on the lower floor for refreshments. The building has full disabled access.
Please see our Gallery Section for more pictures of the venue during previous conferences.
Car Parking:
The Corn Exchange does not have it's own car park, but there several long stay town centre car parks. Please make sure you get a ticket that covers you for the whole day!
You can expect to pay around £6-7 for a days parking.
You can find out about car parks in Devizes (including maps) by using the website en.parkopedia.com. Enter 'Devizes' as your destination – or follow the link below.
http://en.parkopedia.co.uk/parking/devizes/
Getting to Devizes:
We regret we cannot make any travel plans for you or book your accommodation, but we hope the following will be of use to you.
Devizes is a small rural market town located in the county of Wiltshire in the South West region of the UK – it's in the heart of crop circle country! The nearest large town is Swindon, and Devizes is only a few miles from the market town of Marlborough.
The first thing you need to know is that Devizes does not have it's own railway station. The nearest railway station is Pewsey. There is no direct route via public transport from London to Devizes apart from one National Express coach running only once a day.
By pre-booked taxi specialising in airport runs
If you are an international traveller, by far the easiest way to travel from your airport to Devizes is via a taxi service specialising in airport runs. They can meet you and your luggage at the airport and get you safely to and from your hotel on the return journey. However, you will need to book in advance.
Devizes Taxis +44 (0) 1380 723129
A one-way trip to Heathrow or from Heathrow normally costs around £100. This is for a car carrying between 1 & 4 people. You can split the cost if you are travelling in a group, to make it more affordable. They do have larger vehicles available – but please check with them for further details.
Hire Car
You can hire a car (at your airport if you like) and drive to Devizes. You can expect to pay around £175($200) for 5 days car rental (for a small car) from somewhere like 'Europe Car Rental' who have a branch at Heathrow. You can book online.
It is quite a straightforward drive from London, taking approximately 2 hours. Take the M25, then M4 (West Bound), exit at Swindon A4361, then take the A361 to Devizes. Best to get yourself a hire car with satellite navigation, or arm yourself with a good road map.
UK Road Maps
We recommend an AA Big Road Atlas 2012, or a Collins Big Road Atlas 2012. Both of these maps are available from www.amazon.co.uk or www.amazon.com. Similarly, the drive from Bristol is straightforward, again take the M4 (East Bound), exit at Swindon, take the A4361 to Avebury, then the A361to Devizes. You can also get directions via Google Maps, or AA website:
www.theaa.com/route-planner/
There is only one company that hires cars in Devizes itself:
Fussell Wadman +44 (0) 1380 731970
dealer.peugeot.co.uk/fussell-wadman-devizes (click on 'Cheap Car Hire'.)
Flying in to Bristol Airport?
Some of our international travellers fly into Bristol. From Bristol you can travel by coach or rail
to Swindon, then by bus (or taxi) to Devizes. Please check with coach, rail, or bus services for
times and costs – phone numbers below.
Travelling by rail?
Rail enquiry line (railway times and tickets) +44 (0) 8457 484950
www.nationalrail.co.uk
If travelling from a London airport, you will need to get to London Paddington Station.
There are regular train services from all London airports to central London Stations. From
Paddington, you can travel to Swindon via rail, then take a bus service to Devizes, or you can get a train to Pewsey – then it will be a taxi ride onto Devizes. Check with national rail
enquiries for times and bookings. If travelling from within the UK via rail, you will also need to
travel to Pewsey, then take a bus or taxi onto Devizes, again use the number above to plan
and book your journey.
Travelling by coach?
National Express (coach service) +44 (0) 8705 808080
www.nationalexpress.com
Run one service per day to Devizes and from Devizes that passes through London Heathrow
airport. Contact them directly for times and bookings. If travelling from within the UK, National
Express do offer a service to Devizes, please check with them for details and bookings.
General Travel Advice
Travel line (general travel enquiries) - +44 (0) 871 2002233
Use this number for general advice regarding public transport while planning your trip.
Accomodation:
For accommodation information and advice about visiting or staying in Devizesvisit www.visitwiltshire.co.uk
If you need accommodation for the duration of the conference, may we recommend that you book as soon as you know you are coming. Devizes is a popular summer tourist destination and gets booked up very quickly. The town centre hotels get booked up first, but if you are flexible and willing to make a short drive into town each day, there are many other good places to book just outside the town.
You can try using one of the many room booking websites such as www.laterooms.com and enter 'Devizes' as your destination. Just be sure to double-check the distance of your accommodation from the town centre. Tip: when searching the Visit Wiltshire website – select 'all accommodation types' and just scroll by the ones that are of no interest – that way you get to see all your options.
10-day Tour of the Crop Circles & Sacred Sites – including the conference
Tour operators Journey's With Soul are offering a 10 day tour of Wiltshire's Sacred Landscape and the crop circles. The dates for 2012 are July 25th – August 3rd 2010 Attendance at the Summer Crop Circle Lectures is included in the tour. They collect you and return you to Heathrow airport and organise all your transport and accommodation. We highly recommend this tour, which includes a private visit to Stonehenge, and the option for a helicopter ride over the crop circles. We have had consistently excellent reports from those attending these tours.
For details visit their website (below).
www.journeyswithsoul.com
About Devizes
Devizes is an attractive and historic market town in the heart of Wiltshire, with many interesting tourist sites and beautiful countryside nearby. Close to our venue is St. John's Alley, complete with church, (built in about 1120) and a 'close' of timbered buildings dating from 1500. The church grounds and St John's Alley offer picturesque views of nearby Devizes castle (still a private residence). Avebury stone circle, West Kennet long-barrow and Silbury Hill are only a short drive from Devizes.
Devizes town centre provides a wide variety of cafes, bars and restaurants (many offering vegetarian dishes) all within easy reach to feed and water you during your stay. There are also ample opportunities for shopping with a good collection of high street stores, independent retailers and gift shops.
To find out more about Devizes follow the link below:
http://www.devizesheritage.org.uk
Visiting The Crop Circles: a short guide
If you are prolonging your stay to explore the area and visit some crop circles for yourself please allow yourself ample time. You will need a car (see above) to get around; public transport will be of no use to you. You will also need to arm yourself with an Ordinance Survey map of the area for navigating. We will have a large display of the latest circles, marked on maps at the conference. So you can mark the locations onto your own map while you are there.
We would recommend Ordinance Survey Explorer map Number 157. OS maps are available from good bookshops, over the internet from www.ordinancesurvey.co.uk or from tourist centres.
Please take time to consider the following when visiting the crop circles:
1. Do not enter a field without permission from the farmer. Some farmers do not allow visitors and you can be prosecuted for trespass in the UK, if you are an unwelcome visitor. Those that do allow visitors tend to place an honesty box either at the entrance to the field, or in the circle itself. Please contribute to the honesty box, the customary donation is £2-3 per person. This helps build understanding between the crop circle world and the farming community, by helping the farmer recover his costs for damaged crop. If you are asked to leave a formation by a member of the farming staff do so, quickly and politely.
2. Never, ever, smoke cigarettes (or anything else!) in a crop field. They constitute an extremely dangerous fire hazard.
3. Never leave any litter or objects of any kind inside the circles, they may cause a hazard to farming machinery during harvest, or crop spraying, and could be a potential danger to wildlife.
4. Do not trample down any standing crop when making you way into the fields or around the circles. Always follow the tractor lines, even if this means walking out of the field and in again if you pick the wrong route into the circle! And please resist damaging crops still standing inside the circles for the sake of easy access. Sometimes the circles are designed so that some spaces are supposed to be inaccessible! Finally, further damage to crop by visitors irritates the farmers enormously, so please avoid it.
5. If you park your car nearby, do not park in farm or field entrance where you may block access for farm vehicles. And never, ever leave anything on display in your car that might attract the attention of thieves. Lock everything away securely in the trunk, or better still, take only what you need to carry with you in person. There have been several occasions where cars have been broken into at crop circle sites – so please be careful.
The Pink Book!
During 2009 Michael Glickman and Karen Alexander wrote a booklet entitled: CROP CIRCLE ETIQUETTE: Guidelines for visiting formations (with design by Nancy Lawrence). This book was printed using donations from the crop circle community and distributed for free to anyone one who wanted a copy. It is absolutely essential reading for anyone visiting the crop circles.
You can download a PDF version of the booklet here for free.
Please take a look at it and send it as far and wide as you can. By doing this we can educate everyone visiting the crop circles about respecting the land and leaving the crop circles as we find them for all who come after us. It will also go along way to building firm ties with the farming community who are enormously inconvenienced by careless and ignorant visitors.