Tisbury – Things To See

Art & Culture

EXHIBITION: A Place Apart - Elisabeth Frink's Studio : Messums WiltshireMessums Wiltshire is a leading multi-purpose gallery and arts centre. It offers artists and collectors a unique environment to experience and engage with creative endeavour. From the position that artistic expression started in our distant past, it provides the opportunity to reflect on the significance of the handmade across multiple art forms.

The galleries are open to the public Wednesday – Sunday. A day a week is set aside as free to access for schools to exclusively use as part of a broader educational remit that includes makers courses available to the public.

Our Mess Restaurant offers brunches, lunch, cakes and drinks as well as supper events.

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The Summerleaze GallerySummerleaze Gallery is situated in an exceptionally peaceful and beautiful corner of Wiltshire, yet within easy reach of London by road and rail. There are two beautiful exhibition galleries converted from farm buildings, each having a wonderful sense of space and light.

After four happy years John Stoller has decided to retire from the gallery. Between exhibitions you can view a full range of paintings, sculpture, drawings, watercolour, prints and photography by gallery artists. During the principal exhibitions the gallery will be open Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 4pm. At other times the gallery is open by appointment.

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Wardour Castle - WikipediaSet in the peaceful Wiltshire countryside beside a lake, Old Wardour Castle, near Tisbury was once one of the most daring and innovative homes in Britain. It was built in the 14th century as a lightly fortified luxury residence for comfortable living and lavish entertainment. Today the castle ruin provides a relaxed, romantic day out for couples, families and budding historians alike.

The castle was the inspiration for the one featured in the Kevin Costner film ‘Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves’. Children will love to explore the grotto and the castle rooms, climbing the circular stairs to the top where you can see for miles across the lake and surrounding countryside. There’s plenty of space for children to play or for picnics under the cover of the age old trees.

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Gold Hill Museum and Garden | Day Out With The KidsShaftesbury and District’s local history museum with an award-winning cottage garden and wonderful views over Thomas Hardy’s Blackmore Vale.

At the top of picturesque Gold Hill, well known for the Hovis “Boy on a Bike” advert, this modern museum is set in two historic buildings. One was once the priest’s house and still has a “squint” through the wall to St Peter’s church; the other provided basic lodgings for traders at the market on Gold Hill.

Eight galleries tell the story of rural and town life, starting even before Shaftesbury’s notional foundation by Alfred the Great. Highlights of the collection include the unique Byzant, carried during annual celebrations of the securing of the water supply, so vital to a hilltop town; Dorset’s oldest fire engine, dating from 1744; fine lacework and costumes; handmade Dorset buttons; and a mummified Dorset cat.

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Salisbury Cathedral - WikipediaSalisbury Cathedral is a truly remarkable building, a testimony to the faith and practical skills of the medieval craftsmen who built it but it is much more than a historical monument.

It is a living church and a place of prayer with daily services and a thriving congregation, enjoying a reputation for musical excellence. As the Cathedral Church of the Salisbury diocese, it is Mother Church of several hundred Church of England parishes in Wiltshire and Dorset. 

Because of its extraordinary construction, size and setting this Cathedral attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a year who can enjoy a variety of tours and demonstrations on site or explore the sacred space at their own pace. Many find the presence of the best preserved of only four surviving original 1215 Magna Carta reason alone to visit.

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Stonehenge - WikipediaStonehenge is perhaps the world’s most famous prehistoric monument. It was built in several stages: the first monument was an early henge monument, built about 5,000 years ago, and the unique stone circle was erected in the late Neolithic period about 2500 BC. In the early Bronze Age many burial mounds were built nearby.

Today, together with Avebury, Stonehenge forms the heart of a World Heritage Site, with a unique concentration of prehistoric monuments.

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