Avoid the irony, sadly this year Bathโs annual big sleep-out event in Alice Park cannot be for obvious reasons. But homelessness during a lockdown is no joke. Julian House and Bath Boules Charitable Trust lay down a more local gauntlet, inviting you to join in with a sleep-out in your garden, on your balcony or your kitchen floor, sticking to your household/social bubble.
Itโs okay, calm down, itโs not until 5th March, when hopefully weather will be more clement, a reality homeless donโt get. So, to stand up against homelessness, challenge yourself to sleep out for just one night at home and help raise vital funds and awareness for men and women forced to do so every night.
Last year they provided life-changing support to over 1,400 vulnerable individuals who were experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness across Bath, Bristol, and the South West. Itโs a grim realisation, that without support like this, the life expectancy of a long-term homeless person is just 45 years. By sleeping out, you can change that.
On top of everyday challenges, the on-going impact of Coronavirus has had a devastating effect on the men, women, and children in care. Collectively you can help provide the lifesaving services and support they so desperately need right now.

Speed Reduction on Caen Hill to 50mph
Be honest now, who likes to bomb it up and down Caen Hill dual carriageway like they’re Michael Schumacher on a promise? Who thinks once they’ve made it through town’s traffic that they’re auditioning for The Fast and the Furious episode 15? Well, your days of thunder might be numberedโฆ. Wiltshire Councillors meet next weekโฆ
Jamsters Festival at The Southgate
January last year, The Southgate Inn Devizes announced Jamsters, a monthly Friday night platform for loose groupings and associations created at their regular jam sessions each Wednesday. On Sunday 2nd August they’ll be celebrating by bringing some of them together for the first Jamsters free festival, aptly, at the Southgateโฆ A spokesperson for the innโฆ
Ruby Darbyshire & Devizes Cafe Nero Wins Poppy Campaign Award
As if we required proof that Ruby Darbyshire is loved by all, today she was asked to play her pipes by the war veterans in Devizes at Cafe Nero in the Brittox and received an unexpected awardโฆ. Congratulations to branch manager of Neros, Rachel Shotter, who received an award for the help she has givenโฆ
Donovan or Donoless, Fulltone Festival is a Cake Tray!
Images by Gail Foster Regretfully I must report that due to a personal issue Jason Donovan is unable to sing at Devizes’ Fulltone Festival this afternoon. But all in attendance yesterday will be aware, if Jason was a cherry on the cake, Fulltone is not one big cake. Fulltone is an industrial sized tray ofโฆ
Strange Days Indeed, at The Barge on HoneyStreet
Earthlings and all other organic lifeforms with a taste for the occult, fortean and generalย weirdness are heading to The Barge at HoneyStreet the first weekend of September for the return of Strange Days Festival. You risk spontaneous combustion if you donโt tooโฆ. If you felt an alien autopsy, some alpine shape-shifters or the neohermeticโฆ
Fortnightly Banking Drop-in Sessions Replaces Devizesโ Lloydsโฆ.
No smiling faces in this snap! Our MP Brian Matthew met with representatives from Lloyds Bank yesterday to raise concerns about the closure of the branch in Devizes. Get in Brian, but it looks like we’ll be returning to the era of stuffing our cash into mattresses againโฆ. Brian said he โdiscussed the impact onโฆ
โGaslightโ at The Mission Theatre, Bath, July 8th-11th 2026
by Ian Diddams images by Michael Stevens โ Pharos Photography Shakespeare is credited as having introduced around 1,700 words into the English language, and several hundred phrases and idioms. This practise of word invention was not however unique to Shakespeare, or that late 16th Century periodโฆ A play written in 1938, by Patrick Hamilton, wasโฆ
Bird is The Word Caged! Trowbridge’s New Music Venue Coming Soon
It looks like fowlers have finally caught them! I mean, wildly flying around, daytime clubbing, karaoke cavorting, supporting and promoting local live music, who does that?!ย Cracking Pair Claire and Chloe Grist do. They set up the Facebook page, Bird is the Word to promote the local music scene. May last year saw them puttingโฆ
Deadlight Dance New Single & Video
New single from our gothic duo Deadlight Dance, taken from Marchโs album Vox Populiโฆ. Second tune on the album, a ballad to the poisonous evergreen shrub Daphne odora, which I classed as โa poignant plodding shoegazer.โ The video looks very botanical and outdoorsy, I hope those goths wore sunscreen! Brilliant no-AI video, created by Hauntingโฆ
Who’s Lovin a Devizes McDonalds and Tesco?
For what it’s worth, I’m impartial to the prospect of McDonalds, Tesco too. I’ve got viewpoints to waffle endlessly with no real conclusion, if you’ve nothing more important to be getting on with, but I’m certainly not all-out โlovinโ itโ…. The initial article announcing the McDonald’s proposal in Bishop’s Cannings was a rush job, toโฆ