A NEW twist in the tale of Maria Heathcote and her links with Devizes has been added by Wiltshire Museum.

Back in 2015 a giant oil painting of the 18th Century lady by John Vanderbank caused a stir when the school took it along to the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow being held at Bowood.

Now the museum has paid £400 for a mourning ring dating from 1795 which holds a lock of Maria Heathcote’s hair.

Museum director David Dawson said: “We are delighted to have just purchased this mourning ring which contains a lock of hair of Maria Heathcote.

“Her portrait hangs in Devizes School and it was featured on the Antiques Roadshow.”

He took the ring into Devizes School to show headteacher Phil Bevan. He said: “The painting is always a talking point when we have our regular open days and it is lovely that the museum now has this ring.”

The painting was donated to the school after it received a phone call from a descendant of Maria Heathcote back in the 1970s.

Her relative, who lived in a castle in Wales, asked if they would like the painting as she once owned the manor house which later was turned into the school.

Now the ring complete with Maria Heathcote’s hair and with her name engraved on the back has been sold to the museum by Chiswick Auctions.

The museum is also celebrating after being awarded £47,000 over two years by the Arts Council England’s designation development fund.

It will be used to make ground-breaking research undertaken on the archaeology collections of Wiltshire Museum and The Salisbury Museum over the past decade more accessible and will eventually become part of aWessex Museums online archaeology database.

Starting in April 2020 this two-year project will be undertaken by a research officer working alongside Wiltshire Museum Curator, Lisa Brown. She said “Since 2010, more than 200 post-graduate researchers from universities across the country have consulted the collections at the Wiltshire and Salisbury museums.

“This has helped to build our reputation as a centre of academic research, thus making the museums a focal point for some of the latest work undertaken and ultimately building our knowledge of the past. This project to make research results more widely available, will truly cement our reputation as a hub for research in archaeology.”