If there is anything you need to know about the history, architecture and archaeology of Devizes, there is now a website that will tell you everything.

Retired teacher Alan Carter has spent the last seven months creating Devizes Heritage, a comprehensive website giving a phenomenal amount of information about the town.

Mr Carter, who lives in Kempsfield, said: “I started last August and only now do I feel that it is sufficiently up to speed to get some publicity going about it.

“I have lived in the town for three years. Whenever I go to a new place, I like to research it as much as I can.”

Mr Carter, a former teacher at Wellington College in Berkshire, has been working closely with his son Stephen, a former IT consultant currently retraining to become a teacher as well.

The pair have assembled a huge amount of detail about the history of Devizes, including the origins of the medieval castle, the English Civil War including the Battle of Roundway Down and the history of the county prison, now demolished, with details of hangings that took place there.

Browsing the website is a fascinating experience. Searching through the prison section, you will find that the prison surgeon Charles Trinder lived at Brownston House in New Park Street.

Going to the Brownston House site, you will find that it was built for Francis Merewether in 1700, but it was also home to several MPs including Wadham Locke, whose family went to live at Rowdeford House.

In creating the website, Mr Carter has been working with the Wiltshire History Centre, Wiltshire Buildings Records Office, the Trust for Devizes, Wiltshire Heritage Museum and the Wiltshire Family History Society.

Mr Carter said: “I am pleased with the feedback I have had about the website. Last month we had 585 visitors, so it is becoming known about.

“I am continuing to upgrade it all the time. I would very much like to get hold of some old photographs of any subject, so if any of your readers can help me, I would be grateful.”

Mr Carter’s own history is fairly riveting as well. While studying for a PhD in Vancouver, Canada, he took to mountaineering, which led him to an interest in conservation and he was employed by the state government to carry out research for them.

The website can be accessed at www.devizesheritage.org.uk