Friday, October 20, 2006
Marlborough in Wiltshire
Two weeks ago, on a very wet morning such as we are experiencing today, we were in Marlborough, Wiltshire.
Marlborough is pronounced Maul - bruh.
Here is a little historical background to the town centre.
The High Street is the A4 road, the main road from London to the West country.
During the rebuilding of the town after the Great Fire of Marlborough in 1653 which destroyed almost the entire town, the high street became what is claimed to be the widest in England. This allows ample space for a local market which is held twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Every summer the town holds a jazz festival with local pubs, clubs, hotels and various other venues playing host to live jazz music over the course of a weekend. Every October the high street is closed for the two Saturdays either side of October 11 for the Marlborough Mop Fair. This was originally a hiring fair for agricultural workers seeking employment but now has become a funfair. The right of the town to close the road to hold the fair is set down in the Charter. (Wikipedia web site).
This picture shows the High Street and the regular twice weekly market. The traffic passes either side of the stalls.
This is the town hall. We arranged to meet Sue here. We had browsed some charity shops and found a couple of antique shops, while Sue had been searching for some new trousers.
Marlborough looked to be a good place for clothes shopping, especially if you have high expectations and money to spend. Sue's expectations were for neat trousers at a reasonable price.
This in one of the disused chapels in the town, down towards the River Kennet. It is now an antiques centre. The original stained glass windows have survived and looked lovely. There were cabinets on the floor of the chapel with some lovely things and in the balcony area were cheaper more modern collectables.
It was still raining when we came out and we battled against the wind along a river side path.
We had seen a Christian Bookshop cafe earlier, by the river.
We have eaten in a Christian Bookshop cafe a few times - there is a good one in Horsham. The food is basic and not really any cheaper than anywhere else. But what I appreciate is that it is manned by volunteers and profits are ploughed back into church funds (all denominations) and towards various good causes.
We enjoyed our jacket potatoes at a table overlooking the river and watched ducks being fed bread by a little girl from the bridge.
As we walked along the High Street we realised it was exceedingly quiet. This was just the moment when the road had been closed in preparations for the annual Mop Fair (see the wikipedia piece above).
This lovely wide roadway through Marlborough was completely empty - and bother we had left the cameras in the car!
In fact we had not bothered with photography all day for the rain was falling so hard. The pictures I have put here are all from various websites.
But we should have had the cameras at this time for such a rarely viewed and lovely scene scene, especially as the weather had begun to brighten up.
By the time we came out of the craft centre the road had filled again with men setting up all the paraphanalia of a fun fair.
I have not mentioned what Marlborough is famous for, because it was not part of our day. There is a famous fee paying school at Marlborough. There are lots of lovely old buildings, but all we saw was a covered footbridge which crosses the busy road from one part of the school to another. Websites suggest that the college chapel would be worth a visit one day.
So, that was Marlborough. Sue has 2 pairs of trousers and we have a couple of books from a charity shop which I have enjoyed looking at. One is a 1900s nature study book with wonderful illustrations of children in the countryside. Later on I will find more pleasure with them when I put them up for sale.
Marlborough is pronounced Maul - bruh.
Here is a little historical background to the town centre.
The High Street is the A4 road, the main road from London to the West country.
During the rebuilding of the town after the Great Fire of Marlborough in 1653 which destroyed almost the entire town, the high street became what is claimed to be the widest in England. This allows ample space for a local market which is held twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Every summer the town holds a jazz festival with local pubs, clubs, hotels and various other venues playing host to live jazz music over the course of a weekend. Every October the high street is closed for the two Saturdays either side of October 11 for the Marlborough Mop Fair. This was originally a hiring fair for agricultural workers seeking employment but now has become a funfair. The right of the town to close the road to hold the fair is set down in the Charter. (Wikipedia web site).
This picture shows the High Street and the regular twice weekly market. The traffic passes either side of the stalls.
This is the town hall. We arranged to meet Sue here. We had browsed some charity shops and found a couple of antique shops, while Sue had been searching for some new trousers.
Marlborough looked to be a good place for clothes shopping, especially if you have high expectations and money to spend. Sue's expectations were for neat trousers at a reasonable price.
This in one of the disused chapels in the town, down towards the River Kennet. It is now an antiques centre. The original stained glass windows have survived and looked lovely. There were cabinets on the floor of the chapel with some lovely things and in the balcony area were cheaper more modern collectables.
It was still raining when we came out and we battled against the wind along a river side path.
We had seen a Christian Bookshop cafe earlier, by the river.
We have eaten in a Christian Bookshop cafe a few times - there is a good one in Horsham. The food is basic and not really any cheaper than anywhere else. But what I appreciate is that it is manned by volunteers and profits are ploughed back into church funds (all denominations) and towards various good causes.
We enjoyed our jacket potatoes at a table overlooking the river and watched ducks being fed bread by a little girl from the bridge.
After lunch, Sue had some more shopping to do. Bill and I made our way along the main street to another disused church. This one is now used as a craft centre and also serves food. We bought a few bits to be presents for the children.
As we walked along the High Street we realised it was exceedingly quiet. This was just the moment when the road had been closed in preparations for the annual Mop Fair (see the wikipedia piece above).
This lovely wide roadway through Marlborough was completely empty - and bother we had left the cameras in the car!
In fact we had not bothered with photography all day for the rain was falling so hard. The pictures I have put here are all from various websites.
But we should have had the cameras at this time for such a rarely viewed and lovely scene scene, especially as the weather had begun to brighten up.
By the time we came out of the craft centre the road had filled again with men setting up all the paraphanalia of a fun fair.
I have not mentioned what Marlborough is famous for, because it was not part of our day. There is a famous fee paying school at Marlborough. There are lots of lovely old buildings, but all we saw was a covered footbridge which crosses the busy road from one part of the school to another. Websites suggest that the college chapel would be worth a visit one day.
So, that was Marlborough. Sue has 2 pairs of trousers and we have a couple of books from a charity shop which I have enjoyed looking at. One is a 1900s nature study book with wonderful illustrations of children in the countryside. Later on I will find more pleasure with them when I put them up for sale.
