Tower and Town, February 2021

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Looking Back

I have been involved in Tower and Town as an editor and contributor since 1977 and now as I stand down I have an opportunity to Au Revoir in two senses: ‘Farewell’ and ‘Look Back’.

As a hoarder, I have each month’s copy of T&T dating back to 1977 and reading again articles from the past it has been wonderful: ‘bringing back to life’ old friends, noting the changes in the themes and reflecting on the important role that the magazine has played. People have contributed widely and diversely - their prayers, thoughts, activities, charitable work - and shared them with subscribers reading from the perspective of both the ‘Tower’ and the ‘Town’.

I ‘revoir’ the days when the magazine’s editor was our Rector, Wilfred Down, and distribution was the responsibility of the wonderful Désirée Stevens, living on The Green.

My December 1977 edition includes an editorial by the Catholic Priest, Father Daley, who reflects “Our Lord himself never looked back. He looked forward and promised better times ahead. His story about the evil servant who, in his master’s absence tyrannised over his fellow servants, saying ‘My Lord delayeth his coming’, could fit our own times. Ours is a very disturbed world, still held captive by evil servants. No matter, the Lord will come again and make all things new”.

Wilfred Down writes brilliantly on the topic of racism and concludes by writing ‘“For us men and for our salvation he came…and became man” not white or black, but simply man, so we might learn to trust each other (i.e. drive out our fears) and love each other. And it is quite clear what will happen if we do not – we shall have to be kept apart for always, the deepest insult to human beings and to God’.

I am tempted to write Plus ça change…, but perhaps it best not to enter into a political debate!

From over forty years of editions of Tower and Town it is clear that the emphasis of the contributions has moved considerably from ‘Tower’ to ‘Town’, from sacred to secular. In those early years the majority of the articles and the news came from the Churches and their work, with reports from St George’s, Preshute (Rev Barney Hopkinson), St Thomas More’s (Father Fleury), St Mary’s (Canon Wilfred Down), Marlborough College (Rev Roger Marsh) and the Society of Friends (Winifred Uttley).

Is it time now, perhaps as an impact of the pandemic, for the editorial team to reflect on what the balance of the articles in Tower and Town should be?

Nick Maurice