Tower and Town, June 2022

  (view the full edition)

Claudius, Originally from Bad Homburg, Germany

My wife, two daughters (7 and 10) and I came to Marlborough from Germany in the summer of 2021. And boy, I tell you, moving as an English-German family post Brexit and during Covid makes any move I had done before feel like a walk in the park. But we made it and could not have been received by the town with arms wider open.

Our neighbours invited us over and offered help or a chat whenever they could. I have been accepted as a committee member for the Marlborough Town Football Club, and found some awesome guys to play football with, our team: ‘Old Farts, Run Free’.

We discovered Park Runs on The Common on Saturdays and the school as well as church communities could not have been more inclusive or offered better ways of meeting wonderful people. We have already made very good friends that we hope to stay in touch with for a very long time. Last, but not least, we found our locals, The Green Dragon for drinks and The Royal Oak for football. After less than a year, we feel truly at home.  

There are a few things I love about Marlborough that were peculiar to me in the beginning, things I probably won’t notice in the future and I want to share them before I am fully used to them. Here are my top 3:

1. Marlborough Notice Board on Facebook: The way people engage about not such big matters, ‘Yarn bombers’, and big matters, ‘Savernake Forest’, with equal passion. And there are always some contributors with a great sense of humour. Even when discussing the untouchable topic of parking space on the High Street.

2. Wellies are common footwear anytime and anywhere. This is Wiltshire to me. People are out and about because they work outdoors or enjoy nature. And this is an integral part of life here. So walking in muddy boots through the High Street or into a pub doesn’t raise any eyebrows – unlike, I believe, in other parts of this country. This leads me to my next point:

3. There are more pubs per capita in this town than anywhere I have been before. There is a pub for every occasion no matter what you are after and what you feel like; from the ones where you want to make sure you will not stick out, (no matter what you do or how you behave after a few pints), to the ones you would take high-level business partners to; from watching football pubs to eating out pubs; from family-friendly pubs to dog-friendly pubs. There is always the right pub to go to.

Last but not least, I would like to draw your attention to the ‘Marlborough Stammtisch’. In Germany, a “Stammtisch” is a meeting of a group of people on a regular basis and at the same place. It took me no time to get together a surprisingly large group of people who speak German as a first or second language and who like to discuss life in Marlborough or life back home - wherever that might be. If you are interested, come and join our Marlborough Stammtisch Facebook Group to find out more.