Tower and Town, February 2018

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Editorial: In And Around Marlborough

Whether we are longstanding inhabitants of Marlborough and the surrounding area or have arrived more recently, we are likely to develop strong feelings for the place. These are formed through the people and the physical landscape we have got to know and our impressions of these remain with us, if not always entirely accurately or completely. So perhaps you will find something familiar, but novel, in this edition.

Dick Whitfield is an expert guide to the prehistoric monuments at Avebury and shows in his article that, thanks to recent developments and research, there is more to Avebury than you might have thought.

This edition also contains a more recent kind of history – memories kindly supplied by James Milsom, who grew up in the town, and Graeme Walker, who began his teaching career here. Neither you nor I will be reading these articles simply as trips down a memory lane suffused with nostalgia, for the darker side of Marlborough’s history is again exposed by Andrew Ross’ careful compilation of the men from this town who died in just one year, 1917, in the First World War – an appalling loss.

But Audrey Peck’s always excellent ‘Family News’ brings our attention back this month to a number of local people who in their time as family members and as people in the community have made, and in some instances are still making, a striking impact upon lives around them and on us. With his ‘Optimistic View’, the Reverend Tim Novis would no doubt accept these as examples of what a positive, ‘can do’ attitude to life can achieve.

John Osborne