Tower and Town, June 2020

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Editorial: Looking Up In Lockdown

“Our streets are not empty. They are filled with the love and the care we have for each other.“ HM Queen Elizabeth II (May 8th 2020)

Tower and Town is the magazine of Marlborough's community and churches, and it seemed appropriate and important that, given the unique times we are living through, some recognition and record should be made of our response to the current circumstances in which we find ourselves.

In particular I wanted this to reflect all those many positive and uplifting experiences which have raised our spirits - our "Captain Tom" moments. In doing so I do not wish to deny or belittle the anger and anxiety, the pain and the grief that this pandemic has caused and is continuing to cause. But I also hope that, in celebrating the remarkable resilience, generosity of spirit and resourcefulness of the people of this town, we might be able to alleviate some of those negatives.

It is a very incomplete, and therefore imperfect, account of how we are coping with and coming through these strange times, so my apologies if what has been written does not reflect your experience. However, I am confident that some of what follows will strike a chord with everyone.

I am very grateful to those many people who wrote in, and apologise to them for having to cut out so much of what they contributed. In places you will see an asterisk which indicates that a fuller version of this piece, or additional information, can be found on the Tower and Town website. There you will also find some photographs which relate to some of these accounts. There are contributions from the churches, from the town and from the people - it is your magazine and this is your story.

David Du Croz