Tower and Town, February 2023 (view the full edition)Editorial: Links Through HistoryHenry Ford famously, or infamously, said 'History is More or Less Bunk'. In fact, he was referring to tradition, as a dead hand that stifles the need for contemporary creativity. But he was, and is, wrong. At the November meeting of the Marlborough History Society, Neil Stevens spoke about the Americans in Marlborough in the Second World War. There was a very large audience for this topic of 'local interest', as if it was an opportunity to look at the town of our forebears and to imagine how things were in such different but familiar surroundings. In the pieces that have been generously contributed to this edition you will find even in sometimes very small ways that 'History' is not necessarily remote, but a mirror in which we can see ourselves: King John and his wife resided in Marlborough Castle; there are war graves in Marlborough's cemeteries, and so on. The Ukrainian families who are here in Marlborough and the area round about shared their Christmas celebration with us in St Peter's Church and thanked us for the help and friendship that they have received here. Even at this terrible time for their nation, whatever the next two years may bring, we have a piece of history in common. John Osborne |