To The Editor, Tower and Town, 04 March 2016

Memories Of Marlborough

My friend Audrey Darcey from Marlborough sends me the Tower and Town magazine sometimes. I was very interested in the one I received this morning, and wondered if you would be interested in my remembrance of living in the town.

I was born in Marlborough in 1930. My father Bill Coulimore was caretaker of the British Legion Club so we lived at No. 9 St Martins. We attended the Congregational Chapel, where I was married in 1951 then came to live in the Manchester area. My mother did a lot of sewing and I used to go with my cousin Irene Dunsby and our mothers to the armoury at Marlborough College where they would repair the College cadets' uniforms.

I remember the old type organ that was at our Chapel. My friend Mary and I would watch the boys pumping the organ from the side as we sat in the choir stalls. On Saturday mornings I used to meet with other youngsters at Jimmy Ducks stables and we would go for a ride on his horses. He was an elderly man and had been the first world war. It was different in those days, he would never have his horses out on a Sunday because he said they needed a day of rest as well as people. I think he sometimes preached at the Wesleyan Chapel. We would ride up to Savernake Forest or go on to the Downs.

My God-mother Mrs Wall lived at Cardigan Cottage on Cardigan Road. I think her husband had been a master at Marlborough College. Some Saturdays Irene and I would sell the flags for charities on the High St. I remember the College boys had purses with like a tray where they could tip their change into before buying a flag. I remember coming round from the Grammar School and looking to see what the temperature of the water was that we had to get into for a swim: so cold!

My father died in 1963. He had been on his own since my mother died in 1951. He was a postman. He got married again to Alice Cobern. I used to like reading the articles about Marlborough that Muriel Cobern wrote (see Muriel's Memories of Marlborough.

I was interested in the article that Ann (Rushen) Owen wrote [ed. Earlier Times In Marlborough – edition 656, February 2016]. We used to have milk from her father. When I came out of the Chapel when I got married, she gave me a silver horseshoe. My grandmother Annie Dunsby lived at 4 The Green and would collect things there for a jumble sale in the Congregational Sunday School Hall, to benefit the Chapel.

I stayed in Marlborough for my 80th birthday. My Family paid for a treat to stay at the Ivy House Hotel. It was very nice there; such a pity it is no longer a hotel. My school friend Clare and her husband took us around to see so many places. I was able to see my mother and father's grave. I did not find my grandfather's headstone that was in the old part [ed. of the town cemetery?]. Marlborough had changed so much from when I lived there. It was good to see Marlborough as one of the “Best Market Towns” in my Readers' Digest magazine.

Joyce M Rayson (neé Coulimore)