Marlborough, Wiltshire

Marlborough Mop Fair

I have a photograph of a group of children at the Marlborough Mop Fair from the convalescant home, which used to be a home for old homeless gentlemen, then became a hospital for children recovering from various illnesses. I worked nights, and sometimes got very scared when an old man would come rattling on the door, demanding to get in. Jean... [more]

Wartime Marlborough

Evacuated with my sister and mother, one of our favourite walks was to Treacle Bolley where we collected rose hips which were then sent away to be made into a source of vitamin C and distributed to those who needed it. On a visit to Marlborough (from London) a few years ago, I was unable to find Treacle Bolley nor... [more]

My family used to own this!

A photo very similar to this hangs in my bedroom, I am a West and spent many a happy summers here. My family used to own the tearooms, my mother and her brother were caught in the fire in 1966 which resulted in the top two floors being burnt down. Me, my brother and sister visited only once a year as... [more]

Wartime Marlborough

Sent out of London during the Blitz with my mother, grandmother and sister, a visit to the Polly Tea Rooms was for special occasions only. We loved it when the parents of the boys from Marlborough School came to visit and brought their sons to Polly's for tea (even though we were only 5 or 6!). Happily, the tea rooms... [more]

Great Grandfather

It is strange to see one of the two portraits that hung in my grandparents' hallway, for sale on the web.  Issac was born in 1837 in Berwick Bassett, Wiltshire.  Taught himself to read and write while an agricultural labourer, and joined the Wilts Constabulary in 1874.  During the winter of 1881/2 he was pensioned out of the police from injuries... [more]

Marlborough Photographic Memories

The west end of the High Street is bounded by St Peter and St Paul's Church, dating from the mid to late 15th century. Its impressive four-square tower stands reinforced by octagonal turrets capped with 18th-century pyramids. Today the tower is not so visible, because the trees have grown larger.

Marlborough Photographic Memories

The Castle and Ball Hotel, an old established commercial hotel and posting house on the north side of the High Street, has a distinctive tile-hung front with pierced barge-boards decorating the three gable ends. These have since been replaced with plainer examples, although the balls finishing the gables are still there. On the ground floor is a pentice, a common feature of the High Street frontages, which must have kept many a market trader and his... [more]

Marlborough Photographic Memories

This steep-roofed brick building with rather a Gothic flavour, designed by G E Street, replaced a block of fives courts. It commemorates the name of one of the College's headmasters, George Granville Bradley (1858-70). He followed Dr Cotton in increasing the size of Marlborough from a modest establishment, providing good cut-price education to the son of clergymen, to one of the great public schools of the time.