Marlborough, "Mop Fair" High Street c.1919

Photo ref: M34301

I was travelling from Hounslow to Bristol on a Blue/Cream coach. No M4 to Bristol then only as far as Reading. We stopped at Maidenhead coach station. Next I remember Marlborough. I alighted and looking around saw the Polly Tearooms. Oh how welcome. I often go back and fondly recall those wonderful days of my youth. John Betjeman featured the Polly Tea Rooms in one of his films. They are timeless in this changing world!

The chimney and roof of the lodge that can just be seen in this photo is my current house. Fascinating to see how much the surroundings have grown over with scrub and trees in the last 50-odd years.

I was the youngest boy (8 years old) at the City of London School sharing Marlborough College as evacuees from London during the Second World War. I, together with a few other youngsters, had a 'camp' in Treacle Bolly. One high on the hill on the left-hand side in a tree root and one further in down by the river. At that age, and during a war, I can't say that they were the happiest days of ...see more

My husband and I were both born in Marlborough. My husband is Peter Long and I believe he went to Grammar School with Julian West whose family owned the tea rooms. We both remember the fire as it was the year we were married; and that afterwards the Mop Fairs held in October had to re-position itself to accommodate fire engine access should another fire happen. I worked in Rawlings and Phillips corn merchants ...see more