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Marlborough is situated in the picturesque rural north-east Wiltshire. Much of its great natural beauty is environmentally protected and it offers the discerning visitor a unique blend of ancient history and modern attractions and facilities. Much of its great natural beauty is environmentally protected and it offers the discerning visitor a unique blend of ancient history and modern attractions and facilities. It sits gracefully 430ft above sea level in the shallow upland valley of the River Kennet which flows through the town. Bordering the rolling Marlborough Downs to the north, the town straddles the A4 and for centuries was an important staging post on the great road from London to Bath and Bristol.
Touring Base Marlborough has attracted visitors since the days of the stagecoach and now has our St Martins Court apartment situated in the centre of the High Street along with excellent restaurants, shopping and leisure facilities. It is thus the ideal base for riding, rambling, cycling, driving or even hang-gliding over the unspoilt downland. There are attractive villages, ancient sites, historic houses and a variety of wildlife to enjoy throughout the area. A legend which persisted until the 14th century stated that Merlin, the magician to King Arthur, is buried here under a mound and gave the town its name ‘Merle Barrow’, or Merlin’s Tomb. This mound, on which Marlborough’s Royal Castle stood for several hundred years from Norman times, is thought to date from prehistory, as is the 40 metre high conical Silbury Hill, 4 miles to the west. The mound is now within the private grounds of Marlborough College where William Morris and John Betjeman were pupils. At the other end of the famous High Street a Saxon settlement grew up around what is now The Green. During the Civil War loyalties were divided and Marlborough was badly damaged when a Royalist force attacked Parliamentarians in the town. In 1204 King John granted the Borough its Charter. King Henry III initiated the famous “Statutes of Marlborough,” passed in the Castle’s Great Hall in 1267. The town now has one of the widest streets in England with many Georgian buildings and architectural styles which span over 300 years. Between the colonnaded shops there are fascinating back alleys with medieval timber-framed cottages which escaped a great fire in 1653. The fire left some 250 houses gutted and rendered 300 families homeless. At each end of the high street is a fine church: at the west end the 15th century St Peter’s, and to the east, behind the Town Hall, the church of St Mary’s. Among the buildings in the street is the splendid Merchant’s House, built in 1656 during the Cromwellian period, and now being restored as a 17th century town house. To find out more about Marlborough's Churches and Buildings
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The
area has been home to the Romans whose settlement, Cunetio, gave its name
to the River Kennet. Even earlier Neolithic, Bronze and Iron-Age tribes
left behind ceremonial monuments as ancient as the Pyramids. The oldest
of these surrounds the village of Avebury, with its wonderful concentration
of prehistoric circles and stones dating from 2500BC –older than
Stonehenge which lies 21 miles to the south.