Marlborough News Guide to Christmas 2016

Merry Marlborough Christmas
What a year it’s been for
Marlborough.News
Now in our fifth year, over 7,500
people a week log on to www.
marlborough.news, making it the
town’s best-read news platform.
Why? Because we’re a free source
of local news and views, written
by experienced journalists based
right here in the Marlborough
area.
Two thousand of you now enjoy
a lively conversation with us on
Facebook, and more than 1,600 of
you follow us on Twitter, as all of
our news stories, features, sports
reports, and even job ads are
linked to social media.
This year we were delighted
to support some great local
initiatives, including Mantonfest
music festival, and Marlborough in
Bloom.
MNO continues to champion
local sport, and are proud to
support Marlborough Hockey
Club, Marlborough Rugby Club,
Marlborough Cricket Club, and
Marlborough Youth Football.
Most of our news content is
created by Tony Millett, Neil
Goodwin and Peter Davison – ably
assisted by a band of enthusiastic
volunteers including Sue Round
and Nick Maurice – with Marina
Rae responsible for selling
advertising on the site.
We’re always looking for
new voices, so if you’d like to
contribute please get in touch.
For this year’s Guide to Christmas
in Marlborough, we’ve enrolled
some familiar faces from the
Marlborough community with the
brief to tell us about their most
memorable Christmas.
Journalist Nigel Kerton, The
Food Gallery owner Bob Holman,
Dr Nick Maurice, farmer Chris
Musgrave, town clerk Shelley
Parker, and writer and traveller
Jo Carroll have all put finger to
keyboard. They’re an eclectic
bunch and we think you’ll find it an
interesting read.
Thanks for your support in 2016
and see you in 2017, when you’ll
see some exciting changes to the
site.

Thank you for all your support this year
Happy Christmas
113 The High Street • Marlborough • Wiltshire SN8 1LT
+44 (0)1672 514008 • sales@daviddudley.co.uk
David Dudley Jeweller
david dudley ltd
www.daviddudley.co.uk

A mayoral year in review, by councillor Noel Barrett-Morton
This lovely autumn season leads
us quickly into the hustle, bustle
and excitement of the Christmas
season. Already, our shops are
filled with food items and gift
ideas as the build-up begins.
Here in Marlborough we look
forward to the switching-on of
the Christmas Lights on Friday
November 18.
This is a wonderful opportunity
to bring the family into
Marlborough and it always
seems to herald the countdown
to Christmas. We are so lucky
with our wide High Street and
eclectic mix of shops offering
something for everyone.
We have always had a wide
selection of restaurants and
pubs and this year we have
seen the opening of a Rick Stein
Restaurant. Not only is this a
positive draw for the town but it
has also provided employment
for a good number of local
people.
In June of this year we all
enjoyed the celebrations for
Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th
Birthday.
This was a joyful and special
occasion and, as Mayor and her
Representative in Marlborough,
I marked the day with a ‘Civic
Selfie’ (including as many people
as possible assembled in our
Town Hall).
Looking back to the summer,
my wife and I were involved
in the Marlborough in Bloom
competition and our town was
bursting with impressive floral
displays and colour. The South
West in Bloom awards were
made in October and we can
definitely hold our heads up
high as we did extremely well,
winning many awards and two
cups.
In early September my wife and
I were privileged to be invited to
the Mansion House in London
for Tea with the Lord Mayor
and Aldermen of the City of
London at a commemoration
for the 600th anniversary of the
Great Fire of London in 1666.
The people of Marlborough had
sent the sum of £50 towards
the rebuilding of London ( a
considerable sum in those days)
and I think this was in empathy
after Marlborough’s own great
fire in 1653.
Our involvement with 4th
Military Intelligence Battalion at
Bulford continues to strengthen
and we have the privilege
of watching them parade
for us in the High Street on
Remembrance Day. They also
support us on many other
occasions throughout the year
providing willing and able ‘team’
members for the Mayor’s cricket
and golf matches, and stewards
for the Christmas Lights switchon.
Their tie with the town is
important and their support
invaluable.
In September we hosted a
concert in St Peter’s Church to
raise funds for my two charities
the Wiltshire Air Ambulance and
Swift Medics. The concert was
delightful and well attended
but could not have come about
without the wonderful and
selfless help offered by so many
people in Marlborough.
I am now almost half-way
through my mayoral year and
the thing that I have become
more and more aware of as
the months have passed is
that we have a wonderful
and largely unseen group of
volunteers in our lovely town,
every organisation is backed up
by these individuals who give
their time and expertise without
charge and with a willing grace.
These people are the
backbone of our community in
Marlborough.
On behalf of my fellow town
councillors, I wish you all a
very happy Christmas and a
prosperous new year.

Friday 4 November is the
day we’re opening our
Christmas room in the
panelled chamber upstairs.
There will be something for
all the family and stunning
decorations too.
Our opening times:
Mondays - Saturdays, 9.30am to 5pm,
Sundays from 6 November 11am to 4.30pm
Late night Friday 18 November until 8pm.
We look forward to welcoming you
and hope that you will be inspired
by the wide variety of gifts on offer.
www.themerchantshouse.co.uk 01672861244
The Merchant’s House
(Marlborough Trust)
132 High Street
Marlborough SN8 1HN
DANISH INSPIRED DECORATIONS & GIFTS
MARLBOROUGH INTERIORS
INTRODUCING
HYGGE MARKETS CHRISTMAS
Opening 25 th November to 24 th December
at Elcot Mews, off Elcot Lane, opposite Marlborough Playing Fields
Open 10am - 5.30pm Monday to Saturday
For more information call 01672 511415 or register
your interest: design@marlboroughinteriors.com
Established 1848
Extra Opening Times:
Christmas Lights Switch On: Friday 18 th Nov: 9:30am - 8pm (Switch On 7pm)
Sundays: 4 th Dec, 11 th Dec & 18 th Dec: 10:30am - 4pm
e: marlborough@deacons-jewellers.com w: www.deacons-jewellers.com t: 01672 519 955
a: 44/45 High Street, Marlborough, SN8 1HQ
*Items featured subject to stock availability

The Christmas I got mixed up in a royal hoax, by Nigel Kerton
Sometimes it is forgotten that
while the majority of people are
enjoying their celebrations on
Christmas Day there are many
who, because of the nature of
their occupation, have to regard
it as another working day, just
another day at the office.
Nurses, surgeons, fire fighters,
police officers, ambulance
personnel and many other have
to take their turn working on this
special day and on other bank
holidays when the majority of
people enjoy a statutory day off.
And so it was for me for many
of the almost 50 years that I
worked as a journalist on local
papers, for more than 35 years
as the Marlborough and Pewsey
reporter for the Gazette and
Herald.
As a very young reporter I always
volunteered to be on call on
Christmas day so that my older
colleagues could enjoy the day
with their children and families.
Latterly, in my later decades of
reporting and when my own
children had grown up, I offered
to work on Christmas day so that
my younger journalist friends
could have the day off with their
children!
The day would start with a round
of calls to the police and fire
brigade to check what incidents
they had or were ongoing.
Those calls would have to be
repeated every couple of hours
and then, of course, there were
the phone calls to the hospitals
to see if there had been any
Christmas babies… and the
same, of course, on New Year’s
Day.
For the final decade of my
career I volunteered to be on
call because every Christmas
Day my wife Joy and family all
helped run the special lunch for
the town’s OAP’s in the Town
Hall so making the odd phone
call was not disturbing my own
celebrations.
Most years there was little to
report on Christmas Day.
But other years I was not so
fortunate, invariably because of
fires, road accidents and other
tragedies.
However the oddest Christmas
Day story I wrote, in 1978, was
about a Marlborough family who
had a call several days earlier
from a someone claiming to
be a Buckingham Palace aide
who explained that every year
the Queen chose some of her
subjects at random to telephone
on Christmas morning.
The family tipped me off, so from
about 8.30am to noon I stayed
with them, with them waiting
excitedly for the Queen’s call
while I had a growing feeling the
whole thing was a hoax. The call
never came.
The police became involved and
traced the call to the home of a
couple of pranksters who were
subsequently rebuked by the
magistrates for their joke that
clearly went wrong.
And there was an odd corollary
to this tale because when I
‘phoned the Buckingham Palace
press office, not suspecting for
a moment that its staff might
be on a day off, I was greeted
by a gruff voice that growled:
“There’s no-one in the office.”
I shall go to my grave believing
it was Prince Philip himself who
answered!

Polly’s by Candlelight
Rick Stein, Marlborough
Lloran House, 42a High Street, Marlborough, Wiltshire sn8 1hq
“Marlborough is such a beautiful town in a wonderful part of
the country and it’s incredibly exciting to have a restaurant right
on the High Street. Expect my favourite seafood dishes of turbot
hollandaise, Dover sole a la meunière and Indonesian curry
alongside game and meat dishes. Jill, Ed and Kate have done a
fabulous job on restoring the listed building, sympathetic to the
Georgian architecture, and have created a welcoming, relaxing
and stylish space. Hope to see you there.”
Live jazz music
Cocktails and canapes
Sharing plate menu
On Saturdays November
12 & 26 and December 10
6.30pm-10pm
Open every day for lunch and dinner
01672 233333
www.rickstein.com
@SteinMarlb
/RickSteinMarlborough
The Polly Tearooms and Restaurant 01672 512146

The Christmas I flew to Yemen in a Hercules, by Bob Holman
I was eight years old. It was the
end of Christmas term 1963 at
Millfield School, Somerset. I had
to get to Aden, Yemen.
My parents were stationed
there. Dad taught the Aden
Protectorate Levies - a military
force raised for local defence
and armed and officered by the
British military.
My first task was to get to
London. This was easy, as my
school hired a train each term to
transport many from very sleepy
Castle Cary to Paddington
Station. Not dissimilar to
Hogwarts Express - thinking
back on it – hundreds of boys
and girls, all wearing ‘house’
scarves, ladened down with
sports equipment, metal trunks
and tuck boxes. Out of chaos
we somehow embarked on a
majestic huffing steam train.
Hours later, we finally arrived in
London, piled out of the train
to be met (well most were met)
by parents or guardians. Lots of
hugs and tears from mums.
I wandered off to find a bus
to take me to RAF Northolt –
another long journey, and three
bus changes away, I discovered.
I arrived in torrential rain, to be
faced with a fully camouflaged
Lockheed Hercules – the
tactical transport aircraft and
the workhorse of the RAF’s air
transport fleet.
And mostly asleep, in a windy
hangar, were men of two
armoured car squadrons, plus
their vehicles, ready to board
the same aircraft. I found the
squadron leaders, who seemed
to know about me, who asked
me to join them for a cup of tea,
as the plane was being readied
for flight.
Two hours later we took off. I say
‘took off’ in the loosest possible
way. A Hercules isn’t built for
speed. We seemed to be on
the runway for hours. And the
noise. Oh gosh. Four enormous
turboprops make a whopping
sound at full pitch, straining to
defy gravity. At least it would
be quieter when we finally get
airborne.
Wrong. The brain shattering
noise, and the rattling of
every single rivet
on the plane,
lasted the entire
journey, making
any dialogue
impossible.
If you’re unfamiliar
with this aircraft,
the interior is
designed primarily
for cargo, with
humans being
accommodated
rather reluctantly.
The cargo was parked two
abreast in the middle of the
cavernous inside, with webbing
seating attached along the
entire length of each side of the
fuselage.
Food was handed out in
cardboard ‘comporation’ boxes.
It was not tasty, but it did a job.
The flight was not comfortable,
but this didn’t seem to bother
my fellow RAF passengers
who seemed capable of going
comatose at will.
So, three days later – yes, it took
that long – we arrived at our
destination. After many landings
and take-offs, repairs and
pilot change-overs, we finally
bumped into a very dusty Aden.
I’d hardly slept all journey, but
with blinking eyes due to the
scorching sunshine, I staggered
down the unloading ramp at the
back of the plane, before the
vehicles were driven off.
I made my way to a little hut with
a hand-painted sign: ‘Welcome
to Aden’. Still with trunk and
tuck box I went into the tin
building – to see a crowd of
people huddled around a prone
body.
My mother had passed out from
the heat! And so my Christmas
holiday started.

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The Boxing Day we ice skated to Devizes, by Dr Nick Maurice
In 1946 my parents moved 100
yards from Kingsbury Hill House
to Number 10 Kingsbury Street,
buying the latter for £3,000 and
selling the former to the Misses
Winburne to become Kingsbury
Hill School - where I was
educated until I was eight.
Number 10 was a wonderful six
bedroom family home which
came into its own at Christmas.
My three siblings and I were
put to work making paper
chains to be hung from the high
ceilings of the hall, dining and
drawing rooms, Christmas cards
displayed on mantelpieces
above fireplaces where log
fires burnt throughout the day,
and weaving holly and ivy from
Savernake Forest through the
banister supports on the main
staircase.
The Christmas tree – also from
the forest – was decorated, and
candles in their holders clipped
to the branches.
There was no central heating
and the winters were colder
with frost inside the bedroom
windows, but at least we knew
that Christmas meant skating
on the canal at Burbage wharf,
dancing to music from a wind-up
gramophone planted on the ice
or playing violent games of ice
hockey with friends.
The greatest day was Boxing Day
1959 when on a cold, cloudless
day we skated from Burbage to
Devizes, only having to hop off
the ice when we came to bridges
which had protected the water
from freezing.
Christmas dinner always took
place on Christmas Eve. My
father was the GP obstetrician at
Savernake Hospital who, it was
noted, during his 42 years there
delivered over 6,000 babies - a
number larger than what was
then the town’s population!
He always felt obliged to be on
duty on Christmas Day to allow
his partners to be with their
families.
A mixture of formality and
informality was the order of
the day. Dinner jackets and
long dresses were de rigeur,
two or three guests
were included from
amongst those my
parents knew would
be alone at Christmas.
The meal was followed
by vigorous games of
charades.
Those games stick
in the memory. One
guest, a local Jewish
psychologist, acting
out a suicide scene
used my father’s
glasses cabinet for
the window he was
supposedly jumping
out of.
He threw open the
doors and threw
himself into the
cabinet - smashing
a number of Dad’s precious
antique glasses.
Another guest, standing on a
chair while playing Juliet with
the greatest passion, with her
husband’s Romeo kneeling on
the floor beneath her, had all the
passion destroyed (or perhaps
enhanced?) as her petticoat slid
to her ankles!
Christmas Day included a visit to
Savernake Hospital after church,
when all the doctors dressed in
outlandish costumes to cheer
up the patients, and to carve the
turkey on the wards while we
children served the patients.

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The year we accidentally froze the turkeys, by Chris Musgrave
Christmas seems to be one of
those times when we all have
high expectations of ‘the perfect
Christmas’, but as - so often in life -
it doesn’t quite work out that way.
It’s probably best to start with my
worst Christmas. This happened
many years ago when we were
trying to diversify our farming
set-up and we hit upon the idea of
Christmas turkeys.
The birds duly arrived in August
and for the next five months they
were fed and watered to be fully
fit for Christmas Day.
In those days we were plucking
them by hand, and the only way to
get through the numbers - 2,500
birds - and to keep them fresh,
was to hire a chiller unit.
We started plucking on December
5th and put the plucked turkeys
from the first four days into the
chiller - ready to be collected by
the butchers on December 18th.
We finished plucking all the other
birds and soon enough the day
arrived and the butchers turned
up to collect their birds.
We opened the chiller unit and I
sent in a few of the team to start
handling out the birds.
I was soon aware of various
cries: ”It’s cold in here” and “I’m
freezing”. Oh, I thought, it can’t be
that cold.
But sure enough it was. The
thermostat on the chiller had
gone wrong and what should
have been a farm fresh lovely
turkey at two degrees centigrade
was deeply frozen at minus seven
centigrade!
The butchers were furious as they
also had customers to satisfy and
these birds certainly wouldn’t do.
There was nothing for it but to
hang them in a barn to thaw.
However, as they thawed they
soon became wet and glistening.
Oh what a nightmare!
It got worse. Someone suggested
knocking a hole in the barn wall
and using the big fan we normally
used for drying hay.
It seemed a great idea. But
having knocked a hole in the wall
someone forgot to sweep up the
brick dust. So now our wet and
glistening turkeys had a good
covering of red brick dust.
At that stage, the season
of good will slightly lost
its meaning.
We did eventually
resolve the situation, but
by then the enjoyment
of looking forward to
Christmas had vanished.
That said most years,
Christmas in our house
are truly amazing.
We live in a rambling
old farmhouse up on the
Marlborough Downs,
and it has become
the norm for all of the
extended family from far
and wide to gather with
us for Christmas day.
It’s lovely on Christmas
Eve as everyone starts to
arrive from far and wide.
The log fire is burning,
the tree is up, carols are
being sung and there is
a wonderful atmosphere as we all
come together to celebrate and to
be with each other at this time.
It’s people that make Christmas, it
only happens once a year and it’s
a special time to finish work and
quieten down, to come together
in church, to celebrate with family
and close friends - and also to
appreciate how fortunate we are
to live in such an idyllic setting,
remembering that not everyone is
as lucky as ourselves.

Christmas: not for everyone
by Jo Carroll
Even those with a deep religious
conviction, for whom the
Christmas story layers the season
with meaning, cannot escape the
shops; the pressure to spend,
spend, spend.
Digger & Mojo
DECORATIVE ANTIQUES, INTERIORS
& CHRISTMAS GIFTS
Christmas is not for everyone -
it’s not compulsory . There - I’ve
said it. And for some that will feel
heretical.
But over the last few years I’ve
learnt that if you don’t smother a
tree in tinsel - nothing happens.
If you don’t remember to send
cards to all the neighbours
and to Great Aunt Nellie, then
nothing happens. And no, I’m
not just being a bah-humbug.
It’s no secret that my husband
died at Christmas. And before
you think ‘that explains why I’m
a misery guts’, there’s others for
whom Christmas means much
more than days off work and
stuffing ourselves with pudding.
And so we have to find our
own way to make sense of the
festival. For me – understanding
that I did not have to join in with
the razzmatazz if I didn’t want
to – was a turning point. I have
friends and family who lovingly
open their doors to me if I want
company. And if I decide to
spend the day on my own - well,
that’s fine too.
Some of you reading this
might be dreading the end of
December and just want the
whole thing to be over. You are
not alone. It takes time to reach
a point where you can have the
Christmas that is right for you.
Remember, Christmas is not
compulsory.
If there is any meaning behind
the Christmas message it is that
we should look after each other.
And that doesn’t mean we have
to stuff our face with mince pies
just because everyone else is.
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The time we made snowmen out of sand, by Shelley Parker
Just before Christmas, in the
late 1980s, I was posted by the
Foreign Office to Sierra Leone in
West Africa.
It was not everyone’s idea for
Yuletide celebrations, though
for me it holds vivid and happy
festive memories.
This was before the days of civil
war and Ebola. Sierra Leone is
truly beautiful with a magnificent
coastline.
Then it was also a sometimes
mysterious, dangerous place
with mercenaries and diamond
smuggling, corruption, and
it was next door to war torn
Liberia.
In spite of this, the Sierra
Leoneans were happy,
delightful people and proud
of their membership of the
Commonwealth.
Those of us working in and
around the capital, Freetown,
got on well.
We had to - all thrown together
in a small compound with no
telephones only walkie talkies,
sporadic electricity relying
heavily on generators and a
poor water supply.
Poverty was all around, malaria
and disease were rife but we
were all there to help make the
country a better place to live.
In those days the British were
generous with their aid and
helped to set up banks and
businesses, offered educational
and cultural exchanges and most
importantly, medical help.
My Christmas started from my
small office with a fantastic
view of the Atlantic Ocean and
the Canberra moved slowly
across the vista. A white cruise
ship punctuated a totally blue
horizon while I processed visas
for visits to the UK, and sorted
out a temporary passport and
tickets home to the UK for a
desperate teenage girl duped
into marrying against her will.
It was tropical and 25th
December was hot. No shops,
nothing to buy. No turkey.
No crackers. No Christmas
tree. We all looked
forward to the arrival
of something called
the Diplomatic Bag
usually full of official
mail (no internet then)
but, this time carrying
Christmas cards and
letters from home.
Along with young
British doctors
working for various
aid organisations,
we spent the day on
the beach playing
games and trying,
unsuccessfully, to
build a snowmen out
of sand and watching
the fish being brought
in on nets ready for
the local market.
We’d shared all the
good things we had
brought in our suitcases from
home, a few bottles of wine,
biscuits, melted chocolates and
shared them all, sang carols and
hung paper decorations on palm
trees.
Christmas is different for me now
with a family and children but,
that one will always be a special
one to remember – one where
you made the most of what you
had and still had so much more
than others.

Christmas what’s on for kids
YOUNG WANHS: Prehistory Visit
Wiltshire Museum, 41 Long Street,
Devizes
Saturday, 10 December, 10.15am
Benefits include:
• Swim from just
£30 per month
• Restricted membership
numbers
• Very high water
quality
Join today
and get fit in 2017
For more information or an application form visit:
marlboroughcollege.org/HealthClub
or call Martin Shaw on 07747 758107 for an informal chat
or pop in to Crosby and Lawrence.
A journey through the Bronze Age
galleries, plus Christmas themed
crafts, inspired by the collections.
Young WANHS is a club for 7
to 14 year olds interested in
archaeology and history. Held the
second Saturday of the month
10.15am-12.15pm.
01380 727369
hello@wiltshiremuseum.org.uk
Christmas Holiday programme
for children / young people
The Craft Studio, Elcot Lane
Monday 19 - Friday 23 December
Crafts for children include
Christmas decorations, snow
globes, candles for presents,
felt animals and chocolates and
Christmas houses.
For more information, visit
www.thecraftstudiomarlborough.
co.uk
Christmas Festival of Lights
Longleat Safari & Adventure Park,
Runs until January 2, 2017
This winter the unmissable Festival
of Light will return and transform
the park into a glowing winter
wonderland.
Europe’s largest Chinese Lantern
Festival will be a celebration of
all creatures great and small,
with some help from the beloved
characters of Beatrix Potter.

Have a Sparkling Christmas with Fraser’s Budgens!
Merry Christmas from the Staff and Owners
of us here at Fraser’s Budgens of
Marlborough, your family owned
independent Convenience Store/
Forecourt/Subway!
Marlborough
Christmas Fair
Saturday 26 November
Marlborough Town Hall
From 10am until 4pm
Come along to our Christmas Fair with over 35 festive
stalls and entertainment. From meeting Santa and his
elves, to homemade Christmas decorations, choirs and
bellringers there’s something for all the family.
Prospect Hospice Official Page
@prospecthospice
Registered Charity Number 280093
Supported by
Laithwaites now in store!
Stock up with some fine wines this Christmas from our
great selection from Laithwaites.
Laithwaite’s wine are an independent family run business
with over 40 years of experience in wine, winning
hundreds of awards both for wine and for our business and
try over 40,000 wines a year to select the very best value
for money for you!
Remember, you can join our
exclusive Platinum Club online at
www.frasersbudgens.co.uk. You’ll
get 2p off a litre every Sunday,
Half Price Platinum Car Washes
Mon-Fri, 20% off hot drinks, a free
product each month and money
off vouchers too… phew!
A huge thank you to all our customers for
your continued support during 2016 and
we look forward to seeing you in the New
In the store there is a huge selection of
great offers, from half price wines to mix n
match cheeses and fantastic Christmas
meats. Come in the store and check out
what we have on offer.
Opening Hours
Standard times other than…
24 th December 6am – 10pm
25 th December 10am – 2pm
26 th December 8am – 8pm
31 st December 6am – 10pm
1 st January 7am – 8pm

Marlborough’s
CHRISTMAS
LIGHTS SWITCH ON
Friday 18 th November
Lights on
at 7 pm
Fabulous festive fare &
gifts at the Christmas
market 10am–8pm
Children’s rides 5pm-8pm
Choral & dance
performances 5pm
onwards
Citizen of the Year and
Young Citizen of the Year
Presentations 6.45pm
Some late night shopping
Town Hall
Meet Father Christmas in his grotto
3pm-8pm
Book in advance at
www.rotarysanta2016.eventbrite.co.uk
A real community
partnership
www.marlborough-tc.gov.uk @MarlboroughTC @MTCwilts