We warmly welcome guests to our talks at £5.00 per person. Students are free.
Membership to the Marlborough History Society is £15.00 per annum. Memberships are renewed in January, either online before or at the first talk of 2026 If you wish to become a member please click here.
For events/talks held at St Peter’s Church, doors open at 7.00 pm
Please note: There are no talks in June, July, August and December
TALK: The talk is about the ancient but forgotten road from Oxford to Bristol running across the north of Wiltshire, that he discovered on a map from 1675. The route has its origins back in the Iron Age and was used by everyone in the millennia that followed: kings, armies, monks, travellers, and pilgrims. But in the 18th century, it suddenly fell into disuse due to some dodgy dealings and only now is its history and importance being recognised.
David will be covering: the geography that governed the route of the road, how it was used by the Romans, the role it played in the development of Malmesbury as a centre of religion for nearly a thousand years, the importance of Purton as a stopping off point along the route and why the church has both a spire and a tower.
SPEAKER: David Mitchell is an accidental historian who has always been interested in old maps. It was this passion that led to him uncovering the mystery of the North Wessex Way and started his gradual descent into the obsession of history!
TALK: The mediaeval parish churches in and around Marlborough have a lot of charm and much historical and architectural interest. In this lecture we shall visit a selection of local churches, discover some of the chief features of these buildings and spot the different architectural styles that developed over the 500-year period of the Middle Ages.
SPEAKER: John Osborne taught Classical Languages and Ancient History at Marlborough College, where he was Senior Master, and ran a course at the College’s Summer School visiting and studying historic churches in this area. He runs similar tours for the Friends of Wiltshire Churches and is a volunteer guide at Salisbury Cathedral.
TALK: Punch represents the common man fighting his small battles with life. The characters in the traditional show are just the ones that would have beset him 1760 -1830 when the story, as we know it today, was developed. However, his story is much older than that and goes back into the medieval ages.
The conception that he is a Victorian children’s entertainment is entirely misplaced, he actually represents the outlook of the Georgian man in the street, who had the money for the Punch man’s hat. This would have been the same in Marlborough as for those watching the show in London. In the last 60 seconds of the talk Punch arrives for children.
SPEAKER: Alix Booth has been a Professor of Punch and Judy for nearly fifty years and her interest in the history has continued throughout this time. Pelham Puppets will be only briefly mentioned, as marionettes are completely different from the slapstick humour of the glove puppet theatre.
TALK: In 1678 William White bequeathed his library to Cornelius Yeate Vicar of St Mary’s to pass down to successive vicars (more information in Ilse Nikolsky’s piece on this website).
In 1985, to protect and preserve the manuscripts, the library was placed on permanent loan to the Bodleian Library in Oxford. On 29th April 2026 Nick presented a talk on six manuscripts from the library at the Bodleian as part of our MHS visit to Oxford.
This talk focusses on those six manuscripts as well as providing wider perspectives. The earliest selected, John Foxe’s “Actes and Monuments” or “Book of Martyrs” was published in 1610. Religious tracts of the times are also included as is the “Eikon Basilike – the workes of King Charles the Martyr” (1662) and a 1687 travel guide!
SPEAKER: Nick Baxter (MA) is a local historian, author, lectures widely on local history subjects and leads guided walks.
TALK: The latest news on this landmark project to revitalise the derelict Assize Court in Devizes as the new home for the Wiltshire Museum, supported by an £8.5m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This talk will outline the fascinating history of the building, update on the building restoration and development of the new displays. The project is expected to take 3 years, with opening planned for 2030!
SPEAKER: David Dawson is the Director of the award-wining Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, and is an archaeologist who has worked in museums in Sussex, Canterbury and Oxfordshire.
TALK: Sir George Dowty (1901- 1975) was a prolific engineering designer who established the Dowty Group in 1931. The business became one of the major suppliers of aircraft equipment to the RAF during the Second World War. In 1942 they began supplying the Lancaster bomber with a Dowty designed undercarriage. Dowty supplied components to virtually every RAF plane in the Second World War and had the distinguished record of no RAF aircraft ever being grounded for lack of Dowty parts. At the conclusion of the war they entered the mining industry through their design of hydraulic roof supports. The Cheltenham based group employed 15,000 directly and 45,000 indirectly. At Sir George Dowty’s passing in 1975 the Dowty Group was recognised worldwide for its engineering prowess.
SPEAKER: Martin Robins was a commercial trainee with the electronics business Plessey. In the early 1970s he joined the Dowty Group in their group finance office where he served for a decade. He subsequently became the managing director of the Cotswold based quarrying business Farmington Natural Stone . He retired in 2005 to renovate his 16th century farmhouse near Malmesbury.
TALK: The first serious attempt to build the ‘Western Canal’ in 1788 failed for lack of interest. By 1792 the Canal Mania was sweeping the country and plans and funding were in place. This story of NIMBYism on a grand scale is well documented and the rise of the canal secured before opening fully in 1810. There is a period of great success but then a decline as rail took over from canal. Then, in the 1960’s a great public movement to restore the canal for pleasure started of which we celebrate the 75th anniversary this year.
SPEAKER: David Throup retired from a management role in research for a world renowned company in Newbury, David, amongst his other interests, took a step back to Georgian technology by volunteering at Crofton Beam Engines. The picture shows the crowning glory of the Canal – Caen Hill locks. Unable to leave his research brain behind, this talk results from many hours of research completed largely without leaving home.
TALK:Patrick Hickman-Robertson discovered that there has never been a history of casual clothing when he tried to find out when women first wore jeans and when people started wearing baseball caps in the street. His quest to find out how workwear and sportswear morphed into leisurewear has resulted in this presentation, copiously illustrated with pictures that record – and sometimes ridicule – how we went from formal to casual in less than a lifetime.
SPEAKER: Patrick Hickman-Robertson, OBE, is the author of a number of best-selling books on social history and on cinema. He has broadcast and lectured on these topics on both sides of the Atlantic. Co-founder and a former chairman of the Ephemera Society, he has a special interest in ‘the minor transient documents of everyday life’ as evidence of the past we all share.
TALK: John Fowler and Nancy Lancaster were instrumental in shaping the English Country House Style of interior decoration. This talk explores this hugely influential style which preserved the heritage of many of Britain’s great houses – including nearby Ramsbury Manor – while making them feel natural and welcoming.
SPEAKER: John Benson has long been fascinated by English Country Houses – their design, their landscapes – and how they were decorated and lived in. He’s a consultant to The Ramsbury Manor Foundation and a member of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars.
TALK: Based on the classic eye-witness account of the same name by American journalist John Reed, this talk will explore all the many ins and outs of this moment in history that more than any other of the 20th century has shaped world affairs since.
A review of Sean McMeekin’s recent book “The Russian Revolution” reads as follows: “The Tsar didn’t fall, he wilted. Orgies, vodka, Rasputin, pogroms, plots and the war on the Eastern Front” all played their part. “Lenin’s Bolshevik victory was an act of treason engineered by the German army.” No shortage of things to talk about then!
SPEAKER: David Du Croz was Head of History at Marlborough College and has lectured locally on a wide range of historical topics, including several on the First World War and its aftermath.
TALK: Iran – or Persia – has a sophisticated cultural heritage often ignored in the headlines. “Behind The Veil” puts the current Islamic regime in the context of the country’s long, fascinating and significant cultural history and its ancient landscape. The lecture concentrates especially on centuries of spectacular architecture from the mosques and palaces, with their brilliant tilework and painting, and includes some of Persia’s classic gardens and the art of miniature book illustration.
SPEAKER: John Osborne has a degree in Classics and was Senior Master at Marlborough College. He and his wife Karen lived and worked in Iran and regularly returned there in later years leading groups on historical tours.
