The historic area of Marlborough

Jemima G (Sh)

Marlborough is based on limestone, a salt also known as calcium carbonate. The town is near the Ridgeway, a large ridge of limestone and one of Britain’s oldest roads which travels 85 miles from Ivinghoe Beacon to Avebury. It is a ridge of chalk and it links the white horses of the area together. White horses are chalk figures created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying chalk. This process is prehistoric and some of them had great significance in their time.

The Uffington White Horse, just a 30 minute drive from Marlborough, is suggested to have held political significance since the figure dominates the valley below. It is thought to date to the British Iron Age, as coins from that time have been found around it. Wiltshire, the county to which Marlborough belongs, has nine white horses. These images are all chalk surrounded by short green grass meaning that the horse shape can be clearly seen from a considerable distance.

The Marlborough White Horse, also known as the Preshute White Horse, is a chalk hill figure on Granham Hill that was created in 1804. It is a slightly less visible white horse due to surrounding trees but it can still be seen from some points around the area. Another white horse is the Hackpen one built in 1838 on the edge of the Marlborough Downs.

The Marlborough Downs is a range of chalk hills near to Marlborough. It has great biodiversity features for wild plants and animals. It is a big landscape of nature and includes the River Kennett flowing through and forming a valley down towards Marlborough. Following the River Kennett, just a 12 minute drive away, there is a small village called Avebury. Avebury has stone circles from during the Neolithic period, estimated between 2850 BC and 2200 BC. It has one large circle that originally had about 100 stones, the biggest in Britain, and has two smaller circles inside.

Another ceremonial sight of that time is the mysterious Silbury Hill. It is impressively the largest artificial mound in Europe and compares in height and volume to contemporary Egyptian pyramids. However, the Hill apparently does not contain any burials. Though it seems important and immense, its purpose and reason remain a total unknown mystery.

All these historic things around Marlborough are supposedly part of a complex of Neolithic monuments in this area: Avebury ring, Silbury Hill, Marlborough Mound and West Kennet Long Barrow. These were all built around similar prehistoric times and during what was a time of great change with new forms of pottery and the first metalworking in Britain. These were thought to be special social and burial places. It is amazing how many ancient historic monuments are located near the College.

Second to this is the Marlborough Mound which is a monument similar to Silbury Hill that stands 19 metres tall. At its base, it has a grotto which is part of an 18th century water feature. Linked to this is the West Kennet Long Barrow.

This is a burial chamber built in 3650 BC with around 50 people being buried there: a mixture of men, women and children with a variety of ages. It is part of the Cotswold-Severn group, a localised regional variant of barrows. There is a cluster of about 30 centred on Avebury in the high hills of northern Wiltshire.