The people of Malmesbury are always ready to club together and help each other out when needs must, but don't get us confused with a scene out of Heartbeat. Here's a look at the plus points (such as living in England's Oldest Borough and low crime rates) and the negative aspects (such as the lack of amenities and the possibility of losing our town hall) about living in the Malmesbury area.

THE TOWN, THE PEOPLE, THE LIVES

If you want a taste of UK history you don't just have to look at the buildings in Malmesbury - the way of life in the town is also, in it's way, historical because we haven't quite moved on into the new millennium.

Where are we, and why are we here?

Malmesbury is in a fantastically formed part of England. More than 2,500 years ago, settlers chose this spot to build their community. Before any development took place here the landscape would have contained all the key features you needed in those times.

For starters, there is what's known as a knoll hill... a bump in the ground. In fact, if you look at Malmesbury's contours, the ground forms a kind of a raised figure '8'. In one circle you have the Abbey, High Street and town centre, in the other circle you have The Triangle, and houses as far back as Burnham Road Retirement Home. Abbey Row is the thinnest part of this hill at just a hundred metres across, the Abbey is perched on the highest point, which, when it was built, would have had views for miles around in every direction.

Hills were important to Iron Age man as it meant houses could be built up high, to see if any enemies were planning on invading. Secondly, this knoll had it's own natural moat.

The River Avon at Daniel's Well

The waters of the Avon and the Ingleburn surround 90% of Malmesbury, the only way in without crossing water is from the North West (or Sherston Road). This is also the highest and flattest way into Malmesbury... another advantage when spotting oncoming threats. Of course, water is also an essential part of any community. If there were no rivers near a plot of land, it would be impossible for anyone in 500BC to stay there.

Vegetation is also a key issue, and there would have been a near-endless supply of fruit, meat and vegetables available thanks to the waterways and rich landscape.

Wiltshire and Somerset together make an extremely mystical part of England. The site for Malmesbury is less than 40 miles north of Stonehenge; it's also about an hour's drive from Glastonbury... a town with one of the most strangest and secret histories in the whole country. So, even before Malmesbury left it's mark on history there was already plenty of activity in this area.

Nowadays none of these factors apply thanks to hundreds and hundreds of years of building an infrastructure throughout the UK; this started with the Roman roads (still prominent in this part of the country) to modern day water and electrical supplies.

To get to Malmesbury in this day and age it can be reached in less than 10 minutes from the M4 (Chippenham junction) or half an hour from the M5 (from Cirencester, Stroud or Gloucester). The hills and topography are still very noticeable, despite the fact that developments now surround the scenery, and the rivers pose no threat to modern day visitors thanks to improved bridges (although we do get floods from time to time such as January 2007 and October 2001).

A wintry, hilltop view from Malmesbury's Back Hill

In the last couple of years Malmesbury's dignitaries have been doing their best to promote the history of our town by high-lighting our very own Saint's Day. St Athelstan lived in Malmesbury around 1,400 years ago. It's thanks to Athelstan and Aldhelm that Malmesbury and English Catholicism are what they are today.

WHAT IS THE M4 CORRIDOR?

It seems that since Day 1 Malmesbury has always been in a prime location to be an advantage to whoever lived there. When the Romans built the Fosse Way (the longest surviving road of that time which ran from the South West right up into the East Midlands) was just a couple of miles away from Malmesbury. It was only 10 miles away from the then capital of England, Cirencester.

In later years Malmesbury found itself as a central point, close to many key roads of the time. In today's time of big industry and commuting, Malmesbury is still in a prime location. Geographically it's in an area known as the M4 Corridor, a band of wealth that runs from London to the Bristol Channel. It is named after the M4 motorway, which was built more than forty years ago.

Back in the Sixties this three lane superhighway (as the name suggests, the fourth in the country) gave large companies a chance to finally get out of expensive London to find a new site for their offices and factories, without losing the easy access into our capital. This sprawl started with London's outskirts, then onto Reading, and finally reached Swindon and Bristol.

Before this there was a similar sprawl of companies heading north on the M1. Both of these 'bands' suddenly started seeing the wealth of industry which, until now had been mostly set in London's boundaries. If you look back at Malmesbury's industry over the past 50 years you'll see companies such as Linolite (this no longer exists but was a London firm which mass produced fluorescent tubes and shaving lights. They moved to Malmesbury after their London factory was bombed during the Blitz.)

The Maltings was previously a light bulb factory

Until last year there was a factory on the Swindon Road with a very interesting past: During the Second World War, Cowbridge House was allegedly used by the Ministry of Defence along with a building in the High Street to work on a new invention, believed to be radar. The factory was originally used to make Ekco radios. After the war, it was bought by Pye, then Philips, followed by Cable and Wireless, which became AT&T, and finally Lucent before they moved to Swindon. The site is currently being developed.

You may not have heard of Lux Traffic Controls, but next time you get stuck in roadworks look for their logo on the lights or signs. George Lux started the company thirty years ago in Malmesbury and they still have a depot in the town - although they have now been taken over by A-Plant.

Malmesbury continues to grow entrepreneurs, such as James Murray Wells, the yougn man who started selling prescription glasses over the Internet for a fraction of the price of High Street opticians. Glasses Direct (and Contacts Direct) is now one of the town's fastest growing businesses.

But our biggest homegrown business is without question Dyson Technologies. James Dyson created the multi-coloured, bagless vacuum cleaner and contra-rotating washing machine. In the late nineties his factory on Tetbury Hill produced every Dyson throughout Europe. Sadly, most of the production has now moved to Asia. The move was put down to cheaper production costs but unofficially it's believed the town council weren't happy with plans for further factory development on the town's north front.

A modern-day extension to Dyson's Tetbury Hill factory

As you can see from the five companies listed above, the three largest have either moved away or shut down...  the majority of people in Malmesbury now have to travel to Chippenham or Swindon to find work. It seems strange that just ten years ago there were more people employed in Malmesbury than actually lived there! The biggest development centre to us is Swindon. Just seventy years ago it was a village smaller than Malmesbury, now it is a town with a higher population than most small cities!

Swindon remains one of the largest growing industry centres in the country... good news not just for the people of Swindon, but also for people living nearby. Companies based there include car manufacturers Honda, telecommunications firm Motorola and pharmaceutical producers Cardinal Health.

Despite recessions and relocations, this area is still seen as vibrant and healthy with fairly low unemployment, relatively high wages and a reasonable living cost, especially in places such as Malmesbury - although higher bills and astronomical house prices are having a serious impact.

WEALTHY AREA? ONLY FACE VALUE

OK, so parking is no longer free in Malmesbury unless you use side streets, but you can still get a pint for just over two pounds and you can still go for a walk around the countryside and the Abbey without feeling obliged to pay for the privilege but when you come to look at property prices, you know you're in a wealthy area. The latest figures (January 2007) are jaw-dropping.

If you wanted to buy a detached house anywhere in the UK the average price would be a 320 thousand pounds, the average detached home in Malmesbury and the rest of the SN16 area (covering villages such as Sherston, Charlton, Lea and Crudwell) is more than four hundred grand, that's 27% higher than the national average. A terraced house would set you back over 200 grand (20% higher than the national average) and a semi is 188 thousand. That said, average prices in Malmesbury have fallen over the past two years bringing them more in line with the national average prices which are continuing to rise. In 205 you'd be paying 40% more to live in SN16 than you would be compared to the national average.

The Avon Silk Mills are now dozens of luxury flats

Because of these prices the only kind of people who can afford to buy houses in Malmesbury are those with property to start with, people who earn thousands of pounds a month, or those who're looking to spend their retirement money. It's a sad fact that families who have lived in Malmesbury for generations are being forced out simply because the young people of the town can't afford to buy a starter home here.

Aside from the prices of homes being too high, it's also down to the style of home being built. When developers get a plot of land they apply to build, for example, thirty small starter homes, these plans always go down like lead balloons and an agreement is reached for developers to build a smaller number of houses, with a certain type of slate and a certain type of stone so that it blends in with the surroundings. This means the size of the houses is bigger, which means the finished price is going to be higher. In effect, what starts as an idea to build first-time homes is inadvertently being transformed into another cul-de-sac for retired stockbrokers by our very own council.

So at the moment younger, skint people are being forced to move away and older, richer people are the only people who are moving in. But Malmesbury has a reputation, which far outstretches the realism... one of the worst offenders seems to be North Wiltshire District Council which seems to take the attitude that if something needs doing in Malmesbury, the residents can afford to pay for it themselves.

In January 2004, more than a million pounds of cash from the council didn't materialise after they decided not to renovate the Town Hall. Instead, they told the Town Council to raise the money to BUY the building off them or they'd sell it within three months to a private buyer. An agreement was made and the town council bought the building for one pound. They now need £750,000 to pay for the renoavtion work. Also, in 2003 Malmesbury's public loos appeared on a BBC documentary about the ten worst WC's throughout the United Kingdom, again nobody from NWDC came forward with any kind of renovation plans and the ugly annex to the Town Hall building still stands today. To top it all off, the town's hospital has just been bulldozed despite it's maternity unit having a splended reputation. The land is being used for a glorified retirement home with a 'start of the art health centre'. In other words, they're shutting the doctor's surgery in the town centre and moving it out of the reach of many of the residents who rely on seeing their doctor's regularly.

Bid from a quid... the Civic Hall building

Attitudes like this have given Malmesbury a real kicking over the past years, residents are fed up with being told to buy their own improvements after all, isn't that why we pay tax in the first place?

DISTRICTS

Just like every town and city in the United Kingdom, Malmesbury is divided up into smaller wards, or parishes. These separate communities would have once looked after themselves, but in the past few centuries with the birth of nationalised politics, Malmesbury Town Council now looks after the whole town. Above them is North Wiltshire District Council, which also helps in the management of towns like Chippenham and Calne. Higher up the chain is Wiltshire County Council, which makes day-to-day decisions on the ruling of all parts of the county; including areas like Salisbury and Stonehenge. Then, above these three councils is the national government.

It was much easier in days past when this town was made up of three separate parishes, all within the natural moat and all watched over by the monks of the monastery, here's a quick run down of the town's old-fashioned, and brand new districts. Think back to the figure '8' shape knoll which Malmesbury is based on.

The centre itself, including the High Street, the Abbey and part of Holloway come under the Malmesbury heading. The part of town on top of the other part of the hill, which includes Gloucester Road and The Triangle, is known as Westport. (This name most likely stems from a delivery site in the area, on the west side of town where tradesmen and merchants would come to sell their goods and services.)

Part of the Roman Wall still stands today

Another old part of Malmesbury is the area that falls outside the Roman Wall, but inside the River Avon. This outer circle of homes was referred to as Netherwalle, but this name has now changed to St Pauls Without. Houses living on the Swindon Road come under the name Cowbridge, homes to the north and north east are called Filands, and homes to the north west were once called Twatley, in Olde English that translates to 'fields of foxes', although it's understandable why this name is no longer used and only appears on detailed maps.

One of the many identical roads on the modern estates

Malmesbury also has two modern-day extensions to add to this list of names. White Lion, Parklands and The Gastons make up one large housing estate from the 1950's on the north west of town, and Reeds Farm is a 1980's estate on the east side. Unlike the older parts of Malmesbury these new estates consist of nothing but houses.

There are no shops, no facilities and no pubs in these new developments, and this flaw in planning is a constant pain to the majority of Malmesbury's residents who want more convenient places for their children to play, or a place they can pop to for a quick pint. Despite living in a town the size of Malmesbury, people living in Rongolding Close for example, or Silverston Way on the Sherston Road, have to walk for more than half a mile through the town to the nearest pub.

The Three Cups Inn is 'the local' for thousands of residents

It's the same scenario for the thousands who live in Malmesbury's surrounding villages. Very few of them have more than one pub (which is usually targeted at customers looking for meals and special occasions rather than local drinkers) and no shops. It's nearly impossible to believe that Malmesbury; with it's limited shops and even more limited nightlife, is the best and biggest in a ten mile radius.

Malmesbury's current population, according to the 2001 UK census is 7,673. That includes the hamlets of Foxley, Perry Green, Easton Grey and Norton, and the villages of Milbourne, Brokenborough, Sherston, Charlton and Garsdon. There are around four thousand people currently living in Malmesbury itself. The nearest town to Malmesbury is Tetbury, over the Gloucestershire border. It's slightly smaller but has more housing estates and a very poor shopping centre.

Chippenham is the nearest 'big town' which is around four times the size of Malmesbury. It's a Viking town that is also set on the Avon. Cirencester is the closest place to go to for nightclubs, fast food and larger shops. However, travelling to nearby towns costs money... and if you're planning a decent night out, somebody has to stay sober to drive, as there are no night-time bus services and very limited taxi services in the area.

DEVELOPMENT

You can divide Malmesbury's development into three sections, but wherever you look in town there's always the one thing in common... the ridiculous price tag. In the heart of town you have the original buildings, some of which date back centuries.

One of Malmesbury's oldest roads, St John's Street

These are the most expensive properties to buy and even a flat can set you back six figures. Another section is the west side of town including the White Lion and Parklands estates. This is the cheapest area in town (although when we say cheap, you're still going to pay around forty thousand pounds more than the national average.

The third section is Reeds Farm, Malmesbury's largest housing estate which was established in the mid eighties. There are currently two new major developments taking place in Malmesbury. The first is on the northern tip of the town at what was the Filands Lower Secondary School. Both school were merged onto one site which left the Filands buildings redundant. The school has now been flattened and the site, including the large playground, is being used for 170 so-called starter homes. Again, there is no scope for pubs or playgrounds on site.

At the opposite end of town is the Cowbridge site. There is a large development taking place here which may contain some amenities but plans are still going through the system. Either way, this site is at a disadvantage because it is one of the first places in Malmesbury to flood.

It's fair to say that North Wiltshire and the Cotswolds is pricey wherever you look; this is partly due to the lack of development currently taking place in the region. Well, when we say 'lack of development' we mean there's a shortage of smaller, starter homes as we mentioned earlier.

Builders are encouraged to erect less houses, which leads to them putting up larger, expensive homes. There are currently several examples of this kind of development as every last piece of remaining acre is sold for more houses. But at the same time it's not as if Malmesbury's getting bigger by the week; the council takes a tough stance on building on Malmesbury's outskirts and permission is rarely given to requests on the outskirts of the town.

Filands School before it was torn down

For proof of this you just have to look at the north of town; as mentioned earlier,Filands School stood derelict at the top of Tetbury Hill for four years, because nobody could decide what to do with it. Even Prince Charles himself spoke out and demanded that somebody make their mind up about what to do with the site. Just a few buildings down from Filands was the Suffolk Arms pub. Despite being a successful business it was shut down by Lord Suffolk in 2003 because he came up with the idea of selling the land off for housing. Countless plans were submitted to the council, they eventually decided on passing a plan for 17 houses on the site. All have been sold despite the asking prices being some of the highest in town.

The problem we're facing now is that Malmesbury is fast running out of places to develop... you might think that would be a good situation to be in, but in effect this will make homes in Malmesbury more desirable which will bump prices up yet again.

CULTURE

One place Malmesbury falls flat on it's face is with modern day culture. We have a museum but it's not very well publicised, we had an independent art gallery but it closed in 2004 due to a lack of business. The town concentrates on its historical side and doesn't seem to be looking ahead to the future at all. Malmesbury is one of those towns that always has been, and always will be a place where very little goes on, and not much is done to change that. This look on life seems to have discouraged many people from ethnic minorities moving here.

The simple pattern is that young people are moving away from the area, while middle-aged and retired people are moving in. This shift in population is already having a damaging effect on the town's reputation and, sadly, this trend looks as if it is going to continue for some time to come.

CRIME AND POLICE

Wiltshire Constabulary came under a lot of stick a few years back after Malmesbury saw a sharp increase in the number of petty crime reports, such as vandalism and graffiti. This was being blamed on a group of 'bad apples' which was thought to be behind a number of smashed windows and spray paint tags, not just in the town centre but also on our cherished abbey remains.

One of the examples of graffiti in our town

Since a public outcry in 2004, the force increased police patrols at night and it is pleasing to see that this has made a visible difference.

Break-ins are quite rare and robberies are nearly unheard of... occasionally gangs from the larger cities drive a car out to the area, do their business and then drive off again, ditching it in nearby places like Kemble, where there is easy railway access. The majority of crimes are committed by the Malmesbury people themselves... a large part of this petty crime is put down to underage drinking and drugs use, something which is a problem in the town - like in most towns.

The problem has been gradually getting worse and worse, and it's only just recently that the police have stepped up their presence in town and got their act together in an attempt to curb this problem.

One evening in the winter of 2003 police stormed into a town centre pub at 23:20 on the dot (at the time the law stated that pubs in England must close at 23:00 but can allow 20 minutes 'drinking up' time - licensing laws have since been relaxed) and threw everybody out even though nobody was being rowdy and no complaints had been registered. Meanwhile we heard reports that a group of kids aged as young as fifteen were crowded behind the Cloister Gardens (just a few hundred yards from the pub in question) with enough booze to feed an army.

As well as a change in the licensing laws, Malmesbury has introduced it's own alcohol-free by-law - giving the police the power to confiscate any alcohol from people drinking in public places. There was a lot of worry at the time as there are a few dates in Malmesbury's calendar when it's traditional to have street parties. Happily the police are using common sense about this and are only using the law to target under-age teens and drunks.

One of our 'dark corners'... the Postern

Malmesbury has dozens of back roads and dark corners so it's impossible for the police to get everywhere at once. Also, because of cut-backs and centralization of the force, officers have to drive over from Chippenham on some occasions. Even in an emergency it can take officers fifteen minutes to get into town.

Do give the police in Malmesbury credit where it's due, in the last two years they've reduced crime levels in recent years. Stats from 2005 showed that Malmesbury was the most crime-free town in the whole of Wiltshire with more than two thirds of crimes detected. Also, on a county level Wiltshire has one of the lowest crime rates of all the authorities in the country. This makes Malmesbury a very safe place to live or visit, and it's a reputation we, as the community, are very proud of.

SPORT & EVENTS

Malmesbury has homes for all the main sports: The Vic's football ground is at the base of Tetbury Hill, the team are currently battling to stay in the Hellenic Western League. There's also clubs for boxing, bowls and cricket with a clubhouse for the rugby team on its way.

But despite all these ways of keeping fit, residents are mostly keen on pub sports with a number of different dart and pool leagues in Malmesbury alone.

Approximately a thousand people in the area play a game called Skittles, an old-fashioned game which spawned America's ten-pin bowling. An impressive one out of seven people in the Malmesbury area are signed up to play with a skittles team. The Wiltshire / Gloucestershire border is best known for it's strong connection to horse sports with the Beaufort Polo club (members include Prince Charles and family) just on the edge of Tetbury, and Badminton village to the west of Malmesbury, world famous for it's yearly three-day eventing competition.

Also nearby is Gatcombe Park, another site for equestrian sports. You'll have to travel a bit further for bigger crowds and more action packed sports: If you're a fan of racing the nearest place to go would be Blunsdon on the edge of Swindon. They have a stadium used for everything from dog racing to banger contests - it's future is currently under question.

British Touring Cars at the Thruxton Racetrack

For motor racing we're not too far from the Castle Combe circuit or we're about an hour's drive from Thruxton over the Hampshire border. And finally, if you're a fan of bigger football games the two biggest clubs nearest Malmesbury are Swindon Town in League 2 or Forest Green in the Conference.

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

As we keep saying, Malmesbury is a town which can be proud of its close-knit community vibe and that's even more apparent when you look at the number of groups and clubs which regularly meet in the town. Aside from all the sports clubs scattered around the town (from the Malmesbury Vic's Football Ground to the town's picturesque Bowls Club) there are tonnes of regular meetings for all hobbies ranging from an Air Training Cadets squadron to a regular Bridge Club.

One of the most unique is Malmesbury's Film Society, which holds public screenings of all kinds of wonderful films thirteen times a year. They're now based in St Mary's Hall but in previous years their 'cinema' room was an abandoned railway tunnel on the bank of the Avon; the only two ways of getting to the site were to either climb down the side of a very steep riverbank, or take a canoe! They eventually had to move the drier land because of the sometimes unpredictable levels of the Avon.

The Film Society's old unusual screening room

There is a strong musical community in Malmesbury - it's most famous resident would have to be jazz star Jamie Cullum who used to tickle the ivories in the Smoking Dog. Amateur musicians are now being encouraged to play on the pub circuit thanks to The 4014 Project, who organise regular music nights and even recorded a charity CD using local artists only as part of the 2006 Carnival.

There's usually some kind of fête or bizarre being held every couple of weeks during the summer months, but if you want to see Malmesbury and it's residents in perfect harmony, the best time to visit us is in Carnival time, usually in the last week of August. The fortnight of events used to begin with a week of music thanks to the Malmesbury Jazz Festival, but this came to an end in 2005 because of a funding shortage. There is currently talk of setting up a similar festival in the town for late 2007.

If you prefer choral tunes then the Abbey's diary is also jammed pack with events from religious programmes to full-scale orchestra evenings. There's also Petticoat Lane: the High Street is closed down and turned into a giant market and bric-a-brac centre with live music, unusual stalls and the like.

The carnival itself is always held on a Saturday evening where dozens of groups and companies make floats and parade them around the town. Of course our processions are no match for those of bigger towns and cities, but the community spirit is most definitely as alive and kicking as anywhere else. The usual routine is to have a few beers, watch the carnival procession, head down to the travelling funfair, and than back to the centre for even more pints.

Ex-mayor John Bowen in the

                   Carnival spirit

Another time to see

Malmesbury's vibrant, busy

centre is at the stroke of

midnight on New Years Eve

when hundreds of people

gather in the town centre to

bring in the next twelve

months.

The town also has

several smaller, independent

festivals...  the biggest is held in neighbouring village Sherston, which, despite it's size and location holds the largest boules festival in the country. In Malmesbury itself The Smoking Dog public house annually holds a Sausage and Beer Festival. This pulls in crowds from across Europe.

And over in Tetbury every summer is the World Final of what's known as Woolsack Racing which involves running up and down a steep hill carrying heavy-weighted sacks. It sounds easy enough but bear this in mind: In the past few years Tetbury Rugby Club have beaten teams by the Royal Ghurkhas and the Metropolitan Police! The event might sound strange but it's officially registered as a Guinness World Record competition.

As you can see, Malmesbury is a very closeknit community, and that guarantees visitors will be in for a peaceful, friendly visit to our town. With our annual carnival and countless other social events, you'll always find something to keep you entertained. Plus, our pubs, cafés, restaurants and attractions always offer a warm welcome, whatever time of year you choose to pay us a visit.

version 2007