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A Walk Around Malmesbury

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This guided walk around the town is taken from a booklet by Jill Stephens.
You should really read it as you walk, book in hand around the town, but if you know the town already you will doubtless recognise most of the places mentioned. If you are a stranger, then Jill’s descriptions will make you want to visit.

Malmesbury Past and Present

A Personal Guided Tour
By Jill Stephens

The Town has many attractions to the visitor and reveals different aspects of its past according to the walk you take. I was born and grew up in Malmesbury and yet it still surprises me when I take friends around the town or walk with my friends and recall old stories. There are so many ways of walking through the Town, that I have chosen three linked walks which have different visual impact. You may wish to choose one, or circumnavigate town at different levels. I have started this tour in the long stay car park, but those who wish to join from the Town centre should head for the clock tower and from there skirt the Abbey churchyard to the Old Bell Hotel. You may then continue down to Westport or cross the road to the steps.

The Many Facets of the Town

The Long stay car park is the starting point for someone who wishes to spend some time getting the feel of the Town Railway past Look around you, for this was the introduction to Malmesbury for those who travelled by rail. This was the railway station and goods yard and you may still see remnants of the station buildings. The line ran to Little Somerford junction to catch connections with the main line to London. Visitors came from far and wide, goods were brought in, especially the coal to fuel the chimneys of all the stone cottages of the Town and, since Malmesbury was the local market, produce was exported to distant markets. There were even excursions to the seaside. The last regular passenger train ran in the early Fifties and I was on it, for it marked the end of an era of prosperity linked to public transport.

Inspiration for artists

Before the coming of the railway this same area was more peaceful, with river and meadows and swans and cows. You may have seen the picture that was painted by Turner. Dominating the view then as now, is the Abbey, guardian of the Town and the cause of its development in the past as one of the most famous towns in Europe in the Middle Ages.

Changing usage

The gardens reaching down to the river at this point are fertile and swans nest just across the river. One of the gardens was once more lively as it was home to many children when Stainsbridge House, now a nursing home, served as an orphanage in the Forties and Fifties. The survival of the Town depends upon its ability to adapt to changing needs. Friendly and fierce battle zone

Behind you rise the Worthies, home of the Malmesbury Cricket Club and formerly the site of many a fierce battle especially during the Civil War when Abbey and Town were under attack from Cromwell's men. Cannon balls from the Worthies during the Civil War caused damage to the Abbey.

Monastic testimony

As you leave the car park to cross the little bridge leading to the Abbey and the Town you will see on your left the magnificent Abbey House, built on the site of part of the former monastery and with a crypt like basement and an ancient tomb in its grounds. It is now in private possession after restoration by the Civic Trust but occasionally it is opened to the public and the gardens are regularly open. It formally housed an order of Anglican nuns and before that was a private residence.

Anecdotal history

To your right as you cross the river, you will see the former Abbey Mill almost built upon an island. One of the former tenants of the mill, one Cracker Clark, was a crack-shot wildfowler. One evening he heard the sound of ducks flying over the house, and because he had no time to take his shotgun out of doors he fired both barrels up the chimney and brought down two birds.

Survival strategy

Over the bridge and you may go up the steps to the back of the Abbey to the Town, or, taking the road to the right, you pass the site of an ancient well that may have served the townsfolk or the monks in times of siege . On the opposite side of the lane, you are overlooked by an attractive summer house. Complete the climb and you reach Abbey Row .

To your right the road leads to Westport and the Triangle. The Triangle houses the War Memorial and the former parish Church of St Mary's. In front of this runs the road leading to the Horsefair with its line of former weavers' cottages. You will have passed the United Reformed Church with its small spire, prominent on the skyline of the Town. Keep to the left and leave the Horsefair by West Street at the bottom of which was said to have been sited a former Priory. The first turning on left in West Street, just beyond the rear of the church, is called Katifer Lane. All of this area is associated with the weaving trade. The name of the lane is supposed to be associated with ironing the material. Katifer Lane will lead you back into the Triangle. Stop here and look around.

Westport in the Forties and Fifties

The Triangle is the commercial centre of the West of the Town. It was even more so in my childhood. The parish Church was St Mary's, now the parish hall. This is the Church where a former vicar was the father of Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher. He was born in Malmesbury, in a house in the Horsefair, and later became tutor to King Charles 11. The church was closed at the end of the Second World War.

In the centre of the Triangle lies the Cenotaph, tribute to the Malmesbury men killed in the First World War. The public house is the Three Cups. Formally there was also the Castle pub and across from it was a bakery. The Post Office was more important then as few people used banks and the Post Office savings books were important to keep the small amounts of savings until they were needed. The butchers' shop was always there and further up towards the town was a tiny sweet and tobacco shop, with lots of jars of boiled sweets. There was an ice cream shop and further up still was a cobbler's and then the wool shop. Back in the Triangle there was a blacksmith's opposite the butchers' and we had a fish and chip shop where today is a general store. Further down the hill there was a radio shop and a cooked meat and faggot shop. This was rationing time, so that the weekly shopping excursion "up Town" was for flour and sugar and fat for home baking. Most people were mainly self sufficient, growing vegetables in their gardens and perhaps keeping a few hens.

The landward entrance to the Town

Keeping to the pavement on the right and you will cross Bristol Street to Old Castle House and begin to make your way back up Abbey Row. Bristol Street is the only entrance to Malmesbury which did not involve crossing a bridge over the river and the Westport gate to the town was therefore particularly important. The Western Gate was somewhere at a narrow point along here.

Abbey Row

As you walk back up Abbey Row you will pass two houses with architecture unlike anywhere else . It was said that these tall houses were built to annoy the neighbours on the opposite side. Whatever the reason, they too are a distinctive feature of the townscape. Next to them is a garden with a huge magnolia tree which has given great joy through its early blossom, at least as long as I can remember.

The Hill Top Town - View from the top Opposite the road where you walked from the car park you will find a flight of stone steps leading down to Burnivale. A small garden on the right near the top has some public seats. This may be a good point to take stock of what you have seen so far and to enjoy the view over the fields of Daniel's Well. The steps are known as Betty Geezer's steps. Perhaps they were named after one Betty "Gaze", who lived nearby and spent a lot of time just looking. There used to be a Hermitage or small chapel around here below Abbey Row and above Burnivale.

View from below

When you reach Burnivale, you are below the walls and ramparts of the Town. The road used to be even narrower and there were several small cottages tucked under the high walls. The outlines may still be seen but these are on the wrong side of the steps. At the foot of the steps you should turn left and you will find that above you that the gardens and the backs of the cottages in Gloucester Street. You will see that the houses are much larger than one might have supposed because they are built into the hillside and the gardens are practically vertical . One of these houses contains St Aldhelm's Well where the water constantly seeping from the rock face forms a pool said to have been where St Aldhelm went to meditate. On the other side the cottage gardens reach down to the river and are often flooded in winter. You are indeed in the river valley. The winter rains still create a lake of overflow water in the water meadows giving an idea of how vital the river was as a defense to the Town

The Water Meadows

Before you start to climb up the slope to King's Wall, turn aside to the right and go to the water meadows. The lane leads you to the iron hatches which control the river flow and over the river, a path takes you to Daniel's Well. An overflow stream from the main river also contains spring water and where this fresh water pools by a stone bridge the water is usually quite clear with watercress growing. This used to be a favourite spot for paddling in summer for the children of Westport but now the river walk is under so much pressure of use that the tranquillity of that pool is no more. The larger pool below the hatches favoured by fishermen and a new housing development has opened up the site formerly occupied by an old brewery building and earlier mill. The new houses are sympathetic to the most favoured style in the Town and will blend in well. The river walk runs on from Daniel's Well but we shall return to Burnivale and climb above the new houses to King's Wall. To the right steps lead to the Steeple and to another gate, the Postern Gate, just under the mirror at the road bend.

Walking King's Wall

King's Wall beckons, a footpath here, with gardens and steps leading up to the King's Arms Hotel, a former coaching inn, then the road broadens out to allow a single car, to seek its garage. We continue between walls passing "the Tuppenny Tube", the alley leading to the former post office, and we turn right, down to St Aldhelm's Mead, the children's play area and sport field.

Aldhelm's Mead

Another side stream slips from the main river and fronts the gardens, cutting them off from the water meadow. The large house (or rather, two houses) lying sideways to the stream and King's Wall is known as King's house (after the family who built it) and has an imposing facade facing east. As we follow the stream along, the houses change from King's Wall to lower High Street and the gardens become less steep. The additions and rear extensions of these houses gives great interest when you can see them through the hedge. The size of the house on the street side gives no idea of its real extent.

Home of Malmesbury silk

Eventually you reach the Town Bridge with the Silk Mills buildings facing you to the right. These are now residential, but must have been a considerable source of employment in their hey-day. Silk was woven at the turn of the century but they were also able to weave other fibres when they were in use as a mill until 1948. A footbridge leads across the river and upward out of town. Straight on, we reach the gates to St Aldhelm's Mead which are also a war memorial. The river reaches the Town Bridge over a series of ledges and behind the Silk Mills it goes on to its other arm at Wynyards' Mill.

Old houses

To reach back into the Town we should now cross the road. site are St John's Almshouses on the site of a medieval hospital. These houses, both ancient and still in use, are supposed to be occupied by single old ladies or widows from the Town in need of housing. Two other places of note in this street are, on the left, in the comer, a house with a cap-like roof, said to be the oldest house in Malmesbury, and almost opposite there is a narrow entrance to the land belonging to the Burgesses of the town and the Old Court house belonging to the Burgesses, who are the old Corporation of the Town, once both rulers and benefactors of the people of Malmesbury. The houses owned by the Burgesses are some of the few available in the Town centre at an affordable rent for those who have limited incomes.

Old Traditions

The route to becoming a Burgess started with King Athelstan J when he endowed the Town and its people with property inside the Town and a large tract of land known as Malmesbury Common, or Kings Heath as a reward for their bravery in supporting him in battle. Malmesbury people became commoners, holding strips of land and passing this heritage to elected descendants who could apply for common rights if they were resident in the Town and the married son of a commoner, or married to a commoner's daughter. I suppose that it encouraged the marriage of local girls as only one in the family could take up the right of common, and a second son would have to marry another commoner's daughter. Ascendancy through the hierarchy of the commoners led to the opportunity of finally becoming a Burgess. This ancient and proud tradition has suffered a setback as families moved away from the Town and houses frequently became too expensive for local people to remain. Eligibility has now been extended to grandchildren of commoners if one generation has moved away, but residence in the Town is essential, and, as yet, females cannot become commoners themselves. The former stability in the Town led to the retention of a limited number of family names and a traceable history. We have many visitors who come to find family roots.

Confluence of the Rivers

St John's Street leads to Goose Bridge , an old and attractive humped stone bridge, beyond which lies the bowls club, Wynyards' Mill and Baskerville. Just before the Mill, the River Walk will take you through to Holloway, across the road and through Conygre Mead, along part of the old railway track, and back to the Station.

Town Walls

From Goose Bridge you may have a good idea of how important was topography to the site of the Town and its fortifications. Rising steeply from the river are rocky ramparts upon which the Town walls were built. These protected the houses along the side of the Cross Hayes , the central Square and short-term car park, from the bridge to Holloway Hill where remnants of the walls jut out on to the footpaths. Between the Catholic Church and its school in Holloway (where indications of an iron age fort have recently been found), there was a secluded path along the walls which was used by the nuns. As children in the primary school where the library is now , we used to be able to see over the playground wall and sometimes see the nuns pass by . From Goose Bridge, our route now lies upward into the town itself. This time you cannot avoid the steps as you go up Back Hill towards Silver Street.

Route to the High Street

Near the top of Silver Street is a former congregational chapel, now the Masonic Temple, and just beyond that was the first cinema in Town, later a bus garage and recently an antique emporium. But we will turn off to the left before the top of the street and take a cut down Ingram Street to the High Street. Ingram Street is usually attractive in summer with many flower displays and it was more important in my youth as the site of the Youth Centre which was the focus for safe social life and a socialising influence for young people from the town and surrounding district. You could meet and dance or talk away from the influence of the pub culture, indeed, drinking meant a ban and the Centre was an important influence upon most people of my generation. It was situated above the British Legion Club which again was very important in the post war years.

Town Hill

The High Street is at its steepest just below this point and King's Wall joins it by a house with a rounded wall, probably the site of another gate. Around Ingram Street used to be another shopping centre with a butcher's, a high class grocer's and a hardware shop.

There were some small shops and a pub below and the Temperance Hotel, the cyclists touring point, now "The Smoking Dog". Opposite was the cycle shop, a seed merchants and another pub, The Bear Inn. At one time, Malmesbury boasted more public houses than shops and local people gave directions using the pubs as landmarks. A Town of fewer than 2,000 people had 66 pubs and several breweries.

The High Street

Turning up to the Town you pass the old library, now a craft shop and W H Smith's, with the (former) main Post Office opposite. The High Street from there on was common ground for people seeking banks, chemists, garages, more shops providing most household needs, culminating with the Co-op opposite the Market Cross. Today there are many more services in the High Street - the banks, building societies, chemists, doctors and vets surgeries, estate agents, accountants -serving not only the Town but reflecting its continuing importance to the whole district. There are also several specialist shops offering a unique range of goods. You may go shopping elsewhere, but there are few needs that cannot be met within the Town.

The Cross Hayes

On our tour we shall turn into the central square, the Cross Hayes. Here used to be held the weekly cattle market, but its importance is now as a short term car park to serve those who still need to access the Town Centre services. There are several bus stops around the square, which still serve outlying areas. Here too is the Catholic Church and the library which was once the town's infants' and girls' school. We used to have to lie down on little oblong mat for an afternoon rest, in the first year of school and the playground seemed to be vast in those days.

Opposite the library there are some businesses including a pottery and a chiropractors which has been set up in an old warehouse.The Town Hall buildings, including the Athelstan Museum , take up the northern part of the square and the tourist information office is diagonally opposite Silver Street in the pedestrianised Market Lane. At the end of this lane is the Old Guild House next to the Borough Arms.

lt was not until the 1950s that the Town realised that it had no coat of arms and had one created. Until then the most important symbol was the Charter seal recognising its ancient status as the oldest borough in England.

Holloway

Turning left along Oxford Street, you meet the other exit from the Cross Hayes . The Tower House here is a private dwelling which has an interesting entrance way with vaulted ceilings which are very old. It served as a coaching Inn at one time and the tower was built in 1834 as an observatory. Opposite is the former Moravian Church. When I was young, the Town was fortunate to have churches and chapels of all denominations-'Catholic, Anglican, Moravian, Congregationalist (2), Methodist and Baptist all, except the last, with thriving Sunday Schools.

At the corner you may look down the hill at Holloway and see where the Town Walls jut out over the pavement. Above these is the Catholic school. Back up on the level, you will see a narrow entrance up some steps, leading to a narrow walled footpath round to the Abbey. You will pass the old water tower, now an imposing crenellated dwelling house and you will come out near the old brewery, opposite a gap where the cinema was when I was young. To the left you may walk down to the Market Cross. To the right are the gates of Abbey House and right before you the imposing arch of the Abbey. Next to Abbey House, a narrow gap leads to the back of the Abbey and the Cloister Garden. You have now nearly completed your circular tour.

Malmesbury Abbey

The Abbey itself is imposing, even from the rear, and more of it can be seen now that the Cloister Garden has been made. Previously the path ran close to the back of the building. The first Abbot was Aldhelm in 675 AD. and the building has survived a chequered history of being the focus for battles and a long time being used as a weaving shed after the dissolution of the monasteries. The history of the Abbey and its finest points are given in detail by guides obtained inside. its importance to the people of Malmesbury is as part of their heritage. They may worship elsewhere, but the Abbey is much more than just the parish church. At the end of the path, you skirt the Old Bell Hotel, the premier hotel in the Town. Part of it is very old and situated on the site of the guest house when the Abbey was a monastery. You are now at one of the gates of the Abbey churchyard and your route takes you past the main door. The beauty of the Abbey is best seen as you approach the Norman arched doorway and when you enter to admire the interior. The Abbey is the focal point of the Town and attracts many visitors, much as it was in the Middle Ages when its famous library of illustrated volumes was so important. Some of the illustrated manuscripts are on public view in the Parvise, the room over the main porch . This was where my grandmother first went to school. The Abbey today is the Parish Church as well as a tourist attraction to see the beautiful coloured bosses in the vaulted ceiling. The 1st man-powered flight was from the Abbey in 1010 when a monk named Elmer took off from the roof.

Towards the Town

From the Abbey door you face the Steeple, the bell tower and all that remains of the original parish church of St Paul's . The spire that was on the Abbey was apparently even taller, but that is a part which has disappeared. As you go through the churchyard, you may look for the tombstone of Hannah Twynnoy, killed by a tiger. This is to your left. At the exit from the churchyard, you pass through the Tolsey Gate which was once the Town lock-up, and you are facing the l5th century Market Cross. From there you face the top of the High Street. You may imagine the benefit of having the shelter of the Market Cross on wet days, as a meeting place as well as a market. The Market Cross is still used as a selling point for charities and other organisations. The Town Crier, in his regalia, is sometimes found there to tell everyone of local events.

Next to the Tolsey lies a restaurant in an old building abutting the churchyard. The next building, now "The Whole Hog" public house, was once the cottage hospital, before it moved to an old manor house on the Chippenham Road. When I was young, the same building was the gas showroom . The disappearance of both this and the electricity showroom indicates problems caused by considering the Town isolated from its hinterland. We are fortunate to retain our hospital still and the wide variety of financial and other services. It must be remembered that Malmesbury still maintains its historical role as centre for the whole surrounding district.

The Birdscage

Between the Market Cross and the Steeple is the aptly named Birdscage. Here too are public seats where you may stop to enjoy the peace and tranquility as you gaze across at the imposing south view of the Abbey. The steeple contains some magnificent bells which ring out over the town and the surrounding meadows.

Postscript

I hope that you have enjoyed this visit to Malmesbury and that your "Tour" has given you the flavour of the Town. You will find other books and writings on the history of the places of particular interest and, when you come again, there will be other parts to see.

Malmesbury has always been the focus of its surrounding district. The nearby villages, too, contain many attractive buildings and have made their contribution to World history. Nearby Garsdon Manor has the coat of arms of the Washington family, thought to have been the inspiration for the Stars and Stripes of the American flag. I was born in Malmesbury and my paternal grandmother was a Hanks, the family name of the mother of Abraham Lincoln. My mother's family were also Commoners.

I love the Town and have a strong sense of homecoming when I see it on the skyline. I hope that you, too, will come to love it.