St Mary's Church, Marlborough

Two churches were mentioned at Marlborough in 1091, and in 1223 the bishop of Salisbury took both St Mary's and St Peter's under his jurisdiction. St Mary's was the church for the eastern part of the borough, while St Peter's, at the other end of the High Street, served the western part.

The present church is built of ashlar and rubble, with ashlar dressings; the tower is ashlar. In the west wall of a tower is a repositioned 12th-century doorway or arch, and inside the church are fragments of 11th-century stonework including parts of corbels. The tower was added in the 15th century, and in that century and the early 16th the aisles were rebuilt and extended. The town suffered a large fire in 1653 which destroyed the roof and the interior of the church, and damaged the Norman arcades. Galleries were added to the nave in 1707 and the chancel was rebuilt in 1873-4 to designs by G.E. Street. The south chapel was restored as a memorial after the First World War. Further…