MARLBOROUGH has churches standing sentinel at each end of its High Street from the days when the town was two parishes, St Mary’s in the east and St Peter’s in the west.

Both have interesting histories and it is still possible to see reddening on some of the stones at St Mary’s from when it was damaged in the Great Fire of Marlborough in 1653.

St Peter’s is as interesting historically for its people as it is for its building. It was declared redundant by the Salisbury Diocese in 1970 when the St Peter’s Trust was set up and took it over as a centre for the community.

Thomas Wolsey, who was to become Cardinal, was ordained priest in St Peter’s in 1498.

Another person with links to St Peter’s, whose name is not as well known, was Eglantyne Jebb who taught at the former St Peter’s Boys School (now the Library) a century ago, but who went on to found one of the world’s best known charities, Save the Children.

There is a small plaque in St Peter’s Church recording that this remarkable woman born in 1876, together with her sister Dorothy, established the embryo of what is now a leading charity.

She taught at Marlborough for just 18 months before ill health forced her to give up. She then travelled around Europe taking an interest in charitable organisations.

In 1913 she travelled to Macedonia to deliver relief money following the Balkan Wars and when she saw the horrors war had brought to the area, she became ever more determined to set up a charity which she finally did in 1919 because of distress the Great War caused in Europe.