THROUGHOUT its history Marlborough has been a place where weary travellers could stop and have food and refreshment and overnight accommodation as they headed between London and the West Country’s two great cities Bristol and Bath or from the Midlands and Gloucester using the old coaching roads to get to Salisbury and the south coast ports.

Those without the money to pay for a night’s lodging in one of the town’s inns had to sleep in an unheated shelter on the edge of the parish in what is today still called Coldharbour Lane.

In the days of horse travel, or coach travel for the rich, Marlborough was very much it is today, a stopover place for travellers rather than a place to stay for days and in modern coach-driver slang is known as a T&P stop!

However the town still has some excellent places where one can colloquially water their horse and take on superb refreshments in the wide choice of cafes, restaurants, pubs and hotels.

Hungry travellers have no problem in finding somewhere to eat in a town that has an international reputation for looking after visitors because wherever you travel in the world you are sure to bump into someone who has been in the town’s famous Polly Tea Rooms which were once unique although the partners who own it nowadays have opened others in Salisbury, Devizes and Cirencester.

You don’t have to look far in the town to find good food but prices vary and it’s possible to find good food from well under £10 a head to four or five times that figure.

Most of the pubs in Marlborough provide good food at reasonable prices and besides the High Street hostelries there are more excellent pub restaurants and bistro bars in The Parade and Kingsbury Street.

Some of the older pubs like the Roebuck in London Road and the Queens Head in St Martins are hundreds of years old dating back to the time when the town had many more inns than nowadays to cater for the people passing through on the old Great West Road centuries before the M4 opened.

The town has a good choice of ethnic restaurants and takeaways with the Raj Indian and Blue Orchid Thai restaurants at the foot of Kingsbury Street; the Pagoda Chinese take away and restaurant in The Parade where you will also find Lotus House Chinese takeaway and Spice Paradise Indian takeaway.

The town’s oldest Indian takeaway the New Asia Grill in London Road is operating as a takeaway only until bigger premises are found. There are kebab takeaways in New Road and at the back of Hughenden Yard.

The Outside Chance in Manton, just a five minute drive from the High Street, has become a very popular place to eat.

In Pewsey and the villages around there are some super pub restaurants including the French Horn at Pewsey Wharf, Chequers Bistro in the High Street in Pewsey; the Golden Swan at Wilcot and the Seven Stars at Bottlesford are just some of the many good places to eat.

For a traditional afternoon tea in Pewsey there is nowhere better than the community-run Craft and Tea Rooms in the Market Place by the entrance to the Co-op car park.