Queen to visit eight Wiltshire areas - will she know what she misses in the other 13 areas?
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2012-04-26 18:03:40 - Graham EllisI read this tweet a few minutes ago ...
Wiltshire Council @wiltscouncil
Queen to visit Amesbury, Westbury, Pewsey, Malmesbury, Devizes, Marlborough, S Wilts & Swindon jousting tents on May 1 #wiltsjubilee
And indeed re-tweeted. This is good news for 7 areas. And - at first glance - disappointing news for nearly 13 others. Of course the Queen can't go everywhere, but there's been a very great deal of work put into many other tents - I can certainly speak for Melksham, and for the work that Lisa's been doing to make a fascinating display of Melksham history fit for a Queen. But a display fit for a Queen is also fit for all the other visitors to the Jubilee Celebration - and it's fit for the people of Melksham and for visitors to our town too.So our bunch of merry men and women will be off to Salisbury on 1st May ... and will be back home and safely tucked up in Melksham by that evening. This historic picture of a 1927 Melksham and Broughton Gifford Church Outing is from the collection of Simon Brewer, and you'll be able to see it and much more - and artefacts too - in the Well House Collection - a branch of the Museum of Melksham which opens on 12th May. See [here]. And the exhibition display will be at other locations through the early summer too - we're finalising some interesting plans.
So - will the Queen know what she's missing? She's a shrewd woman, and I expect she'll have a pretty good idea that there's a very great deal that she could be seeing just off her orchestated path. And we shouldn't be greedy. Melksham's a forward looking town, and whilst I'm not sure when (or indeed if) the Queen's been here, I certainly know that the Duchess of Cornwall was here in very recent years, for the cutting of the first sod on the Melksham Link - linking the canal to the river, the town to tourist traffic, and Melksham on and into the future.