To launch Caerbladon’s Summer programme, we presented our Pride of Place Malmesbury festival from 30 June to 22 July 2023. We love our hometown and the festival celebrated all that makes Malmesbury and the surrounding area such a special place to live, or visit.

Pride of Place Malmesbury was about unlocking the creative potential of our communities and enabling people from diverse backgrounds to participate in and shape cultural provision within their locality. The area may lack arts infrastructure, but it is rich in creativity and history. Local people are keen participants and collaborators who have a stake in its future success and cultural vitality. This was a festival made by the community for the community, and also projected a confident view of the town’s future potential as a cultural destination.

Starting with a series of linked exhibitions across the town, called In Living Memory, the festival showed how artists have represented the town, capturing its people and places, from the 1940s to the present day. There were accompanying art walks, talks and participatory activities for all ages. Following in the footsteps of JMW Turner, 20th century luminaries such as John Piper and the engraver and printmaker Robin Tanner produced important work here in the post-war years, which was on display. In recent years, many artists have made Malmesbury their home, including the landscape painter Julian Barrow, ceramicist Mary White and acclaimed Scottish sculptor James Castle. The local area continues to inspire many artists living here, working in painting, textiles, photography, ceramics, glass, metal and mixed media.

Sylvia and Colin Forward moved to Malmesbury in 1950, and their family has contributed to the richness and vibrancy of the local arts scene for over 70 years. As well as work by Sylvia (who died in 1996) and Colin (who died in 2001), the exhibition A Family of Artists featured contributions from two of their six children Viève and Tristan. Viève and Tristan absorbed their parent’s creativity and dedication to art, drawing on their life experiences as source material for their artwork. They continue to work in the arts today, writing, teaching and honouring their parent’s legacy

The second weekend focused on the legacy of Sir John Betjeman, in words and music. Britain’s most noted poet, writer and broadcaster was the first President of the Malmesbury Civic Trust when it was founded 60 years ago. He described Malmesbury as ‘a perfect English medieval limestone town’. Looking at the town through contemporary eyes, the photo mini-marathon encouraged participants to creatively explore the locality and respond to the theme Pride of Place. We set a challenge for local people, young and old, to use their phone camera to make five pictures for five themes in five hours, capturing Malmesbury scenes in an unusual and original way. There were some brilliant entries, several hundred, and we selected the overall winners based on consistency and quality across the five themes.   

A packed house of over 100 at the Town Hall cinema that evening celebrated John Betjeman's love of architecture and preservation with a talk by Rachel Morley and a special screening of the ‘lost’ Malmesbury film from 1963. Marking the 60th anniversary of Malmesbury Civic Trust and Sir John Betjeman becoming the Trust’s first President

On Sunday, Janinka from Make it Wild ran a workshop at St. Mary’s Hall suitable for children of all ages. Together the children assembled cottages and buildings, created using cardboard, and made their very own Malmesbury high street. With cardboard, chalk, straw, lollypop sticks and pipe cleaners they built a miniature world with each house individually created by the children.  

Our third weekend focused on locally produced food and drink to taste and buy, including the Friday farmer’s market and the Source Makers and Producers event featuring presentations by Fruitful Malmesbury and ALIVU olive oil manufacturers, pop-up shop by Echo Food and Sam the Herbalist, special treats at the Wild Food Company, Abygail’s Artisan Gelato, the Cake Tin, the Old Bakehouse and Hobbs House.

Despite the unpredictable weather, the food and drink weekend was a great success with around 1000 people attending events and a delicious array of locally produced cheeses, wine, cider, chocolate, organic vegetables, pies, cakes, pickles and preserves, along with bread, artisan ice cream, meat and charcuterie, and sustainably produced olive oil.

The following evening saw The Poetry Salon Open Mic, with special guest Adam Horovitz. It was a funny, moving and thought-provoking event, with 13 local poets performing their original work and an inspired appearance by musician Theo May who sung his version of a Yeats’ poem set to a traditional tune played on 12 strong guitar. We were delighted to welcome 40 guests from Gien in France for the final weekend, as part of the town twinning arrangement. On a wet Saturday they enjoyed a curator’s tour of the In Living Memory exhibitions along with a special visit to Abbey Manor House and Gardens on Sunday, when the sunshine returned.

 Meanwhile, Look UP!, our second children’s workshop, invited participants to look up in Malmesbury Abbey and see the wonderful shapes and stone contours of this beautiful building within our town centre. Janinka from Make it Wild helped children to use binoculars to look up high, drawing favourite shapes then emulating them in clay.