About Marlborough & District Rotary Club

Marlborough & District Rotary Club  is a club of some 16 Rotarians who meet. Our members are drawn from Marlborough, Pewsey and the surrounding towns and villages.

We are actively involved in raising money for local, national and international charities and raises funds by organising such events as jumble sales; auctions; hobbies and crafts exhibitions; cheese and wine evenings; charity golf matches; metal detecting competitions; car boot sales and street collections for National charities. Other club activities have included; tree planting on Marlborough Common, senior citizens Christmas parties and mock interviews for school leavers. The club provides the Town's Christmas tree each year and collects for a Children's hospice during the festive period.

Over the years the club also organised a Pop Concert at Marlborough College which raised over £5000 for the charity Hope & Homes for Children.  For the same charity and in the same month, a club member participated in a sponsored trek on Mount Everest raising an incredible £19,000 from donations. On behalf of  the charity 'Tools for Self Reliance', the club collects unwanted tools, which are all distributed in developing countries. Additionally members support the charities ShelterBox and Aqua Box, both of whom work world-wide to relieve suffering for victims of natural disasters.   Opticians throughout the area act on behalf of the club as collection points for unwanted spectacles and redistribute them to needy people in the Sudan.

The club supports Rotary District 1100 by participating in the annual 'Kids Out' event for children with special needs, the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) programme and the Rotary National Young Chef competition. Members host Rotarians and their partners when visiting the District from overseas, on Rotary Friendship Exchanges.  

To mark Rotary's Centenary Year, the Club provided a courtyard garden, in the form of the Rotary wheel, for the town's Cottage Hospital. The garden provides a quiet and tranquil space for the enjoyment of patients and staff alike. 

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Marlborough is situated in the heart of an area of outstanding natural beauty, in the rural northeast of Wiltshire and offers the discerning visitor a unique blend of ancient history together with modern attractions and facilities. Marlborough, described by Samuel Pepys as a 'pretty fair town for a street or two', retains its unique beauty and is ideal as a touring centre.  The High Street, said to be the widest in England, contains a number of specialist shops, pubs, hotels and restaurants. Many are set under the 17 century covered walks.

The ancient town, given its charter by King John in 1204, has been a centre of habitation for more than ten thousand years.  It lies in the shallow, upland valley of the River Kennet, which flows through the town. To the north are the magnificent, undulating Marlborough Downs containing world famous gallops for the training of racehorses.  To the south, is the spectacular eighteen hundred hectares of Savernake forest - a former Royal Hunting forest.   To the west is the world heritage site of Avebury where Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age tribes left behind ceremonial monuments as ancient as the pyramids.  The prehistoric circles, burial sites and stones, older than Stonehenge, and the enigmatic Silbury Hill, are a must for every visitor to the area; they have been described as 'among the foremost works of pre-historic man in Europe'.  Not without reason Marlborough has been called the 'Gateway to Ancient Britain'.

The Kennet and Avon Canal is situated to the south of the town, in the beautiful Vale of Pewsey.  The village of Pewsey, a charming mixture of thatched cottages and Georgian houses, is overlooked by one of the famous Wiltshire White Horses. 

The competitive advantage of Marlborough as a business location relies on a combination of unique assets, including its location and accessibility, good retailing and leisure opportunities and the quality of life!

All members of Marlborough & District Rotary Club contribute to the growth and strength of the area, by encouraging and fostering the object of Rotary, so that we are truly seen as a club at the heart of the community.