The Lamb Inn, Marlborough Tel 01672 512668
If you like your breaks interesting, involving and lively, then the market town of Marlborough - which punches way above its weight when it comes to shopping - could be the ideal weekend away for you.
Marlborough, in the north east corner of Wiltshire, is the archetypical English market town – a place where coins were minted in Norman times, Tudor kings hunted for deer and where coaches heading west from London stopped to feed and water their horses.
It would seem therefore, that Marlborough was at the heart of things in days gone by. And although Britain’s coins are now turned out in London, the coaches fill up with diesel and your venison comes straight from one of the town’s splendid butchers, Marlborough still is a town with a big buzz.
In 1204 Marlborough was granted a Royal Charter by King John (yes, he of Robin Hood fame) so enabling Marlborough to achieve market town status .
There are two National Nature Reserves in the area - Fyfield Down, which has the best assemblage of sarsen stones in England, and Pewsey Downs.
The River Kennet, which is a tributary of the River Thames and designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, flows through and around the town.