You'll see white horses at Westbury, at Cherhill and Hackpen Hill and (if you know where to look) at Devizes and Marlborough too. But you won't often see four brown horses in Melksham - here, pictured at the end of our street this morning.
It's been an interesting weekend. Yesterday, I was asked to go along and help with the jumble sale run by the ladies of the "Bowerhill Villager" - a free news sheet that's produced by their own team, and distributed every month to over a thousand homes. Funding for the newspaper comes from advertising, from grants, and from money that the ladies raise themselves at events such as the jumble sale at Bowerhill Village Hall. Abbi Dark - the Melksham Carnival Princess - was on hand at 10 a.m. sharp with a pair of scissors that turned out to be not QUITE so sharp to declare the sale open... and they flooded in!
It turned out that there was very little indeed for me to do. The team has run the jumble sale for years and I was something of a spare cog - in fact I wandered out and went round photographing some of the Bowerhill Industrial Units in that lull you get at jumble sales between the initial surge and tidying up all the unsold goods at the end. However, I took some pictures of the sale too, to help encourage others to come along next year, and to show you what an excellent range of goods were for sale. And at the end of the day, this hard work netted a profit of around a hundred pounds which goes towards keeping the Bowerhill Villager running.
Naturally, even Melksham Princesses need to let their hair down sometimes... here's Abbi in some of her time off during the sale taking some pictures too.
Melksham is really lucky with its free newspapers.
The "Bowerhill Villager" is keenly read right across Bowerhill, with advertisers regularly letting the team know what a good response they have got. The regular report from the local community police officer, parish and club news, letters which can get every bit as heated as ones at a less local level, tips, recipes, and even a regular monthly cartoon.
The
"Melksham Independent News" covers the whole town - and has a quite remarkable editorial content for a 'free-sheet'. I'm sure that's no accident - it's a carefully designed feature that means that the MIN is really valued and read from cover to cover... which of course helps to keep the advertisers happy.
(written 2009-11-08, updated 2013-02-23)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
M201 - Well House Manor - Around Melksham, Wiltshire [437] Outside of the box - (2005-09-06)
[676] Melksham, Wiltshire - (2006-04-08)
[805] Melksham Carnival Parade - (2006-07-16)
[811] Melksham in Bloom - (2006-07-22)
[830] Butterflies in a Wiltshire garden - (2006-08-12)
[847] Image maps for navigation - a straightforward example - (2006-08-28)
[866] A lazy programmer is a good programmer - (2006-09-15)
[879] Tuesday night is party night - (2006-09-26)
[929] Presenting Melksham - for a weekend away in Wiltshire - (2006-11-17)
[957] Improving the historic town of Melksham - (2006-11-30)
[977] Melksham and Norwich - (2006-12-10)
[1117] Newport Male Voice Choir - (2007-03-24)
[1137] Wiltshire Circles - (2007-04-07)
[1177] Sorting out for a site map - (2007-05-05)
[1206] Where and When - can you place the picture? - (2007-05-27)
[1266] Party in the Park - (2007-07-14)
[1271] Till the cows come home - (2007-07-19)
[1330] While waiting for Melksham Post Office - (2007-09-02)
[1341] Moving to Melksham? Househunting map. - (2007-09-09)
[1343] Melksham Laundrette - (2007-09-09)
[1360] Asda in Melksham - Welcome or not? - (2007-09-21)
[1368] Getting the local voice heard - (2007-09-26)
[1436] A little touring help during a business trip to England - (2007-11-18)
[1451] More PHP sample and demonstration programs - (2007-12-01)
[1928] Melksham Oak Community School, Melksham, Wiltshire - (2008-12-07)
[1977] Going round the block - (2009-01-04)
[1986] Walk to Bowerhill - (2009-01-10)
[2008] The Month Ahead - What is happening in Melksham - (2009-01-25)
[2043] Confidence, Customer Service and Tourism in Melksham - (2009-02-15)
[2064] East of Melksham Countryside - (2009-03-02)
[2066] Melksham Industrial - (2009-03-04)
[2142] Riverside Development - (2009-04-26)
[2168] In honour of the photograph, I present ... a walk from Reybridge to Lacock - (2009-05-10)
[2175] Melksham in pictures - (2009-05-11)
[2253] Walks in and around Melksham, Wiltshire - (2009-06-21)
[2262] History is not always pretty - (2009-06-30)
[2297] Standing on the corner, Melksham Carnival - (2009-07-19)
[2329] Great to be in Melksham - (2009-08-08)
[2349] Businesses effected by road works in Melksham - (2009-08-11)
[2480] Pantomimes around Melksham - 2009/2010 season - (2009-10-28)
[2528] Melksham Christmas Lights - (2009-12-05)
[2585] Consultation in Melksham, on Melkshams future - (2010-01-17)
[2588] Freddies Wood and the K and A Canal - (2010-01-17)
[2665] Early Spring walk in Melksham - (2010-03-07)
[2691] New brochures for the Melksham area - (2010-03-24)
[2708] The bull on the footpath - (2010-04-04)
[2716] Melksham in Pictures - (2010-04-10)
[2739] Melksham Scouts - (2010-04-25)
[2829] Dauncey Gardens, Melksham - (2010-06-27)
[2854] Melksham Food and Drink Fair and Town Crier Competition - (2010-07-04)
[2950] Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, turns first sod in Melksham Link Canal - (2010-09-09)
[3023] Autumn walk from Bowerhill - (2010-10-31)
[3050] Views of Melksham - November 2010 - (2010-11-13)
[3209] Seeing Electricity Pylons near Melksham - (2011-03-21)
[3227] Her favourite store - (2011-04-02)
[3232] Around and about Melksham in more pictures - (2011-04-05)
[3248] What have these pictures in common? - (2011-04-16)
[3258] Morning in Melksham - (2011-04-23)
[3266] Easter on the Canal - near Melksham, Wiltshire - (2011-04-26)
[3305] Getting away from the madding crowd - an intercontinental journey - (2011-05-27)
[3337] Home Grown Pigs, near Melksham Station - (2011-06-26)
[3389] Plenty to do in Melksham - (2011-08-13)
[3470] Currently pictured in Melksham - (2011-10-09)
[3499] Images of Melksham - (2011-10-29)
[3502] Sunday Evening ... newest and oldest Melksham pictures - (2011-10-30)
[3507] Melksham Forward - meeting summary and pictures - (2011-11-04)
[3520] Quintessentially English - scenes from our Wiltshire town - (2011-11-14)
[3525] Melksham has a heart - come and see the pictures. Sunday, 11 to 3, Assembly Hall - (2011-11-18)
[3526] Melksham has a Heart - Montage picture for sale - (2011-11-20)
[3543] Some different pictures from Melksham - (2011-12-07)
[3569] Images of the new year in Melksham - (2012-01-05)
[3605] Snow comes to Melksham, Wiltshire - pictures - (2012-02-10)
[3644] The way of the Prioress - Melksham history pictured today - (2012-03-09)
[3646] Exploring Melksham with a film maker - (2012-03-09)
[3647] Along the brook - East Melksham to Melksham - (2012-03-10)
[3656] TrainWest 2012 - 14th and 15th April, Melksham, Wiltshire - (2012-03-16)
[3657] Basham Festival, Melksham, early August 2012 - a welcome - (2012-03-16)
[3659] Welcome to Melksham - our new communities - (2012-03-18)
[3692] Deeper than Art - An exhibition of the tattoo Canvas - Melksham - (2012-04-10)
[3697] Events in Melksham - read all about them, and tell us about yours - (2012-04-15)
[3703] A Museum for Melksham History. Open from 12th May 2012. - (2012-04-21)
[3704] The Bowerhill Villager - a newsletter for Bowerhill, Melksham - (2012-04-22)
[3712] Some unpublished and historic pictures - Museum of Melksham - (2012-04-28)
[3720] Melksham ATC - freedom of the town - (2012-05-05)
[3735] A walk around Melksham this morning. Can you place all of these? - (2012-05-17)
[3744] Short Web Addresses for Melksham - (2012-05-30)
[3771] Fine evening, country walk from Melksham - pictures - (2012-06-21)
[3822] Town Clean - Melksham - (2012-07-29)
[3837] Evening behind Melksham Spa - (2012-08-12)
[3864] Guest Guide for Well House Manor and Melksham - (2012-09-18)
[3869] How have Melksham shops changed in 60 years? - (2012-09-24)
[3897] Autumn scenes from Melksham - (2012-10-16)
[3944] Melksham Christmas Lights, 2012 - (2012-12-05)
[3949] Melksham Spa from Woolmore Farm - (2012-12-09)
[3960] Picture - between Lacock and Melksham - (2012-12-21)
[3962] Melksham welcomes visitors - new blue plaque trail and more - (2012-12-27)
[4084] New Pictures - Melksham Pack Horse Bridge - (2013-05-12)
[4119] Melksham - Flower Town - (2013-06-20)
[4141] My pictures of Melksham Carnival, 13th July 2013 - (2013-07-14)
[4145] After the storm - (2013-07-29)
[4151] Tell me a bit about Melksham - (2013-08-10)
[4169] Around and about - Melksham - (2013-09-08)
[4357] Seeing Christmas Coming to Melksham - (2014-12-20)
[4701] Pretty at the station too - (2016-07-06)
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