IN recent years you have devoted many column inches to the future of Malmesbury Town Hall but a common feature of the two most recent proposals is the downgrading or demise of the Athelstan Museum.

There is already in North Wiltshire an excellent museum in Chippenham funded by Chippenham Town Council so the question is "do we need the Athelstan Museum?"

The answer is a very emphatic yes. Malmesbury has its own unique history. It is England's oldest borough; Athelstan, the first king of England was initially buried here and his tomb remains in the abbey. William of Malmesbury wrote his history here; Thomas Hobbes was a Malmesbury man and Charles James Fox represented the Borough in Parliament.

Any history of Malmesbury would include the growth of Christianity, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the English Civil War and the Reform Acts.

Malmesbury is a tourist town visited by over 70,000 people every year. They come to see the abbey and the Abbey Gardens and to walk through the town centre which retains its ancient street patterns and round the river valleys with their millstreams and magnificent view of the abbey and the town walls.

Earlier proposals for the town hall involved merging the museum and the Tourist Information Centre so that visitors would have a full picture of the town, its life and history.

Such a merger would lead to a Heritage Centre that would provide not only a guide to Malmesbury but to the social history of England.

The Friends of Athelstan Museum continue to support the proposal for a Heritage Centre that includes a secure and adequate space for our exhibits. What John Betjeman described as "a city built on a hill which cannot be hid" deserves nothing less and we urge those responsible for the town hall to ensure the survival of the museum.

J D'ARCY

Chairman

Friends of Athelstan Museum

King's Walk

Malmesbury