THE Merchant's House at 132 High Street, Marlborough, is being restored to look as it would have 350 years ago when wealthy silk merchant Thomas Bayly, his wife Kathryn and their ten children lived there.

The house was built following the Great Fire of 1653 that destroyed most of the town centre.

Over the years the building was divided into two shops and the town's first newspaper, the Marlborough Journal, was published from a building behind the house.

In about 1926 WH Smith opened a shop that remained in business until 1990 when it moved to its present location further along the street.

Among the house's original features are wonderful staircases, original wooden panelling and its original oak window frames.

A group called the Merchant's House Trust was set up in 1991 when the town council bought the building Smith's had occupied

It is leased to the trust by the council for a bag of peppercorns payable every year at a small ceremony.

More recently the trust was able to buy the other half of the building that continues to be let but which will one day be incorporated into the restoration project.

The restoration of the Merchant's House is being aided by the fact that Bayly was a meticulous man who kept records of his transactions and a full inventory of everything the house contained.