THE town's dignified war memorial is one of the few structures that have not changed in Regent Circus during the past 30 years.
When this picture was taken, on Remembrance Sunday in 1972, the place was dominated by the Baptist Tabernacle, with its classical faade and steps. In 1978 the decision to pull down the Tabernacle provoked an outcry among conservationists.
Church authorities said the building behind the faade was disintegrating and would require a fortune to restore it.
Artist Stanley Frost and his sculptor son Alan bought the Bath stone portico with the intention of reconstructing the columns as the entrance to a mansion they wanted to build near Malmesbury. They failed to get planning permission and the 1,500 blocks of stone were left in a field at Brokenborough.
Pilgrim House, used by Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Churches as a worship centre, now stands on the old Tabernacle site.
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