This morning (Friday 6 May) the Court Room of the Town Hall was a hive of industry. Volunteers were there, concentrating hard over the many sewing machines, wielding pinking shears and producing streams of Bunting that will be flying across the High Street to celebrate next month’s Platinum Jubilee. A real and very effective production line.
Sheets of red, white and blue fabric were marked, cut and then each triangular piece sewed on to the red bunting tape to create a series of lengths of bunting. All of the 24m of each colour fabric was supplied at cost by Dible & Roy of The Parade in Marlborough. Overall there will be nearly 500m of bunting produced by the volunteer team, saving money for sure (bunting at present extremely expensive due to the high demand, one charity offering modest lengths for £400) but importantly it’s the community, the volunteers who are making a key part of the town’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations ‘home grown’.
The Bunting will run across the High Street, held up in the middle by the poles for the Christmas Lighting.
“We didn’t want to use plastic, which in any case may have get damaged by poor weather. So we were ambitious and asked the brilliant people of Marlborough to volunteer. We all had really good fun and there was a real hum of happy activity. Some rather good cups of tea and cupcakes kept up our energy levels!” said Wiltshire and Marlborough Councillor Jane Davies, who along with fellow Councillor Caroline Thomas was hard at work on the Bunting Production Line.
This was the first of two ‘Bunting Production Line’ sessions. The second workshop will take place on Friday 20 May, same place – Court Room (downstairs) in the Town Hall between 10am and 2pm. If you would like to volunteer send an e-mail to Clare Harris, Assistant Town Clerk at charris@marlborough-tc.gov.uk.