Town crier Alf Johnson had plenty to shout about last night, when he was crowned Marlborough’s Citizen of the Year and invited to help turn on the Christmas lights.
Mayor Marian Hannaford-Dobson said there had been “lots of votes” for Alf (83) “an all-round good chap” who had long associations with the Jubilee Centre, Carnival, football club and town band, to be named Citizen of the Year.
But ever-modest Alf, who has been hollering town announcements for 21 years, said “I don’t deserve this. I’ve got more to offer yet.”
Earlier in the evening Alf had accompanied the mayor and her mace bearers to St Mary’s Church for the traditional schools choir event, now in its 11th year.
Organiser Nigel Kerton told a packed church: “We have come here to hear the children singing their hearts out.”
Children from Ogbourne St George and St Andrew, Preshute, St Katharine’s and St Peter’s performed traditional carols and modern Christmas songs, before combining as a massed choir to sing Away in a Manger.
A delegation from Kennet Valley School did not make it to the church on time: presumed stuck in the traffic jam that formed as a result of the closure of Marlborough High Street – a first for the most recent incarnation of the town’s Christmas Lights night.
The closure, however, did allow the choristers to process around the town centre, signing and carrying little paper lanterns.
They followed the mayor on her sleigh – on loan from The Lions Club – who was accompanied by Father Christmas and St Peter’s pupil Ella Steele, picked from the singers to accompany the mayor and help push the plunger which switched on the Christmas lights, bathing High Street in a blue and silver glow.
The road closure also provided a safe environment for shoppers who browsed the 50 stalls of the Marlborough Communities Market. A range of locally-produced and artisan wares were on offer, ranging from freshly-squeezed and mulled apple juice using local apples, to hand-made hats and jewellery.
Marlborough News Online was there too, distributing copies of its popular Christmas Shopping Guide.
Meanwhile, Santa had a busy evening – when he wasn’t accompanying the mayor on his sleigh, he was entertaining children in his Town Hall grotto, reading stories and hearing their Christmas wishes, ably assisted by his elves, and volunteers from the town’s Rotary Club.
Click on any image to enlarge
It may not say so in ‘Your Wiltshire Magazine’, but Marlborough’s Christmas lights switch-on is this Friday – this very Friday
