The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire July 2014 Edition | Page 15

SPOTLIGHT ON MALMESBURY

THRIVING BUSINESS NETWORK
AT MALMESBURY & DISTRICT
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Malmesbury Living History
Weekend - A Success!

Malmesbury & District Chamber of Commerce
- part of Wessex Chambers, represents 70
member businesses in the town covering all
sectors of industry from tailors to florists,
auctioneers, food outlets, dentists and
communications companies.

During the weekend of Saturday 14 and
Sunday 15 June 1,000‘s of people flocked
to Malmesbury for a living history weekend
showcasing daily life in the 17th Century.
More than 200 professional re-enactors
‘took over the town’ dressed in costume
of the day and presented true to life
activities including 17th Century market
stalls, ‘guards’ posted at the High Street
gates and muster and drill demonstrations
in the Cloister Gardens. The highlight of
the weekend was a re-enactment of the
1644 skirmish, performed by the Civil War
Society’s regiment of Colonel Devereux’s
Regiment of Foote.
The date of the weekend was chosen to
coincide with 14 June 1644, 370 years ago,
when Colonel Nicholas Devereux took up
residence in Abbey House and garrisoned
his Regiment of Foote in the town.
The project was the town’s first
community project that pooled together
resources from the Althestan Museum,
local schools, the Warden & Freemen,
Malmesbury Town Council, Malmesbury
Civic Trust and the Malmesbury & District

Chamber of Commerce. Support from local
businesses in the town made the event
possible with sponsors such as Hilditch
Group, Blount & Maslin Estate Agents
and Valuers, The Front Room Marketing &
Design and the James Dyson Foundation.
BBC History Magazine and the Heritage
Lottery Fund also funded the event.
The event managed to attract the interest
of the BSKYB network with videographers
in attendance filming for a special
documentary to be aired in the future,
the scheduled date is yet to be confirmed.
Sue Poole, the Mayor of Malmesbury
said: “I would like to thank the army of
volunteers who helped over the weekend
and all of the people of the town and
visitors who turned out to watch, listen and
interact with the re-enactors. It made us all
feel so very proud of our town”.

Aimee Frankham is Chair of the Chamber
of Commerce and is also owner of small
business Amano Tailors, based in the town.
Aimee said: “The Chamber of Commerce
is very active working with local businesses
and retailers to boost trade, identifying
things such as shopping trends.”
Malmesbury Festival takes places for
a whole month from 30 July- 31 August
with an eclectic mix of events planned. The
festival culminates with the Malmesbury
Carnival Procession on 30 August. The
Chamber of Commerce is involved with
the carnival programme engaging with the
organisers and helping to maximise the
profit for potential traders.
Another project being organised is an
event to bring Wiltshire Business Support
Services to the town to do a presentation
on their services and how they can help the
local area.
Malmesbury & District Chamber of
Commerce is also currently involved in
the neighbourhood planning process.
They are part of a core team involved
with developing the town team which
will be responsible for the spend of town

funding gained from planning payments.
They are also working with other towns
in looking at innovative ways of making
shopping an experience rather than a chore
and entertaining the town’s visitors with
interactive treasure trails.
Malmesbury Chamber is spear heading
this project and has met with rural
businesses and periphery businesses in
Malmesbury developing relationships
and finding out their needs. This
includes attracting new business to the
area and one idea is to work with a
Portsmouth based company to develop
a regional centre in Malmesbury for their
communications arm, this is in the early
stages but very positive. The current aim is
to support and sustain what Malmesbury
has whilst attracting more diverse and
exciting business to the area.
For more about Malmesbury & District
Chamber of Commerce visit:
www.malmesburychamber.org.uk
For more about Malmesbury Festival and
Carnival visit:
www.malmesburycarnival.wordpress.com

Malmesbury & District
Chamber of Commerce

THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2014

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