Marlow, Buckinghamshire

Marlow (previously Great Marlow or Chipping Marlow) is a town on the very southern tip of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the River Thames, four miles south-south-west of High Wycombe, and four miles north west of Maidenhead.

The town name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'land remaining after the draining of a pool'. In the Domesday Book in 1086 it was recorded as Merlaue, though previously it was known as Merelafan.

Marlow has been an important town for many years. This is because of its location on the River Thames: a major trade route from London. It has had its own market since 1324 at the latest, and as early as 1299 the town had its own Member of Parliament.

Bridge

There has been a bridge over the Thames at Marlow since the reign of King Edward III. The current bridge is a suspension bridge, designed by William Tierney Clark in 1832, and was a prototype for the nearly identical but larger Széchenyi Chain Bridge across the River Danube in Budapest.

Notable residents

The Royal Military College, now based at Sandhurst in Surrey was also once located in this town. Notable residents of the town have included Mary Shelley (who wrote Frankenstein there), Percy Bysshe Shelley, T. S. Eliot, Jerome K. Jerome and General George Higginson.

More recently the town has been the home of Quintuple Olympic Gold Medallist Rower, Sir Steve Redgrave. The greatest Olympian Britain has ever produced. After striking gold in Sydney 2000 he became Britain's only athlete ever to have won Gold Medals at five consecutive Olympic Games. The Marlow Town Park, Higginson Park features a bronze statue of Sir Steven, looking across the river towards the location of the finish line of the Marlow regatta. There is also a road, Redgrave Road adjoining from Newtown road to commorate the Olypmic medals.

Marlow hosts a regular regatta, and is the location of one of the Thames's locks.

Marlow is adjoined by Little Marlow via the Little Marlow Road and to Bourne End by the same road. Nearby to the south are Bisham (home of Bisham Abbey) and Cookham Dean.

Transport

Marlow has a railway station on a branch line from Maidenhead, locally known as the Marlow Donkey, originally built by the Great Western Railway.

Discoveries

Fusarium venenatum which is used to produce Quorn was discovered in the soil of a farm near Marlow in the 1960s.

Town twinning

Marlow is twinned with the French town of Marly-le-Roi.

External links

Towns in Buckinghamshire | River Thames