Malmesbury has missed out on transport links ever since stone age man chose the flat route to drag the Preseli stone to Stonehenge or did they float it round? Either way Malmesbury was not a stopping place.
Today our railway has gone, our bus service is less than desirable but still underused and the car rules supreme. Saxon Malmesbury groans under the volume of traffic and heavy goods vehicles periodically rearranging the market cross and war memorial.
Although Malmesbury itself is a motorist’s nightmare, it is paradoxically well placed for travel. The M4 and M5 both lie within easy reach giving easy access north, south, east and west.
Kemble, seven miles away to the north is a civilian airport but there is no commercial traffic. Lyneham, the same distance south east is one of the RAF’s most used airfields, but is threatened with closure in 2012. Numerous other airfields are in the area but all are relics of the second World War.
The pages here give some insight into what was and what might have been.
