Muriel Cobern

Ms Cobern was born on July 4, 1927 and lived briefly in Cornwall in the 1960s before returning to Wiltshire, living in Chippenham where she became a traffic warden.

She moved to Marlborough in the early 1970s, settling in Manton and moving into what was then a prefab bungalow.

She became a well-known figure in the village.

Ms Cobern was self taught and well read on the subject of local history.

She played an important part in the Marlborough History Society giving talks, writing pieces for the journal and setting the annual Christmas quiz.

She researched and wrote papers on a variety of local history topics and regularly visited Wiltshire Records Office.

During the last few years of her life she was writing a book on the history of the pubs of Marlborough but her inability to walk far and the loss of some of her sight meant this was put on hold and will now never be finished.

Her other love was for nature and in her younger years she roamed the Downs looking for flowers, fossils and animal bones as well as ancient artefacts, all of which were found labelled and dated when her house was emptied.