THIS week are some photographs from the Rob Dickens collection in Marlborough featuring one or too of the highways and byways and communities around the area.

Rob has a passion for photographs and postcards featuring his home town with a fascination for how life used to be. One image belonging to him is of the pupils and staff of Wootton Rivers School National School taken in 1935 pictured outside. Note the mixture of school uniforms, ranging from pinafores and straw hats for the girls and ties and waistcoats for a few of the boys.

Some of the children are well turned out in tailored outfits while some of the boys remind me of my slightly scruffy uniform back in the day.

The village had a population of nearly 500 in the mid-19th century but is now less than half of that today meaning the falling numbers led to the school closing in 1979.

The next photo of another village south of Marlborough shows the village of Oare known to Americans as Oh-Ah said Rob. Telephone polls and a street lamp suggests it was taken in the early 20th century with an absence of traffic as villagers stand in the middle of what is now the A345. Or is it? Perhaps readers can let us know exactly which part of the village it is.

A road that’s changed a lot with upgrades in the 1930s and 1940s is the Beckhampton road at Fyfield, where the Jet petrol station is now.

Rob’s photo shows a policeman and possibly his two children prior to the road widening as the houses on the right have gone, although the River Kennet flows on eternally.

The former Wheatsheaf pub (now Silks on the Downs) is pictured in another photo on what is now the A346. Remarkably the scene is little changed with the grass bank and telephone polls resisting the march of progress.

Finally, we often complain about heavy lorries thundering through our villages, but the problem is not new. The photo of the traction engine with three hefty wagons belonging to Stephen H Neate of Marlborough is a formidable looking piece of transportation. Think of the noise and damage to the road surface as it rumbled past your front parlour.