Just in case time travel becomes a reality here's a guide to how to spend your leisure hours in 1600s Marlow and it's environs.
Go bowling at the King's Head pub bowling alley in the High Street. First mentioned 1680s.
Take a tipple at the above or perhaps at the Angel or the Bull Head pubs in Marlow High Street, or the Upper Crown in Market Square, or the Black Boy near the river. Other inns are available too, no need to go thirsty in 1600s Marlow.
Visit the church and see memorial brasses from the 13 and 1400s. Sadly these are lost to us now. Unless you are visiting during the Civil War when soldiers are occupying the site. Probably best not try to go inside then. The church needs cleaning afterwards.
Visit the ruins of the dissolved Little Marlow Abbey which were still standing into the 1700s. Medieval wall paintings can be seen inside them.
Cross the river to Bisham and cure your poor eyesight in it's magic stream Visitors like you have been splashing their eyes with this water for centuries. Sceptics will tell you the great coldness of the water gives you only a few moments of heightened clarity of vision and it won't last but what do they know? Princess Elizabeths Well also in Bisham offers the same benefits.
Do some wildlife spotting You can still see otters in the Thames at Marlow plus wild salmon and eels. If you've never heard a cuckoo now may be your chance, especially if you do visit the Bisham side of the river. Hares are especially common around Little Marlow but can be seen everywhere.
See who is the town stocks in the Market Place - commiserate with them or throw a rotten apple, your choice.
Enjoy some Morris dancing- Marlow Church bought and kept for the town (plus lent out to nearby villages) Morris costumes from at least the late 1500s to at least the 1630s. I am not sure why it fell to them to kit out dancers whose dance was a leftover from pre-Christian rituals but it did. Best time to visit to see them is May.
Run very fast- out of town. If you are visiting in 1665, that is. A plague outbreak will kill at least 50 people in the town this year.
©Marlow Ancestors.
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