Marlow is an ancient Thames crossing point, a position symbolised by its elegant suspension bridge; but the images of pleasure craft have tended to obscure its centuries-old importance as a port. Timber, wheat and malt were the main cargoes sent down river to London in the days when Marlow merchants built up contacts with trading houses in the capital, apprenticed their sons to London tradesmen, and forged the commercial links which long underlay the town's prosperity.

Marlow's image as a picturesque town similarly tends to overshadow its rural hinterland. Though never a busy market town, it had a market day, two annual fairs and a fine market house rebuilt as late as 1807. A large agricultural parish, it included several big upland farms as well as farms on the flat land to the east and north of the town. The south-facing slope of the Thames Valley was ideal for wheat and barley. The maltsters prospered and some became brewers. Wethered's brewery became the largest employer in the town, with more than a 100 public houses in Buckinghamshire alone.

Marlow merchants demonstrated their success by building fine houses in the main streets, while Harleyford and Marlow Place display even greater wealth created in the City of London and at the Court of St James. These houses enhanced Marlow's reputation as a fashionable place of resort, and when the railway came the opportunity to own a riverside house was extended to the middle classes of the metropolis. The growth and evolution of the town is explored in a lively text; there is a collection

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