It has been announced that Wiltshire Council wants all its community areas to go down to Salisbury on the 15 June to celebrate Magna Carta. The link between Magna Carta and Salisbury is actually tenuous.

Neither the present day city nor the cathedral existed in 1215 when King John sealed the Charter. Only by chance does the cathedral have a copy of the Charter.

Wiltshire Council have deliberately ignored the fact that Trowbridge was actually a Magna Carta Baron Town. Henry de Bohun, whose caput or headquarters was Trowbridge, was one of the enforcers of Magna Carta. Henry de Bohun was an inspirational figure, a man who sought to develop early Trowbridge, laying out the market place and building the first St James Church.

But this is not just about Trowbridge. Henry de Bohun’s barony extended across Wiltshire, including Great Somerford and Oaksey near Malmesbury, Seagry near Chippenham, Monkton Farleigh near Bradford on Avon, East Coulston near Westbury and Manningford Bohune in the Vale of Pewsey. Much of Wiltshire has good reason to celebrate this remarkable man.

Surely Wiltshire Council should be celebrating the very real Magna Carta connections to Wiltshire through our Magna Carta Baron, Henry de Bohun, in June, not taking part in some procession to the cathedral which just celebrates Salisbury!

Andy Milroy Bellefield Crescent Trowbridge