Swindon in the Past Lane

So, what or where are you most looking forward to revisiting as lockdown eases.  I can't wait for the record offices and especially Local Studies in Swindon Central Library to re-open. I have documents and books I am desperate to get my hands on for research purposes. Talking about research and books, the Library Shop in Swindon Central Library is offering a deal on my two books, Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon and the recently published Ladies of Lydiard available at £25 for the two. The story of Swindon is that of a town of two halves. Transformed by the coming of the railways the women were on the front line of change, shaping the new industrial town and transforming the old market one. The story of Swindon's women includes artists and actresses, political activists and social reformers, as well as the ordinary women who worked in the factories, raised their children and made a difference. Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon tells the story of these women. From Mary Slade who ...

It's never too early to introduce your grandchildren to history - even if they really, really don't want to know! When my daughter said she’d never walked along the canal, I immediately went into local historian mode. What a lovely idea for an educational day out. We made a picnic lunch and armed with cameras we headed off with grandchildren in tow. Our walk took the route that begins behind the Esso Service Station at the bottom of Kingshill and extends into the Wichelstowe housing development. Begun in 1795 and under construction for 15 years, the Wilts & Berks canal opened in 1810. Stretching 52 miles from Semington Junction on the Kennet and Avon to the Thames at Abingdon, the canal was used chiefly for the transportation of coal from the Somerset mines. Its most profitable period was during the construction of the Great Western Railway and the Swindon works when it was used to convey materials. Sadly, the collapse of the Stanley Aqueduct over the River Marden in 1901...

  Swindon is an interesting town – no, honestly it is. From medieval market town to Victorian industrial hub, Swindon had members of the aristocracy living at Lydiard House and innovative engineers in New Swindon. We are surrounded by heritage at every turn. In West Swindon you might think the ancient agricultural heritage had been lost beneath the 1980s housing development, but even here there is plenty of evidence remaining. Wick Farmhouse and the neighbouring properties overlook the field which gives the housing estate its name – the Prinnels. In 1841, following the Tithe Commutation Act 1836, records reveal that Jonas Clarke farmed 150 acres of land at Wick, but the history of the farm goes back much further than that. Owned by Alfred of Marlborough when the Domesday survey was compiled in 1086 the farm passed to the Ewyas family down through the Tregoze, Grandison and Beauchamp families to the St. Johns who owned it for more than 500 years. The Victorian Wick Lane now fo...

Things have been rather quiet of late in the Past Lane but I’ve been pretty busy behind the scenes. First there was Grave Matters, a survey of the churchyard at St. Mary’s, Lydiard Park and the small cemetery at Hook. As part of a team of volunteers I have been working on photographing and collating the inscriptions on the headstones and writing histories of some of the people buried there. The work of the Grave Matters group will contribute to the Project Archives enterprise – for more details visit the Friends of Lydiard Park website. Next came the discovery of the fascinating Woolford diaries. Elliot Woolford farmed at Hook Farm from 1899 until his death in 1941. Throughout that time, he kept a diary, begun in 1892 when as a young man he started his farming career at Bagbury Farm with his brothers Rowland and Charles. The diaries provide a view of everyday life in the rural parish of Lydiard Tregoze during a time of great social change. As might be expected Elliot takes great...

I have just received the most extraordinarily thoughtful present. For many years I have been researching and writing about Swindon Suffragette Edith New, who ranks as one of the most influential suffragettes along with the Pankhurst family and the Kenney sisters. She scored a number of Suffragette firsts - the first to chain herself to railings as a form of protest, the first to break a window (at 10 Downing Street, no less) and the first Suffragette to go on hunger strike in a Scottish prison. My research into the life and times of Edith New has involved giving talks and tours of the places associated with her here in Swindon and I was part of the Swindon Heritage team who installed a blue plaque on the house where she was born in North Street Swindon. Edith was born on March 17, 1877, the youngest surviving child of Frederic James New and his second wife Isabella. Frederic died before Edith's first birthday, struck by a train while walking along the railway line t...

Are you watching A House Through Time  written and presented by historian David Olusoga? Have you been inspired to research the history of your own house? My home in West Swindon was built in the 1980s and while the surrounding area has plenty of fascinating history, the house itself has none. However, the house where I grew up in London has a long history. Built in the 1850s when a property in Brixton was a most desirable residence, 5 St John's Road was the long time residence of the Nicholson family who lived alongside some salubrious neighbours. In 1861 Thomas Quarm lived in a detached property called Rose Villa on the corner where St John's Road met Wiltshire Road. Thomas Quarm was born in Plymouth in about 1815 and had quite a chequered career. But by 1851 he had educated and reinvented himself and was employed as Clerk of Works on that most prestigious of new builds - the Palace of Westminster. On October 16, 1858 the illustrated News of the World reported at grea...

I thought it would be relatively easy to recreate the scene captured by Frederick Nash in c1808 but it has turned out to be quite tricky. Between 1801 and 1809 Nash was among a number of artists who worked with antiquarians John Britton and Edward Wedlake Brayley on a series of books called The Beauties of England and Wales - Delineations, topographical, historical, and descriptive of each county. In c1808 Nash made a visit to Wiltshire to capture a view of Lydiard House. Painter and draughtsman Frederick Nash was born in Lambeth in 1782, the son of a builder. Nash was a member of both the Royal Academy of Arts and the Society of Painters in Watercolours, where between 1810 and 1856 he exhibited 472 drawings in the Water-Colour Society's exhibitions. In 1807 be became architectural draftsman to the Society of Antiquarians and was described by J.M.W. Turner as the greatest architectural artist of his time. Nash moved to 44 Montpelier Road, Brighton in 1834 where he died at on ...