Skip to main content

GWR Park




Today you will be unlikely to hear the thwack of leather on willow in Faringdon Road Park where in 1844 the GWR bought a parcel of land west of the Railway Village, owned by Lt. Col Vilett.

In the early days the Cricket Ground was surrounded by a hedge and wooden palings and the GWR frequently had to issue warnings when their property was vandalised.

A notice published in June 1860 by Works Manager William Gooch announced – “I have again to caution, and call the attention of the Workmen to the damage done in the village by their Children, such as destroying trees in the Cricket Ground.”

Families faced severe penalties if their children were found to be the culprits. Gooch warned that the guilty boys "will not in future at any time be employed in the Works." If the offences were repeated the men risked losing not only their job but their home as well.

The GWR Cricket club, formed in 1847, shared the Cricket Field with teams representing other Shops in the railway works, even playing separate matches on the same day.

Star all-rounder was foundry worker John Laverick who as a 19 year-old moved to the GWR Works in 1866 from his home in Northumberland. He joined the cricket club the following year and scored 60 runs in his first innings played on the home ground.

In 1870 a match played at Bedminster's home ground saw batting legend W.G. Grace bowled out for a duck by Laverick.



During the club's heyday, when crowds averaged 1,000, team members included twin brothers Tom and George Hogarth who apparently caused the tetchy Dr. Grace some confusion when they played against him. Convinced that the GWR team had put the same man in to bat twice, the brothers had to stand side by side to settle the charge.

The GWR Company continued to develop the park, although sometimes at the expense of the cricket club, as Frederick Large notes in A Swindon Retrospect. “A bandstand having been erected by them almost in midfield of play rendered the playing of matches well nigh impossible ...”

After 63 years the club's career finally came to an end in 1910. Financial difficulties compounded by the high rent charged by the GWR on the Cricket Field saw the team selling off materials to pay debts.

In 1925 the park passed out of GWR ownership when the company entered into an 'exchange' with Swindon Corporation for land at Gorse Hill.

1870 - plans are drawn up for a Lodge on the eastern side of the New Swindon Cricket Field.
1871-72 Landscaping and formal gardens are laid out. Pavilion built on western side of the park, backing onto Park Lane. Fund raising events such as Penny Readings held at the Mechanics Institute to pay for these improvements.
Drill Hall built for the XI Wilts Rifle Corp - site now occupied by the TA Centre.
1881 census - Robert Matthews is head gardener and park keeper living at Park Lodge, Church Place.
1897 - railings and ornamental gates added.
1898 - plan for Bandstand submitted.
2010 - New railings erected around Faringdon Road Park



old postcard views of GWR Park courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My neck of the woods

Did you know that our neck of the woods was once just that - part of a wood, a very big wood? And not just any old wood but a Royal forest no less - Braydon Forest. The origins of Braydon Forest date back to the 9th century and a belt of woodland stretching from the Thame Valley to the Vale of Blackmore and known to the Saxons as Sealwudu. The Saxon lords were pretty easy going, it would appear, and then along came the Normans with their system of forest law, courts and officialdom. Braydon became a royal forest by 1135 and in the 13th century it contained an area of some 46 square miles. The forest bounds included not only woodland but fields of arable, meadow and pasture and even villages such as those of Lydiard Tregoze, Lydiard Millicent and Purton. In 1256, during the reign of Henry III the king gave Robert Tregoze 3 bucks and 8 does from Braydon to restock his park at Lydiard Tregoze and in 1270 John Tregoze obtained a royal licence to 'inclose and impark' his woo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ...

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again … Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Actually, it was the rooms of the Mechanics’ Institute Trust once based at No 1, Milton Road, Swindon, where Mark Sutton, Graham Carter and I first produced the blue print for the Swindon Heritage magazine in 2011. In my dream I was attending a shambolic meeting that roamed across the spacious office accommodation. There I met some of the key characters of this story, although not all of them. Paul Gregory, or was it Noel Beauchamp, it could have been either, Julie Carter and a hot dog vendor (so vivid was the illusion that when I awoke, I had the taste of onions in my mouth). Then there was an on-going, ambulatory talk about saving the Mechanics’ Institute reminiscent of the famous ‘Save the Clock Tower’ scene in the 80s film Back to the Future. This account is rather rambling, isn’t it, but isn’t that the nature of a dream – making perfect sense when you are in it and none at all when you wake up? ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Edith New - Swindon Suffragette

In 1906 the suffragette campaign entered its most violent phase. Over 500 women had been imprisoned by 1909 and right up there among the militant activists was a Swindon schoolteacher. Edith Bessie New was born 17th March, 1877 at 24 North Street, Swindon, the fourth of Frederic and Isabelle New's five children. Frederic worked as a railway clerk at the GWR Works and Isabelle was a music teacher. An assistant mistress at Queenstown Infant School from 1899-1901, Edith subsequently left her Swindon home to teach in the deprived areas of Deptford and Lewisham. It was after hearing the charismatic Emmeline Pankhurst speak at a meeting in Trafalgar Square that Edith joined the Women's Social and Political Union. In February 1907 a deputation of suffragettes marched on the House of Commons in protest at the omission of votes for women from the King's speech. What had begun as a peaceful demonstration ended in a violent confrontation with police. Edith was among those arr...
2 comments
Read more