Swindon in the Past Lane

The 1950s heralded a new age of diesel locomotives.  In the Western region alone, 130 diesel hydraulics were required to replace over 200 steam locomotives. Fittingly Swindon received an order for 30 of these main line 2000hp engines. Headed by Mr. J.A. Clarke, British Railways Western Region Diesel School opened in premises at the works in 1956, where training was given to drivers and maintenance staff. ‘Modernisation going on apace’ was one of the headlines in the British Railways Magazine of March 1958.  When the D.800, the first of 33 of its type to be built at Swindon, was named the Sir Brian Robertson at Paddington on July 14, 1958, the future at the former GWR works looked promising. In 1959 Swindon works received a share of the order for 2700hp diesel engines with hydraulic transmission for use on the Western Region.  Swindon was to build 35 of the 74 engines with delivery due in 1961. British Railways announced that Swindon was to be a centre fo...

Today even a modest advertisement in the local press can be prohibitively expensive.  In 1854 rates must have been a tad more affordable if the advertisement placed by Stephen Filtness in the Swindon Advertiser is anything to go by. Stephen was born in Kent in 1813, but by the mid 1850s he was living in Swindon with his wife Ann and running the warehouse at 40 Newport Street.  So what did they stock - well just about everything according to this advertisement. Where all may be furnished with goods of the best Of the various articles herein expressed. Namely, brushes of all sorts, for wet and dry rubbing Soft brushes for toilets and hard ones for scrubbing, Paint brushes, tooth brushes, hearth brushes and brooms, With mops of the best yard for the scrubbing of rooms. Shoe brushes, horse brushes, curry combs and tin tacks, Note paper, envelopes and good sealing wax. Smelling bottles, pins for the hair, and bed sacking, Bread trays, tea trays, glue and fine japa...

‘Doc Bishop and Fran Latham were lynched yesterday morning by the settlers living near Watonga, for horse stealing,’ reported the Cheyenne Sunbeam. ‘Both men belonged to a gang that were systematically stealing horses from the settlers and driving them into the Panhandle of Texas.’ While the impressive Morris family memorial at Christ Church contains all the names of newspaper magnet William’s twelve children, one son lies not in the shady churchyard on the hill but in a cemetery in Cheyenne, Oklahoma. Walter George Morris, third son of newspaper editor, proprietor and printer William and his wife Martha was born above the family firm at 10 Victoria Street on March 2, 1852.  Unlike his brothers, Walter chose not to join the staff on the Swindon Advertiser but instead worked as a clerk at the GWR Works in New Swindon.  But by 1872 twenty year old Walter had decided life in Swindon was a little too tame for him and he emigrated to America. With printing ink...

A devastating fire in the early hours of Thursday October 4, 1923 saw one of the oldest workingmen’s clubs in Swindon destroyed.  When fire fighters eventually left the scene at 9 a.m. all that remained of the once elegant old building were the external walls.  The idea of a club for the labouring man was the brainchild of Unitarian Minister Reverend Henry Solly.  Established in 1862 the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union aims included non alcoholic recreation and education in an attempt to lure the labourers out of the pubs and beer houses.  Whilst the idea soon caught on, by 1875 the drinking restrictions were abandoned and members took over the running of their own clubs. The West Swindon Club in Radnor Street, pictured before the fire, was one of the oldest workingmen’s clubs and in 1923 had 700 members. Among the fixtures and fittings lost in the fire were two new billiard tables valued at £200 along with 30 or 40 barrels of beer and larg...

Swindon may seem like an unlikely holiday destination, but it is ideally placed as a base to see some of the most  beautiful sites in the South West, for example less than a half hour journey away is the historic Avebury stone circle and recently refurbished Avebury Manor. Last year the 500 year old manor house was the subject of a collaboration between the National Trust and the BBC.  With no original fixtures or fittings remaining in the house an exciting and daring new venture was conceived.  A handful of rooms would be decorated in a period of the history of the house, furnishing them with reproduction and 'new' antiques. The end result was a TV documentary To the Manor Reborn and a house with  no restricted areas where visitors are allowed to handle the artefacts, sit on the chairs and bounce on the beds. Avebury Manor is open 11-5 every day except Wednesday and between May 5 and June 10 visitors have the opportunity to view an exhibition of sculpture in t...

The Locomotive might sound an obvious name for a pub in Swindon, but there have been surprisingly few.  With just one exception, even those pubs built alongside the company houses appear to have declined a railway associated name. The railway village pubs were all built in what was originally called High Street, a large grassed area enclosed by railings and later renamed Emlyn Square.  The Cricketers, the first fully licensed public house in New Swindon, opened in 1847 and took its name from its location near the GWR Cricket Field.  The Bakers Arms, on the corner of Bathampton Street, was originally owned by the GWR and served as both a beerhouse and a bakers.  The London Stout House, another GWR property, opened in about 1851 on the corner of Reading Street.  The name was later changed to the Glue Pot when it became the favourite watering hole of woodworkers employed in the carriage bodymaking and finishing shops.  The Engineers Arms, a relativ...

A 19 th century programme reveals an energetic array of activities enjoyed by Swindon High School pupils at their annual Sports Day in 1898. The earliest record of a school in Swindon was the Free School founded in 1764 to educate 20 boys and 5 girls.  Pupil numbers soon outstripped the accommodation in a cottage in Newport Street and the National School was built on the same site in 1835. The school in The Sands began life as the Classical and Commercial School for Young Gentleman.  Swindon Advertiser founder William Morris, one of the schools' early pupils, was enrolled for about eighteen months to complete his education where schoolmaster George Nourse, according to Morris, was a nice, kind, old gentleman but lacking firmness and ability to teach. By 1869 Cornish born Samuel Snell was in charge.  One of five sons of a lead miner, Samuel was a pupil teacher by the age of sixteen and the only one of his brothers to escape the Cornish lead mines. ...