Swindon in the Past Lane

Over the coming weeks I shall be reviewing some books of local interest, all available on the shelves of Swindon Central Library. As the Swindon Society celebrates its 40th anniversary this year what better place to begin than with their superb selection of six publications.  The Swindon Society was founded by the late Eric Arman following a series of lectures given at the WEA.  Members meet every second Wednesday from September through to May at the Broad Green Centre, Salisbury Street, for more information visit the website on www.theswindonsociety.co.uk. Published during the 1980s/90s these popular books are available to view in the Swindon Local Studies Collection. One book I return to again and again is Studies in the History of Swindon.  Published by Swindon Borough Council in 1950 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of Swindon as a borough, this unassuming book begins with a look at the Prehistory of the Swindon...

A big thank you to followers and history fans as Swindon in the Past Lane notches up 15,000 page views. So what has everyone been reading?   Top views include a post about Swindon Central Library when their online photographic archive topped two million views back in January.  If you haven't taken a walk down memory lane yet visit this website on  http://www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal Swindon firm Garrard has also proved to be a popular post.  The precision engineering manufacturer moved to the town in 1919 and for the first time since the 1840s Swindon was no longer dependent on the railway works for employment. With dramatic photographs taken at the scene by William Hooper, the 1906 Tram Disaster also ranks with some of the most visited posts on Swindon in the Past Lane. And the Looking Down on ... series continues to grab the imagination with 1950s aerial photographs of Park South and Walcot getting regular views.  Keep looking as there are...

In 2001 Swindon Borough Council named a new housing project in Park South - Lesley-Ann Skeete Court in recognition of Swindon’s own double Olympian. Born in Sydenham in 1967, Lesley-Ann grew up in Swindon.  During the mid 1980s she attended Millfield School in Street, Somerset, well known for its sporting achievements. Former OM Olympians include, along with Lesley-Ann, swimmers Duncan Goodhew and Mark Foster and long jump Gold Medalist Mary Rand.  Millfield has eight former pupils confirmed for the upcoming London Olympics.  a young Lesley-Ann Skeete Lesley-Ann first competed as a 60 metre hurdler, but was tipped for the top when she retained the senior girls' 100 metres hurdles title, beating the 1.37 record set by Sue Homstrom in 1974 with her 13.5 time. Lesley-Ann went on to win a raft of awards including the UK Championship 100 metre hurdles title in 1987 winning it again in 1991. And in 1990 she won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland,...

Perhaps it's my choice of TV viewing  but lately my thoughts have been turning to my childhood spent in Brixton, South London.  A tour of the area courtesy of google maps shows a very different Brixton to the one where I grew up, still pockmarked by WWII bombsites in the early 1960s. Clicking on the little yellow man I attempted to recreate the walk I used to make from St John's Crescent to my friend Susan's home on Loughborough Road.  First I crossed Wiltshire Road then I walked along Angell Park Gardens behind the church into Angell Road.  I then snaked through the blocks of flats and through to Loughborough Road from where it was a relatively short hop to Elmore House.  A longish walk for a little girl under ten years of age pushing a dolls pram, but the streets were safer then, or so we like to think. Susan never came to my house - my mum worked from home and didn't encourage playmates - and we had a snappy corgi dog which Susan didn't care for - and ...