Swindon in the Past Lane

Swindon has been a work in progress since Brunel and Gooch sited an engineering works for the maintenance and repair of locomotives here in 1840.  Of course the industrial new town grew bigger and was more successful than anyone could have possibly predicted.  Pretty much the same could be said for the development that came after the railway boom. Victorian development on Princes Street, the site of construction work pictured here, began in the 1870s as building projects swallowed up fields of pasture right to the door of Eastcott Farm.  Among the builders at work on Princes Street were the entrepreneurial James Hinton, John Webb and one time publican at the Dolphin Inn, Rodbourne Charles Williams. The street that stretched from Regent Circus to the canal was named in honour of Albert Victor, eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII.  The scandalous Albert Victor, once in the frame for the Jack the Ripper murders, died  fr...

It is difficult to believe that this town centre parkland oasis was once a brown field site. Queen's Park is a twelve acre beauty spot with a Victorian industrial past, the site of builder Thomas Turner's brick works -  examples of his artistry stand close to the Drove Road entrance. Today the former derelict claypit, once popular with zoologist Desmond Morris and his girlfriend Diana Dors, is an award winning park and garden. The park was developed between 1947 and 1962.  The first phase - a Garden of Remembrance to the fallen of the Second World War - was opened by Princess Elizabeth in 1950, the year of Swindon Borough's Golden Jubilee.  The second phase was opened by Sir Noel Arkell, Sheriff of Wiltshire, on May 30, 1953. Unfortunately the glass Show House was dismantled following storms in the early 1990s.  Designed by Borough Architect J. Loring-Morgan and opened in 1964 a brick wall is all that remains of the structure that once boasted a...

Two buildings in this aerial view of Swindon fifty years ago are testament to the town's continuing record of expansion. Clarence Street School on the corner of Euclid and Clarence Streets was build in 1897 at a cost of £12,091.  With accommodation for 885 children by the beginning of the new century the school was already overcrowded. The building of Euclid Street Higher Elementary School in 1904 eased the pressure somewhat.  School log books reveal that around this time Clarence Street School was divided into a separate girls' and boys' section. In 1907 J.J. Stafford was the headmaster with Miss C.J. Stiles in charge of the girls and Miss L.M. Kent, the infants' mistress.  Just two years later and the average attendances numbered 891. Fifty years later and Clarence Street School accommodated the children of Swindon newcomers moving to the new estates at Walcot and Parks.  In 1958 there were approximately 1,000 children on the roll. With a population to...

Too young for Beatlemania and too old for Take That hysteria, I've never queued for hours for a pop concert or screamed, cried and fainted in the presence of my idol.  But during our third and final visit to the Cheltenham Literature Festival I very nearly did all of the above mentioned, and it all began in Swindon. Leah and I were sitting on the 9.54 train to Cheltenham eating our Danish pastry breakfast (we've got fed up with sausage baguette) when Lucy Worsley - yes the   Lucy Worsley joined us.  When I say 'joined us' she didn't bring her own Danish pastry and sit with us but she joined the train and was a mere four seats away. Lucy Worsley is Chief Curator at the Historic Royal Palaces, based at Hampton Court Palace.  Star of numerous TV programmes including If Walls Could Talk; Elegance and Decadence, The Age of Regency and most recently Harlots, Housewives and Heroines  Lucy was also on her way to the Cheltenham Literature Festival where sh...

Our fourth and final event of the day.  First the lights went out then Hilary Devey was thirty minutes late.  Was she worth the wait? Frankly, no.  Five minutes into the interview and I was hoping for another power cut. Inconsistencies and contradictions peppered her recollections in conversation with fawning award winning Times columnist Deborah Ross. I couldn't keep up with at which point her son went to the boarding school that introduced him to heroin or when she was wrapping him in tinfoil to keep him warm in the home she couldn't afford to heat yet where she employed a nanny. Much was made of the men in Hilary's life but when asked which lucky Dragon might take her fancy - Duncan, Peter or Theo, she failed to understand the question.  Deborah also struggled with names and faces and referred to 'little Ewan McGregor' who apparently now introduces Dragons' Den.  I'm assuming she meant economist and journalist Evan Davis and not the Scottish born H...

Swindon is most conveniently located for beautiful countryside, a whole host of heritage sites and some wonderful events, among them the Cheltenham Literature Festival. On this year's pilgrimage Leah and I listened to Clare Clark, Juliet Nicolson and Frances Osborne describe several Women of Substance, the subject of their latest novels.  Beautiful Lies by Clare Clark is the story of Maribel Campbell Lowe, wife of a Victorian radical MP, who is a lady with a past, but not necessarily the one she tells polite society.  Frances Osborne, author of The Bolter , talked about her latest book Park Lane , an upstairs, downstairs tale of the Votes for Women campaign and one that particularly appealed to me.  The third panelist was Juliet Nicolson talking about her book Abdication and the set that surrounded Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson.  Three more books to go on my wish list. In the Waterstones tent for the signing we rubbed shoulders, and I mean we rubbed shoulders, ...

Meet the ladies from the West Swindon Library Reading Group, minus Brenda and Joy.  The group meets on the first Thursday of the month and during their five year history the numbers have ebbed and flowed.  Today Val keeps in touch from her home in Australia while October's meeting saw new member Dee join the group, a cross pollination from Swindon's Big Sing Thing. The group leader is former library assistant Lesley whose job it is to find a general consensus when choosing books, not always an easy task. Reading tastes vary from Anthea who can down a good book in two days to Glenys who is a stickler for reading the group choice whether you like it or not. "Sometimes the blurb makes them sound better than they turn out to be," said Audrey.  The Radleys  by Matt Haig, a tale of an everyday vampire family, received a thumbs down while The Help by Kathryn Stockett was a big success and led to a trip to the cinema to see the film version.  Ano...