Swindon in the Past Lane

Do not be fooled by the casual mien of this group of people, chatting, making tea, waving.  This group knows more about the collective history of Swindon and its surrounds than you can shake a stick at. Members of the Swindon Society, Rodbourne Community History Group et al, independent researchers and freelance writers gather four times a year to look at what's new on the local history scene and last night's meeting was a doozy. Graham Carter, journalist and columnist on the Swindon Advertiser, gave the Swindon & District History Network a sneak preview of Swindon Heritage - an 80 page, all colour, glossy magazine due out Spring 2013 - the like of which Swindon has never seen before. Network members got to view a select few pages - the record of Swindon men's sacrifice during WWI by military historian Mark Sutton and a companion piece written by two Commonweal students just returned from a visit to the battlefields.  The story of the Stratton workhouse as seen ...

Members of the Swindon Society are now on their summer break, so I thought it was time to publish a couple of blogposts about the work they get up to. Scroll down to see what's on when the group reconvenes in September. This week saw members of the Swindon Society take to the streets as the local history enthusiasts joined in with Lethbridge Primary School's Victorian project. The eight and nine year olds had already seen a slideshow of Old Swindon and learned what it was like to be a Victorian schoolchild - now it was time to walk in the footsteps of their 19th century counterparts. The 140 children took part in four guided walks across two wet and windy days at the beginning of the week. First stop was at the site of the Old Swindon railway station, now a modern industrial estate.  Andy shows the children a photo of the former station platform -  and Bob points out the railway tunnel. The Belmont Brewery - now a nightclub.  The childr...

'There is very little architecture in Swindon and a great deal of building,' John Betjeman famously wrote in 1950. 'But Swindon is more interesting than many towns which are more beautiful,' he also observed. The adoption of the 1952 Town Development Act saw Swindon enter a new era - new industry, new housing and a new town centre. In 'A Swindon Retrospect 1855-1930 local author Frederick Large remembers when green fields separated Old and New Swindon with Regent Street a mere farm track leading down to the canal.  Regent Circus 'was part of the farm, with a large cowyard and stalls for the housing of cattle where the Town Hall now stands,' Large writes. The first few cottages along this track were built in the 1850s and by 1865 the enterprising householders were trading from their front rooms in the newly named Regent Street.  Once a busy traffic through road, Regent Street was pedestrianised in 1965. The imposing Baptist Tabernacle was built ...

In this remembrance week it was appropriate that the speaker at the Swindon Society monthly meeting was Steve Williams who gave a talk about a soldier's life in the trenches. Dressed in authentic WWI uniform and carrying 60lb worth of kit, Steve showed us some of the gruesome weapons the men used in hand to hand fighting and trench raids. A military historian from Trowbridge, Steve travels the country with his reconstructed trench. He describes himself as a storyteller, but his presentation to group members on Wednesday evening proved he is much more than this. In 1914 the age range for recruits was 19-35 but Steve told how Recruiting Sergeants, who received a cash enhancement for each man they enlisted, were apt to turn a blind eye to enthusiastic youngsters. Following Kitchener's "Your Country Needs You" campaign 100,000 men enlisted in a week.  The new recruits of  K1-K6 Army Group, as they were known, grew moustaches in homage to Lord Kitchener....

It is difficult to believe that at the time this aerial photograph was taken in the 1950s, the railway industry was officially in decline. Visiting Swindon Junction in 1840, Brunel and his superintendent of locomotives, Daniel Gooch decided this would be an ideal place to establish a repair and maintenance depot.  The works opened in January 1843 with 423 men on the pay roll. Today the Churchward estate occupies what was once the site of  'A' Shop completed in 1920 and reputed to be one of the largest covered workshops in the world.  These were the heady days of the GWR when more than 14,000 worked 'inside' the vast railway factory complex. The railway industry was nationalised in 1948 by the post war Labour government and the 100 year old GWR works was renamed British Railways Workshops.  In 1960 the Evening Star was the last steam loco built for BR at Swindon and three years later a large part of the Carriage Works closed.  The end came at 4.30 pm Mar...

Other writers have  said  it far better than I ever could -  They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:  Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.  At the going down of the sun and in the morning  We will remember them. Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) "When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,  For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today" Attrib. John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958)

The Leggett brothers - William (left) Ernest (right) Recent publicity concerning the future of Sanford Street School has highlighted the importance of a roll of honour on display there to former pupils who died in the First World War. Among the list of more than 130 names are those of seven sets of brothers killed in the 1914-18 war. An entry in the school logbook dated March 20, 1936 records – “Received today the memorial to Old Sanfordians who fell in the Great War.  It is a very beautifully made memorial, paid for by money in the School’s private fund.’ Two brothers listed among the dead are Horace and Reginald Corser, the sons of William and Elizabeth Corser of 1 Broad Street.  Reginald, an engine room artificer on HMS Defence was killed on May 31, 1916 during the Battle of Jutland.  He was 25 years old and had been married for less than a year.  Brother Horace was serving with the 79 th  Field Company Royal Engineers when he was killed on J...

A Bonfire Night prank led to a tragic accident and swift action from the Great Western Railway's company doctor. George Money Swinhoe had been in the job just 12 days when he was called out to the market hall adjoining the Mechanics' Intuition on the evening of November 5, 1859. A group of enterprising boys had constructed “a cannon loaded with fireworks” which they had set off in the market to give the stall holders a fright. However, the high jinks turned to tragedy when a nine year old girl suffered such severe leg injuries that Dr Swinhoe had to amputate the limb on the scene. Park House, a spacious yellow brick residence overlooking the GWR Park, was built for the railway company doctor in 1876. However, in the early days of the company’s presence in Swindon the medical officer’s situation was far more precarious. In 1846 medic Stuart Keith Rea was the doctor most frequently called to accidents at the works.  His terms and conditions of emplo...