Swindon in the Past Lane

In the final days of 1940, London received yet another pounding from the Luftwaffe during which serious damage was caused by fire in the historic City area. “An army of firemen, wardens, workers and civilian volunteers battled with the thousands of incendiaries showered on the district,” reported the Advertiser. Several incendiary bombs were dropped on St. Paul’s but Cathedral staff managed to prevent any serious damage. “At one time the Cathedral was ringed with fire,” the report continued.  Cheapside was badly damaged with building after building reduced to a scarred and blackened shell. Back home in Swindon things were much quieter.  Brides who walked down the aisle on the last Saturday in 1940 included Ida Muriel Green of 73 Rodbourne Road, who married Engine Room Artificer Reginald Rouse at St. Augustine’s Church.  Annie Seward Stratton of 7 Buller Street married L/Cpl Frederick Charles Monk at St. Barnabas’ Church while Margaret Louise Avery o...

Following the initial building boom during the 1840-60s, development of New Swindon pretty much ground to a halt.   The reason given was a slump in the railway industry in the 1870s and the scarcity of building land in the centre of town due to the Goddard’s reluctance to sell their land. Another area of prime building land, the Rolleston estate, owned by William Vilett Rolleston, was tied up in the Court of Chancery for more than ten years.  It was not until 1885 that parcels of land came onto the market and were rapidly snapped up. Old Swindon jeweller Hubert J. Deacon bought the area on which Deacon Street was built and named in his honour.   Construction began in 1890 when builders William Crombey, a former engine driver from Durham, and John Horsell, who lived in neighbouring Commercial Road, got the ball rolling.   They soon began work on streets that would eventually be named Curtis, Crombey and Deacon Streets. At the time of t...

Anderson's Hostel The feast of St Thomas on December 21 was the day when alms for the poor were distributed within the parish. Traditionally caring for the poor and infirm in the past was achieved by taxation (the poor rate) and charity dispensed by affluent and local landowning families such as Swindon's Tuckey family, who frequently left a bequest in their will. Kelly's Directory of 1889 states that Swindon charities amounted to £110 yearly from land and Consols left by 'Mrs Evans, Messrs. Sheppard and Rolleston, Anderson, Gray, Bowly and others at various times.' Documents held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham dating between 1899-1955 cover Swindon United Charities, listed as - Alexander Anderson, Anderson's Institution, Richard Bowly, Margaret Brind, Mary Breadway, John Burgess, John Chandler, Joseph and Elizabeth Cooper, Elizabeth Evans, Richard Gray, Horne, Sheppard's Dole, Villett's Charity and the Widows F...

The former Great Western Railway buildings in Swindon are rumoured to include a ghost or two, one of which apparently patrols the National Monuments Record building.  A model of Victorian efficiency, the Works complex contained a vast array of clocks and employed a clockwinder to maintain the various time pieces.  Legend has it that one such clockwinder climbed a spiral staircase in what was then a store room, to a door high in the eaves of the roof. From here he walked along one of the massive iron beams over which he threw a rope and hanged himself.   His ghost has been seen attempting to wind an absent clock in what has since been dubbed the haunted corridor and along which security guard dogs are reluctant to patrol. Today the imposing stone building overlooking the railway line accommodates the custodians of British history, but during the nineteenth century it accommodated the men who were actually making it. The GWR was very...

Staff and volunteers have decked the hall with boughs of holly and Lydiard House is all dressed up for a Victorian Christmas. But how did an earlier branch of the family celebrate the festive season? Custodians of the 17th century Lydiard House were Sir Walter St John and his wife Lady Johanna. In 1652 the austere Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, abolished Christmas all together and for eight years the people of Britain had little celebrate. However, with the restoration of the merry making monarch Charles II in 1660 it was party time again and records show that plans for Christmas at Lydiard House in 1661 were well underway by October. "I doe intend gd wiling to be at Cristmas at Lidiard," wrote Lady Johanna St John from the couple's London home in Battersea to Thomas Hardyman her steward at Lydiard. Ahead of the festivities Lady Johanna instructs Hardyman to brew 40 gallons of ale "so that it may be a month old before we begin it." However the ...

W.W. Wakefield Conservative MP With the war in Europe over, Winston Churchill faced increasing pressure at home to call a General Election.   Winding up the wartime National Government he went to the country to ask the electorate to give their mandate to his Conservative Party. With the town’s newly honoured former MP, Sir Wavell Wakefield, contesting the Marylebone seat, Lieutenant Col. Alistair Gibb became the Conservative candidate in Swindon where he hoped to hold on to his predecessors 975 majority.  His adversary was Labour candidate Thomas Reid. Among the 59,898 names on the new electoral register were 4,679 service voters.  However since its compilation, hundreds of war workers billeted in the area had returned to their homes. “I regard it as the greatest compliment I have yet received that all the boo boys should have followed me here tonight,” said Col. Gibbs, addressing an eve of poll meeting held at the Drill Hall.  Meanwhile, at a Part...