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 the
1891 census just seven houses were recorded in Deacon Street. Robert J Dixon, a 27 year old engine fitter
and his brother Walter 31, lived at numbers 1 and 3 with their young
families. John S. Tilbury 30, a coach
trimmer lived at number 2. Elizabeth
Emond and her four children plus a lodger lived at number 4 while gas stoker Thomas
Mercer and his wife, father in law and a lodger lived at number 6. Number 7 was still uninhabited.
But the prize for
the most overcrowded house on the newly built Deacon Street must surely go to
number 5 where George Key, a painter, lived in four rooms with his wife Kate,
their six children and a lodger. William
Peat, a trimmer’s assistant, his wife Rose and their baby son John lived in the
remaining two rooms.
Newhall Street,
originally called Spackman Street, and Stanier Street named after William
Stanier, Stores Superintendent of the GWR Works and later Mayor, were built in
1891 and Morse and Whitney Streets a year later.
As was typical
throughout the growth of 19th century New Swindon, terraces of
houses were built by speculative builders.
Henry William Bennett, an up and coming bricklayer living at 72 Bridge
Street, was responsible for a spate of building in Deacon Street during 1892-4
while in 1896 Joseph Ponting, a builder and baker from Blunsdon, added his
terrace.
By 1901 there were
82 houses climbing the hill to the cemetery at the top with just about every
trade and occupation in the railway works represented among the neighbours.
Those Victorian
builders would be astonished to know that today the asking price for a three
bedroom property in Deacon Street is in the region of £130,000.
Looking down on the Murray John Building and Swindon town centre
Looking up towards the Dixon Street gates of the cemetery
Samuel Loxton's 1900 view of Deacon Street and the William Hooper photograph are published courtesy of Swindon Collection, Central Library.
Must have been fun at No.5 on bathnight whenever that was
ReplyDeleteI arrived at your page by searching "Joseph Ponting" as I have two large bread ovens at my property with his name cast on the front plates. I am intrigued to know more - do you know which terrace he built in 1896?
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