Devizes Road was a
very different place by the beginning of the twentieth century, its hawthorn
hedgerow long gone and the horse fair a thing of the past.
With two breweries
and sixteen pubs within staggering distance, Devizes Road probably wasn’t one
of the quietest places in which to live.
Built by James
Howe in 1847, the pub on the corner of Britannia Place began life as a humble
beerhouse. In 1870 the Britannia,
described as containing ‘Bar, Parlour, Taproom, Small Parlour and 4 bedrooms’
went on the market and was snapped up by Bowly’s, another local brewery.
Enlarged and
refitted, the pub opened under new management and with a new name. The Fountain was used as a dressing room by
the Swindon Town Football Club and their opponents when the team played at the
Croft before moving to the County Ground in 1896. Renamed The Pig on
the Hill, the former Fountain, reopened in the summer of 2010 under new
management.
Newspaper
proprietor William Edwin Morris, eldest son of Advertiser founder William
Morris, lived next door at Frampton Villa, home to this branch of the Morris
family for more than twenty years.
Like his father
William Edwin was at the forefront of Swindon society involved in various
commercial and public duties. William
had worked as a journalist on his father’s newspaper for more than twenty years
before becoming Town Surveyor, a position he held for another twenty years.
A man of
apparently inexhaustible energy, William served on both the New and Old Swindon
Local Boards. He was a member of the
School Board for Rodbourne Cheney and a member of the Highway Board until its
abolition in 1894. One of the first
members of the Swindon Volunteer Fire Brigade, William served as Captain of the
Brigade for more than twenty years. A Freemason,
a Forester and an Oddfellow, William was also a member of the Wilts Rifle
Volunteers and a life governor of Swindon Victoria Hospital.
William Edwin died
on April 22, 1902 at the aged of 54. His
widow Bessie remained at Frampton Villa with her ten children.
William’s younger
brother Edwin James also had a home in Devizes Road where in 1901 he lived with
his wife Elizabeth and their nine children. Edwin appears to
have rejected a career on the family newspaper and following a venture at Wood
Farm, Wroughton became a coal merchant with premises in Devizes Road.
In 1909 Edwin was under
the care of Dr Samuel Maclean who was treating him for ‘heart affection.’ In the obituary published in the Advertiser
on November 30, 1909 Edwin was described as being known by a wide circle of
friends ‘by whom his early demise will be greatly regretted.’ ‘In the days of
his prosperity he was noted as a very liberal and open handed man,’ the report
concluded.
Frampton Villa, Devizes Road - home to the Morris family
The Fountain emblem
Pipers Arms - The Fountain in a different incarnation
The Fountain today, all spruced up and renamed the Pig on the Hill
Marlborough House, Devizes Road
Usher's ad, Phillips Lane.
1909 drawing by S. Adye is taken from The Olde Turnpikes of Swindon and published courtesy of Swindon Local Studies
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