Alfred Williams: Our Forgotten Local Hero

Multi-talented Graham Carter, journalist, artist, drummer, cyclist and DIYer extraordinaire, will be talking about Alfred Williams: Our Forgotten Local Hero this Thursday, May 30, 7.15 pm at the Central Community Centre in the railway village.

It's easy to see why Graham is so inspired by polymath Alfred Williams, the South Marston boy who left school at the age of 11 and spent more than 20 years working in the railway factory; who taught himself Greek and Sanskrit, studied nature and wrote poetry and books about the Wiltshire countryside.

The Central Community Centre, the setting for this talk hosted by Swindon Civic Voice, has itself a multi faceted history. In 1862 the building began life as the armoury for the XI Wiltshire Volunteer Rifle Corps.

Then in 1871-2 it was converted into the GWR Medical Fund Hospital with one of the adjoining cottages made into nursing accommodation and later converted into a dispensary for the hospital. A temporary extension was added in 1927, obliterating the formal front garden. The hospital closed with the opening of the Princess Margaret Hospital in the 1960s.

In the 1970s, when the railway village was the subject of a major restoration programme, the former hospital building was used as a working man's club before being converted into a community centre.

Co founder and editor of Swindon Heritage magazine (2013-2017), Graham continues to have an involvement with many things heritage based and is presently working on book projects with two other local history writers. And next month Graham collects the Allan Ball Local History Award for A Swindon Time Capsule: Working Class Life 1899-1984, the history of the Dixon-Attwell family who never threw away anything! Copies are available at the Library Shop, Swindon Central Library.

Tickets for Alfred Williams: Our Forgotten Local Hero cost £3 for Swindon Civic Voice members and £5 for non members.

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