You might think it would be difficult to miss the black and yellow warnings on the railway bridge over the road but still lorry drivers frequently get their vehicles stuck, causing delays on the road and railway.
An inn has stood on the site of The Runner, formerly known as The Running Horse since the eighteenth century, but it didn't get its equine themed name until the 1820s. Formerly known as the Royal Oak, some sources claim that the pub was renamed after the circus carousel horse ride which visited the nearby Westcott Recreation Ground during the early nineteenth century.
An inn has stood on the site of The Runner, formerly known as The Running Horse since the eighteenth century, but it didn't get its equine themed name until the 1820s. Formerly known as the Royal Oak, some sources claim that the pub was renamed after the circus carousel horse ride which visited the nearby Westcott Recreation Ground during the early nineteenth century.
A water mill once stood on the
River Ray just south of the road.
In 1086
Swindon, then five separate estates, boasted two mills each valued at 4s. Records of a mill and land in an area
called Eastcott and Nethercott, later known as Westcott, date back to 1339 when
the property was conveyed to William Goldhyne and Margery his wife by Robert de
Colcote, of High Swindon, and his wife Maud
Throughout its long history the mill
was called several different names – in 1691 Arthur’s Mill, in 1773 Hall’s
Mill, in 1780 Westcott Mill and by the nineteenth century, Ladd’s
Mill.
In 1805 the Wilts and Berks Canal Company
bought Ladd’s Mill from Richard Simmonds, a quarrier from Swindon, under powers
that enabled them to acquire mills on waterways likely to be affected by the
needs of the canal.
In 1825 John Garlick built an inn on
the site of the present Running Horse and when the canal company’s fortunes
began to decline they sold the property. By 1840 both the mill and the pub were
owned by Old Swindon brewer John Harding Sheppard.
At the time of the 1851 census there
were four cottages occupied by farm labouring families at this outlying
area. William Brooks, a master miller, lived at Ladd’s Mill with his
wife, their eight children and two lodgers while Isaac Holdway, another master
miller, lived next door at a property called Windmill.
By the beginning of the twentieth century
the Wootton Bassett Road was largely undeveloped. The cottages remained
at Ladd’s Mill, by then occupied by railway workers families but there was no
evidence of the old water mill on the River Ray.
When Kingsdown brewer Arkell’s bought
the Running Horse in 1883 they became the latest in a short list of just four
previous owners. A plaque in the brickwork dated 1891 records the date of
an Arkell’s rebuild while the remains of the cottages at Ladd’s Mill,
demolished in 1985, now lie beneath the pub car park
Arkells leased the Running Horse to
the Beefeater chain of steakhouses in 1985 but back under Arkell management
after more than twenty years, the Running Horse was re-furbished and
re-launched in December 2008 and more recently renamed The Runner.
Meet me tomorrow at Mannington Farm.
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