Devizes Road was a late starter getting on the property ladder. Building along Nyweport Street had begun nearly five hundred years earlier while on Wood Street and High Street documents detailing 16 th century property deeds survive. In 1773 Devizes Road was still an unnamed, rural lane known locally as Short Hedge or Edge after the hawthorn hedges that lined its route. By 1841 there was little change with only twelve houses built along the lane, also known as Horsefair as this was the site of regular horse fairs where the animals were tethered along the hedgerow for inspection. Properties on the west side of the road date from the second half of the 19 th century where the stone built terraced houses at 43-45 Devizes Road retain their original sash windows. Built in about 1830, Canford House was a private dwelling before it became home to Swindon’s early police force in the mid century. With accommodation for a police superintendent, an i...