Designated a Conservation Area by Thamesdown Borough Council in 1990, Rodbourne Cheney can boast St Mary's, a Grade II listed church and a late 16th century Manor House with stables - and apparently several ghosts including a spectral coach and four horses. The parish of Rodbourne Cheney once included a village originally called Hreod Burna and Moredon, Haydon and Haydon Wick hamlets. When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086 the name had become Redbourne, a corruption of 'reedy-bourne.' Finally a 13th century lord of the manor, Ralf Chanu added his name to complete the modern appellation Rodbourne Cheney. Early Ordnance Survey maps show just a handful of houses along what was once known as Telford Road, renamed Cheney Manor Road in 1929 when Rodbourne Cheney became part of Swindon Borough. In 1900 Bessemer Road, named after Victorian steel maker, Sir Henry Bessemer who invented a process for converting iron into steel, contained just ten properties. The i...