Swindon in the Past Lane

If you haven’t got around to visiting the Richard Jefferies Museum yet this spring, then Sunday June 2 is the perfect time to do so. Take a trip on the Coate Water Miniature Railway , making sure you alight at the Richard Jefferies Halt. Visit the museum, enjoy a walk around the grounds and partake of a cream tea in the Mulberry Tearoom, but make sure you are present for the unveiling of the Swindon Heritage blue plaque at 3 pm. This will be the 8 th Swindon Heritage blue plaque erected to mark significant people, places and events in the history of Swindon. The first was installed in May 2016 at 24 North Street, the birthplace of militant suffragette Edith New who campaigned for women’s suffrage alongside Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters and engaged in innovative and dangerous methods of protest. The second and third blue plaques were installed in a double event to honour the bravery of Squadron Leader Harold Morley Starr and his brother Wing Commander Norman J...

Our second edition of Swindon Heritage is with the printers as I write and will be dropping through your letterboxes by the end of next week - that is if you are one of our fast growing list of subscribers. You can also buy it at various Swindon outlets (for list see below) but if you're wondering why you can't find a copy in the WH Smith Regent Street store read  Mums in Media. Readers thought our first edition was pretty impressive, but we think you'll find this one even more so. With a stunning photo of Diana Dors on the cover, our Summer edition has a swell 84 pages. Nearly ninety year old former drummer Bart Hathaway shares his memories of the dance band era when the Johnnie Stiles award winning band delighted Swindon audiences. And still on a show biz theme Mark Child looks at the history of the Empire Theatre, the subject of his latest book All for the Empire, co authored with retired librarian Roger Trayhurn. But we're not all glitz and glitter and if fo...

It is difficult to believe that this town centre parkland oasis was once a brown field site. Queen's Park is a twelve acre beauty spot with a Victorian industrial past, the site of builder Thomas Turner's brick works -  examples of his artistry stand close to the Drove Road entrance. Today the former derelict claypit, once popular with zoologist Desmond Morris and his girlfriend Diana Dors, is an award winning park and garden. The park was developed between 1947 and 1962.  The first phase - a Garden of Remembrance to the fallen of the Second World War - was opened by Princess Elizabeth in 1950, the year of Swindon Borough's Golden Jubilee.  The second phase was opened by Sir Noel Arkell, Sheriff of Wiltshire, on May 30, 1953. Unfortunately the glass Show House was dismantled following storms in the early 1990s.  Designed by Borough Architect J. Loring-Morgan and opened in 1964 a brick wall is all that remains of the structure that once boasted a...