Swindon in the Past Lane

Following an hiatus of more than a year, Swindon in the Past Lane is back with a smart new layout. And you might like to take a look at my latest venture, the Radnor Street Cemetery blog (published every Thursday) which shines a light on researched and re-imagined stories of the people who made our vibrant town. A lot has happened in the past 20 months. Sadly the beautiful Swindon Heritage magazine has ceased publication. Some back editions are still available at the Library Shop in Swindon Central Library and during Radnor Street Cemetery walks and Swindon Society meetings.  To re-launch Swindon in the Past Lane I am publishing a few of the stories I wrote for Swindon Heritage, beginning with the history of Swindon's brickworks and an interview with local historian Jan Flanagan. When Charles A Wheeler put his two acre brickworks on Stratton St Margaret Road up for sale in 1861 he knew it wouldn’t stay on the market for long. ‘The great demand for dwelling h...

Today it is difficult to picture the former GWR Park on Faringdon Road without it's splendid railings, yet it is a mere four years ago since the installation of the new ironmongering. A £200,000 developer funded project was announced in March 2009 and the final section along Church Place was finished in the summer of 2010. The park project generated an interest in the distinctive Victorian blue brick capping on the walls stamped with the imprint Joseph Hamblet from West Bromwich and canal historian Janet Flanagan contacted me about a former boatman Bill Cutler. Bill was born in 1895, a third generation boatman, and in 1969 the Advertiser interviewed him. He told of working on his father's two horse-drawn narrow boats called Lea and Rea, bringing bricks and brewery sugar from his native West Bromwich to Swindon. "It was a lovely life," he told the Advertiser. "Peaceful, yet you were doing some hard work." The Cutler Family connections in the Mi...