Swindon in the Past Lane

Now you might think I had better things to do on a Bank Holiday Monday - but I spent it sorting out the Dore family. I don't mean I popped round to their house and threw about accusations until they all argued and fell out with one another. No, I spent most of the day, well to be honest all the day, comparing gravestone inscriptions, census returns and wills until I managed to create order out of chaos. And given the odd mis-transcribed date I think I can now safely say I've got them all sorted. As you've already seen their father William's Will included personal items such as beds and bedding, a mahogany tea table and his old Chestnut Hackney which he stated should not be sold or disposed of but be kept so long as it shall live. His son John was brief and to the point - he left everything in equal proportions to his two spinster sisters Sarah and Mary. But it was Anne's Will that tied in all the strands and helped me locate everyone. William and Sarah D...

There are two bus routes from the town centre to my neck of the woods, three if you count the number 19 whose destination is Sparcells.  The number 1A is the more direct route while the number 1 goes the wrong way or the long way home. Buses depart from the G stop on Fleming Way and take a left turn into Catherine Street.  From here both buses travel along Faringdon Road and past the Milton Road Baths on the left, the railway village on the right. A turn into Park Lane and under the railway bridge, making a left turn into the Churchward estate built on the site of the former railway factory 'A' Shop.  We're now on the Wootton Bassett Road approaching Mannington Roundabout and West Swindon. At the West Swindon centre the two routes part company.  The 1A travels up Tewkesbury Way while the number 1 goes the wrong way home, the long way home, travelling through first Grange Park and then the Prinnels. The western development of Swindon began in 1975.  Altho...

The Windmill Hill Business Park in West Swindon with its futuristically designed buildings, opened to great acclaim in 1984. The area owes its name to the presence of a windmill in the vicinity, although not the one that stands in the Business Park today, which originally came from Chiseldon. Built in 1823, next to the cemetery on Butts Road, Chiseldon, the mill passed out of use in around 1892.  After that it was used as a stable and for storage purposes, until the St. Martin's Property group began reconstruction at the Windmill Hill site in January 1984. A building more authentic to the area is the former Marsh farmhouse presently used as office accommodation. The 101-acre dairy farm, once part of the Lydiard Park Estate, belonged to the St. John family.  The tithe map apportionments, produced in 1841, record ancient field names such as The Shannells and Picks Mead. Early 19th century Rate Books reveal that William Dore, founder of the ...