Swindon in the Past Lane

As if they knew we here in Swindon are celebrating a significant anniversary, my favourite team of experiential historian Ruth Goodman with archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn bring to our TV screens Full Steam Ahead the story of how the railways created modern Britain. Previously the team have show us what life was like for the agricultural worker in the Tudor, Victorian, Edwardian and Wartime periods but in their new series they turn their attention to the phenomenon of the railways. Closer to home we have been celebrating the coming of the railways and the creation of New Swindon with Swindon175 . During a busy Spring and Summer there have been numerous events including the Swindon175 Images, an exhibition sharing the history of Swindon during the last 150 years; the Swindon Arts Trail and the Swindon Fringe Festival, not forgetting the Swindon Heritage History Day. There has been the recreation of the famous railway factory hooter made by Colin Hatch and sponsor...

Heiress Margaret Beauchamp, Henry VII's grandmother, owned Lydiard Park in 1420. Her daughter, Margaret Beaufort, Henry's mother, was very close to her St John half siblings, finding them places at court and arranging advantageous marriages for her extended family, In August 1592 Elizabeth I called in at Lydiard House on her summer progress. She held a privy council meeting at the house and knighted her cousin of the half blood John St John during her stay. So why aren't we bigging up the Tudor connections at Lydiard House? Telegraph journalist Hannah Betts describes the enduring appeal of the Tudors in this entertaining article. Follow the link to read the full feature. If history is reducible to one era for us Brits, it is the Tudor period. Even before the phenomenon that is Wolf Hall, our favourite version of Ye Olden Dayes was that with codpieces, ruffs, beheadings, and irascible redheads. Blame it on Shakespeare, blame it on 'Enery the Eighth, putting t...

This week's episode of Wartime Farm saw historian Ruth Goodman getting to grips with the availability of ordinary foodstuffs, rationing and the role the Women’s Institutes played during the war. In Swindon the first meeting of the Food Control Committee took place during the second week of September 1939.  It was already anticipated that there would be rationing of butcher’s meat, bacon, butter, margarine, lards, fat and sugar. Chairman of the new committee, Swindon Mayor Harry Hustings, announced that plans for the registration of customers was under way and that forms would be sent to every household within the week.  Ration cards would be issued and it was hoped that food queues would be shorter than during the previous war.  Mr Hustings commented that as far as he could see there would be little opportunity of profiteering in food stuffs. The rationing of coal as of October 1 was announced and supplies, along with gas and electricity for domestic and sm...