In 1966 Wiltshire County Planning Department conducted a survey of rural settlements in the Swindon countryside. The area of Shaw and Washpool had one general store, a pub and a doctor's surgery. There was a daily bus service into Swindon, roughly 5 miles away, and the settlement was on mains water and electricity, but had no gas. The council had granted planning permission for two dwellings, which would increase the population by approximately six people. In the 1970s boundary changes extended the Swindon western limits to include the surrounding farmland up as far as Lydiard Park and the villages of Shaw and Nine Elms. Factories, schools, shopping centres and thousands of homes were planned for this rural backwater. Shaw resident Mr Bill Selby 75, whose family history in the village stretched back 300 years, was pictured leaning on the village sign. "I think I shall buy a caravan and move away," he told the local press. "All the green fields wh...