Following the initial building boom during the 1840-60s, development of New Swindon pretty much ground to a halt. The reason given was a slump in the railway industry in the 1870s and the scarcity of building land in the centre of town due to the Goddard’s reluctance to sell their land. Another area of prime building land, the Rolleston estate, owned by William Vilett Rolleston, was tied up in the Court of Chancery for more than ten years. It was not until 1885 that parcels of land came onto the market and were rapidly snapped up. Old Swindon jeweller Hubert J. Deacon bought the area on which Deacon Street was built and named in his honour. Construction began in 1890 when builders William Crombey, a former engine driver from Durham, and John Horsell, who lived in neighbouring Commercial Road, got the ball rolling. They soon began work on streets that would eventually be named Curtis, Crombey and Deacon Streets. At the time of t...