Swindon in the Past Lane

So, what or where are you most looking forward to revisiting as lockdown eases.  I can't wait for the record offices and especially Local Studies in Swindon Central Library to re-open. I have documents and books I am desperate to get my hands on for research purposes. Talking about research and books, the Library Shop in Swindon Central Library is offering a deal on my two books, Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon and the recently published Ladies of Lydiard available at £25 for the two. The story of Swindon is that of a town of two halves. Transformed by the coming of the railways the women were on the front line of change, shaping the new industrial town and transforming the old market one. The story of Swindon's women includes artists and actresses, political activists and social reformers, as well as the ordinary women who worked in the factories, raised their children and made a difference. Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon tells the story of these women. From Mary Slade who ...

Mary Tuckey, spinster, died in 1837, before the advent of photography, and how I wish there was an image of her. I can imagine her seated at her dressing table beside the carved worked bed with the embroidered quilt, vallance and curtains. Or posed at the desk where she conducted her business and considered the property up for sale in Old Shaw Lane. There maybe a portrait in oil, prized in some distant descendants collection. Maybe a miniature hanging on a long golden chain. Who knows? Mary Tuckey was born in 1757, the second daughter and last child of Richard and Joanna Tuckey. In April 1834 she wrote her Will at Shaw House, the property left to her brother Thomas in their father's Will where she had lived with her mother Joanna. Mary died a wealthy woman, leaving property and parcels of land across the parishes of Lydiard Millicent and Rodbourne Cheney. She wrote off a sizeable debt owed her by her nephew John and everyone received a share of her money. She left beque...

Every Summer Sunday we went to the south coast for the day. Mum, dad, me and Shandy, the dog. Our regular haunts were Eastbourne, Brighton and Southend-on-Sea. I think we went out because if we stayed home there would have been a row, or maybe worse.  In the Autumn we returned to Southend to see the lights,  a special treat as the dark evenings drew in. A walk along the sea front, oohing and aahing at the decorations strewn between lamp posts, displays that winked on and off, a happy clown, a sad clown.   Although not on the scale of Blackpool’s famous illuminations, Southend enjoyed a considerable popularity in its own neck of the woods and many thousands of people thronged along the pier and promenade to marvel at the sights.   Along the cliff face various tableaux were arranged and it was here I remember the shock of grasping a hand I thought was Mum’s only to discover it was that of a stranger.   The moment was only fleeting as Mum w...

Are you enjoying ‘Gentleman Jack’ the story of Anne Lister a nineteenth century woman who dared to be different? The BBC1 Sunday evening drama written by Sally Wainwright and starring Suranne Jones is based on the diaries of Anne Lister, an extraordinary Yorkshire woman born in 1791. Anne Lister left an account of her life in a journal numbering more than twenty volumes and some four million words, most of it written in code. For more than thirty years Helena Whitbread has been decoding, researching and writing about the woman who took control of her life and broke social conventions, sometimes at threat to her personal safety. Finding the diary of one of the Swindon women I have researched is the stuff of my dreams, but unfortunately ordinary, nineteenth century, working class women didn't tend to leave an account of their life. The closest I have come to such a find is a collection of letters held at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre in Chippenham, wr...

A book launch in a cemetery chapel may sound a bit bizarre to you, but to me it makes perfect sense. For ten years I have been a member of a small, but perfectly formed, group of cemetery enthusiasts. We research and write about the people buried in the cemetery and throughout the summer months conduct guided cemetery walks. In 2015 we re-enacted a Votes for Women campaign March and Rally complete with a choir singing The March of the Women and an Edwardian policeman trying to keep order. So, as you can see it is perfectly fitting to hold an event celebrating the lives of Swindon's women in Radnor Street Cemetery chapel. Join me for a short, informal book launch on Sunday June 23 at 1.45 pm followed by a guided cemetery walk with Andy and Noel.  Edith New Old Town Belles

As the industrial  revolution and the coming of the railways transformed the Wiltshire countryside Swindon women were on the front line of change, shaping the new industrial town and transforming the old market one. Incomers arrived from the great railway centres across the country to create a welcoming, tolerant and creative community with women's contribution at its heart. Following the incorporation of Old and New Swindon in 1900 innovative women stepped up to the plate; women like Swindon born suffragette  Edith New who challenged political conventions and Emma Noble, Swindon's first female councillor, who campaigned to improve living conditions in the town. The story of Swindon women includes artists and actresses, political activists and social reformers and the ordinary women who worked in the factories, raised their children and made a difference. Discover how development at the Great Western Railway factory almost stalled due to a lack of female empl...