Swindon in the Past Lane

Newport Street is probably the oldest recorded thoroughfare in Swindon and was first mentioned in documents dated 1346.  In 1874 Thomas Hooper Deacon and his business partner Thomas Edmund Liddiard signed a lease on the mansion house, garden, yards and stables on the corner of High Street and Newport Street, formerly occupied by John Harding Sheppard. Under the same agreement they also acquired various other properties in the area behind the two streets to further extend their VWH Horse and Carriage Repository. The business flourished and in 1879 1,872 horses were entered for sale across the year. Today Thomas Hooper Deacon is commemorated in the naming of Hooper Place, a lane close to the site of the Newport Street entrance to the former Vale of White Horse Repository. This 1950s photograph shows Newport Street almost unrecognisable today with the Co-op Store occupying the former corner site of Sheppard’s mansion house. Upham Road marks the divide between old ...

The Vale of the White Horse Hunt was formed out of the ancient Old Berkshire Hunt in 1832. By 1837 the Master of Fox Hounds, the Hon. Henry Moreton, had moved the hounds to new kennels at Cirencester Park. In 1886 the hunt split yet again, becoming the VWH (Cirencester) and the VWH (Cricklade). Two years later Mr T. Butt Miller took over as Master of Fox Hounds, a role he was to fill for 22 seasons, eleven of which he was assisted by Thomas Hooper Deacon as secretary. The two VWH Hunts were eventually amalgamated in 1964. Today the subject of fox hunting is a contentious one, but there is no denying that for many generations it was an important part of country life. Fox hunting created many occupations for the rural community, including a flourishing trade in horses, which was good news for one Old Swindon businessman. Thomas Hooper Deacon was born in Faringdon in about 1838, the son of Cornelious Floyd Deacon and his wife Ann. By 1861 he was working as a saddler, employing two...