Swindon in the Past Lane

Was this a good idea, I asked myself as I left Swindon in a deluge to visit the Art in the Garden exhibition at Avebury Manor? In 2011 Avebury Manor was the subject of a unique BBC and National Trust experiment during which the empty manor house was decorated in a time travel kaleidoscope of historical periods.  Visitors are able to relax in Alexander Keiller's sitting room and climb into Queen Anne's magnificent four poster bed. You can open cupboard drawers and fiddle with the fixtures but woe betide if you touch the hand painted Chinese wallpaper in the Georgian dining room, which is strictly off limits. Now in its fourth year the Art in the Garden exhibition includes work by 24 artists inspired by nature, history and the human form. The exhibition runs for another two weeks until October 13 and is open 11-5 every day. Today sees the final day in the Swindon Open Studios event, so hurry along to that as well.  And yes, the clouds parted and the sun sho...

Three years ago I visited the newly revamped Avebury Manor . In 2010 the BBC in partnership with the National Trust refurbished and redecorated nine rooms in the empty manor house, each in a different period of history as part of a series called The Manor Reborn. (You can still view a few short clips  here). The fixtures and fittings were a mixture of antique fair purchases and creative up-cycling and in some cases new pieces made in the style of ...  As nothing is irreplaceable or intrinsic to the house, visitors are allowed, nay encouraged, to sit on the chairs, open cupboards and drawers and bounce on the beds. The whole project was something of an experiment and it is probably fair to say the National Trust had certain reservations, but it has been a resounding success and on each subsequent visit I have made the house has been busy, so much so there is a timed entry to prevent the rooms becoming too crowded. Now I'm not suggesting taking down the red ropes in the st...

During the 1930s building contractor E.H. Bradley was averaging more than 300 houses a year - and they also built Avebury stone circle as well! In 1939 when marmalade millionaire Alexander Keiller, owner of Avebury Manor, set about renovating the henge, he employed Swindon builder Edwin Bradley to reconstruct the Neolithic stone circle. Not the biggest project the firm would ever undertake but arguably the most prestigious. Apparently Keiller was to complain that he paid the bill while Bradley's enjoyed the glory. Edwin Henry Bradley was born at Iffley Road, Cowley in Oxford in 1865, the youngest of William and Helen Bradley's three sons. The son of a bricklayer, Edwin followed his father into the construction, but it was his marriage to milliner Caroline Hubert in 1894 that was to kick start his ambition. Edwin recognised the building opportunities in neighbouring Swindon and in 1896 moved his growing young family to a small terrace house in Quarry Road where h...