With completion of the Penhill estate in mid 1955, development began to the east of the town. This aerial photograph of Swindon fifty years ago shows building under way at Walcot East where streets were named after famous 16 th and 17 th century Brits. Swindon Corporation acquired 1,000 acres of land for building to the east of the town, swallowing up long held Goddard property, including Lower and Upper Walcot Farms. Although it would be another three years before the borough adopted the 1952 Town Development Act perhaps the future of the dairy farm at Lower Walcot was already under threat when it came on the market in 1949. The estate agent’s blurb was rather restrained by today’s standards describing the stone built farmhouse as merely ‘convenient.’ The farmhouse boasted an entrance porch, dining room, sitting room with attractive new grate and built in cupboard, kitchen with Raeburn stove, back-kitchen with wash-hand basin, brush cupboard, separat...