Swindon in the Past Lane

When Swindon Corporation bought the old Goddard mansion house and 52 acres of parkland, it also acquired the ruins of Holy Rood Church, the town's original parish church.   In 1947 the borough surveyor reported to Town Clerk, David Murray John on the sorry state of the burial ground and chapel at The Lawn.  Many of the tombs had been vandalised with the coverings and side slabs removed while the sheet lead covering on the Goddard family vault had been taken. "In the chapel itself, a number of plaques have been wrenched from the walls and a hole has been cut in the outer wall on the North Side," wrote the inspector.  Sadly even the stone font had been smashed and scattered around the Chapel. It is believed that a church had stood on the site of Holy Rood since Norman times but the earliest mention of one dates from the 12th century when it was given to the Augustinian priory of Southwick by the Pont de l'Arche family. Alongside the burials of Swindon worthi...

If you are dreaming of a White Christmas, spare a thought for the folk of 1881. In January 1881 Britain witnessed hitherto unparalleled weather conditions and The Times reported 'a walk across London suddenly assumed the dimensions of an Alpine adventure.' After several days of intense cold and black frost, blizzard conditions swept across southern regions of the country during the evening of Monday January 18. The storm raged for thirty six hours, at the end of which the death toll numbered twenty people within a 20 mile radius of Swindon. One casualty was George Cook, a farm labourer at Walcot Farm. George had brought a consignment of milk from the farm for despatch from Swindon junction. Returning home via Old Swindon, he stopped off to collect medicine for one of his children who was unwell. Travelling down the precipitous hill on Cricklade Street, George passed Christ Church where he suddenly plummeted into a snowdrift and became trapped. Fortunately residen...

In 1952 Swindon embarked upon an ambitious programme of expansion. One of the objectives was to encourage London based industries to relocate and thereby revitalise a town too dependent on a declining railway industry. As central government made an attempt to tackle the chronic housing shortage in the post war capital, country towns were given incentives to develop and expand. But Swindon had first to address a few pressing housing problems of its own. A memorandum from the Medical Officer of Health to the Town Clerk dated September 11, 1951 confirmed that Swindon had '138 sub-standard dwelling houses.' Some were considered to be 'in such a condition as to be a potential danger to life and limb, or to the health of the occupants'. The state of Swindon' housing was already causing concern in the 1930s. Wilfred Moss with his wife and daughter lived in a bungalow at Lower Walcot Farm, described as having four small rooms with timber partitions, two of which ...

Swindon solicitor Henry Fox Townsend was feeling as fit as a fiddle when he boarded the 3pm train for Paddington on Thursday December 13, 1894. The purpose of his London visit was to bid farewell to his brother Charles, a tea planter, who was returning to India the following day. The brothers had a table booked at the Holborn Restaurant on the Friday but Charles was to report that Henry failed to turn up. 'Upon the arrival of the train at Paddington it was noticed by one of the railway officials that Mr. Townsend was in an insensible condition, apparently suffering from a fit,' reported the Swindon Advertiser. 'He was at once removed and conveyed to St. Mary's Hospital, where he died shortly afterwards without regaining consciousness. His death at the early age of 34 shocked all who knew him. His friends told how he had recently purchased a property called the Firs in Wroughton where he intended 'settling down and enjoying what appeared to be, in all prob...

The summer of 2008 saw the BBC's Antiques Roadshow set up camp in the grounds of Lanhydrock, a country house in Cornwall where a piece of Lydiard Tregoze local history made a surprise appearance. Expert Penny Britten provided a brief history of the printed Valentine and valued the 200 year old handmade one sent to Roadshow visitor Graham's great-great-great grandmother Alice Crook in 1803. Alice Catherine Crook was born in Lydiard Tregoze in 1782, the daughter of Simon Crook and his wife the former Elizabeth Woolford.  Flaxlands Farm, part of the Lydiard Park estate owned by Lord Bolingbroke, was occupied by the Woolford family at the time of the couple's marriage in 1777, with Simon taking over the tenancy in 1782. Although unsigned, Alice knew the sender of her Valentine.  Richard Hallilay, born in Greenwich in 1785, was the son of local girl Sarah Goddard and her husband, Richard Hallilay.  Graham supposes Alice and Richard might have enjoyed a holiday romance...

In 1906 the suffragette campaign entered its most violent phase. Over 500 women had been imprisoned by 1909 and right up there among the militant activists was a Swindon schoolteacher. Edith Bessie New was born 17th March, 1877 at 24 North Street, Swindon, the fourth of Frederic and Isabelle New's five children. Frederic worked as a railway clerk at the GWR Works and Isabelle was a music teacher. An assistant mistress at Queenstown Infant School from 1899-1901, Edith subsequently left her Swindon home to teach in the deprived areas of Deptford and Lewisham. It was after hearing the charismatic Emmeline Pankhurst speak at a meeting in Trafalgar Square that Edith joined the Women's Social and Political Union. In February 1907 a deputation of suffragettes marched on the House of Commons in protest at the omission of votes for women from the King's speech. What had begun as a peaceful demonstration ended in a violent confrontation with police. Edith was among those arr...

Today you will be unlikely to hear the thwack of leather on willow in Faringdon Road Park where in 1844 the GWR bought a parcel of land west of the Railway Village, owned by Lt. Col Vilett. In the early days the Cricket Ground was surrounded by a hedge and wooden palings and the GWR frequently had to issue warnings when their property was vandalised. A notice published in June 1860 by Works Manager William Gooch announced – “I have again to caution, and call the attention of the Workmen to the damage done in the village by their Children, such as destroying trees in the Cricket Ground.” Families faced severe penalties if their children were found to be the culprits. Gooch warned that the guilty boys "will not in future at any time be employed in the Works." If the offences were repeated the men risked losing not only their job but their home as well. The GWR Cricket club, formed in 1847, shared the Cricket Field with teams representing other Shops in the railwa...

Major Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard's dying request was that his funeral service be as simple as possible and that he wished to be buried in a "plain elm coffin made from timber grown on my estate." The last Lord of the Manor to live at The Lawn, Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard died at the family home on Friday August 12th 1927 and less than three weeks later Fielder and Tuckett, a firm of auctioneers, valuers and surveyors, were called in to catalogue the family treasures. An Inventory of Plate, Pictures, Busts, Statutes, Books and Jewellery fills several typewritten sheets of paper, recording items of both financial and sentimental value.  Items were listed under headings of the rooms where they were observed, for example the Dining Room, the Lobby to Drawing Room, the Blue Room and the Rose Room along with the Gun Room and the Billiard Room. Pages and pages of books are recorded not just from the library but all over the house. An eclectic selection of titles such as Wi...

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...

Anderson's Hostel The feast of St Thomas on December 21 was the day when alms for the poor were distributed within the parish. Traditionally caring for the poor and infirm in the past was achieved by taxation (the poor rate) and charity dispensed by affluent and local landowning families such as Swindon's Tuckey family, who frequently left a bequest in their will. Kelly's Directory of 1889 states that Swindon charities amounted to £110 yearly from land and Consols left by 'Mrs Evans, Messrs. Sheppard and Rolleston, Anderson, Gray, Bowly and others at various times.' Documents held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham dating between 1899-1955 cover Swindon United Charities, listed as - Alexander Anderson, Anderson's Institution, Richard Bowly, Margaret Brind, Mary Breadway, John Burgess, John Chandler, Joseph and Elizabeth Cooper, Elizabeth Evans, Richard Gray, Horne, Sheppard's Dole, Villett's Charity and the Widows F...

A Bonfire Night prank led to a tragic accident and swift action from the Great Western Railway's company doctor. George Money Swinhoe had been in the job just 12 days when he was called out to the market hall adjoining the Mechanics' Intuition on the evening of November 5, 1859. A group of enterprising boys had constructed “a cannon loaded with fireworks” which they had set off in the market to give the stall holders a fright. However, the high jinks turned to tragedy when a nine year old girl suffered such severe leg injuries that Dr Swinhoe had to amputate the limb on the scene. Park House, a spacious yellow brick residence overlooking the GWR Park, was built for the railway company doctor in 1876. However, in the early days of the company’s presence in Swindon the medical officer’s situation was far more precarious. In 1846 medic Stuart Keith Rea was the doctor most frequently called to accidents at the works.  His terms and conditions of emplo...

This 1950s aerial view of Swindon takes a broad sweep of Old Town from the junction at Okus Road and Kingshill, along Bath Road and Wood Street to the Goddard Arms Hotel at the top of the photograph. Okus Road takes its name from Okus Farm, which stood at the western end of Swindon Hill and was owned by the Goddard family from the mid 17th century.  The thatched Okus Barn, dating from the same time, survived into the 20th century but was demolished in 1975. Old Swindon Local Board records include a covenant for laying out new streets and sewers at Okus dated 1890 with building dating from around the turn of the 19th century. Kingshill House, former home of the Bowly family, was bought by the Borough and converted into a maternity hospital in the early 1930s.  This aerial view shows additional buildings in the grounds and also in front of neighbouring Victoria hospital. A collection of Nissan hut type structures stand on the site of the present day Savernake Stree...