Swindon in the Past Lane

Work continues apace on Princes Street at the Union Square development despite the recent snow and rain. Have a look how things are progressing and catch up on the history of Princes Street  on a previous Swindon in the Past Lane post. The Man with a Stick outside 19 Princes Street in 1953.  For the legendary MWAS series see  Swindon Local Studies  and for the whole story visit Swindon Heritage.

There should be champagne corks popping at Swindon Central Library today where the innovative free online image gallery has just notched up 2 million page views. The project was launched on June 22, 2009 with images from the local studies collection of photographs and ephemera.  And before long library visitors were bringing their own photographs to be scanned and added to the online collection.  Today the archive contains some 6,000 images. Among the photographs of local people and Swindon dignitaries is one of the last Lord of the Manor, Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard pictured here with his pet parrot at his home The Lawn. Images of Swindon suffragette Edith New (back row, left) include a photograph taken with members of the Women’s Social and Political Union in prison uniform and newspaper coverage of her attack on 10 Downing Street. Taken at the top of Victoria Street, could this be the oldest Swindon street scene?  The Swindon Advertiser building is on ...