Swindon in the Past Lane

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...

The mystery of just where Sheppard's Mansion House stood is solved in the recollections of Richard James Tarrant written shortly before his death in 1926 aged 85.  Tarrant, a former boot and shoe maker, had once lived at 9, Wood Street, Old Swindon. "I knew John Harding Sheppard, brewer and malster," he wrote.   "He built Bowlys brewery and lived in the house opposite the Square, where Kinneirs had their offices, now turned into a garage, Skurrays."   Today the foundations of this building lie beneath the Co-operative store on the corner of High Street and Newport Street. Sheppard's extensive Kingshill estate caused quite a stir when it went under the hammer in September 1870. "The sale occupied several hours, and presented a scene but seldom witnessed on such occasions.  The preliminary wrangle over the conditions and particulars occupied from two to three hours," reported the Swindon Advertiser. With the population of both New and Ol...