Swindon in the Past Lane

Today in the East End of London a group of dedicated people are trying to save the Smithfield General Market Hall - 'Behold the winged lion on the Holborn Viaduct looking down protectively upon the Smithfield General Market,' writes the Gentle Author on www.spitalfieldslife.com. 'as - over at the Guildhall the Public Enquiry that will decide the fate of this magnificent building designed by Horace Jones, the architect of Tower Bridge, reaches the end of its second week.' Read more about this threatened building by clicking the link - now read about Swindon's former market buildings, which sadly have also been lost. In the 1840s Old Swindon had a thriving shopping centre.  Blacksmiths, butchers and brewers rubbed shoulders alongside the Strange family's drapers store in the High Street and Sadler Bristow's ironmongers in Wood Street. But in the developing settlement at the bottom of the hill facilities for the early settlers in New Swindon were d...

Members of the Swindon Society are now on their summer break, so I thought it was time to publish a couple of blogposts about the work they get up to. Scroll down to see what's on when the group reconvenes in September. This week saw members of the Swindon Society take to the streets as the local history enthusiasts joined in with Lethbridge Primary School's Victorian project. The eight and nine year olds had already seen a slideshow of Old Swindon and learned what it was like to be a Victorian schoolchild - now it was time to walk in the footsteps of their 19th century counterparts. The 140 children took part in four guided walks across two wet and windy days at the beginning of the week. First stop was at the site of the Old Swindon railway station, now a modern industrial estate.  Andy shows the children a photo of the former station platform -  and Bob points out the railway tunnel. The Belmont Brewery - now a nightclub.  The childr...

'There is very little architecture in Swindon and a great deal of building,' John Betjeman famously wrote in 1950. 'But Swindon is more interesting than many towns which are more beautiful,' he also observed. The adoption of the 1952 Town Development Act saw Swindon enter a new era - new industry, new housing and a new town centre. In 'A Swindon Retrospect 1855-1930 local author Frederick Large remembers when green fields separated Old and New Swindon with Regent Street a mere farm track leading down to the canal.  Regent Circus 'was part of the farm, with a large cowyard and stalls for the housing of cattle where the Town Hall now stands,' Large writes. The first few cottages along this track were built in the 1850s and by 1865 the enterprising householders were trading from their front rooms in the newly named Regent Street.  Once a busy traffic through road, Regent Street was pedestrianised in 1965. The imposing Baptist Tabernacle was built ...

It is difficult to believe that at the time this aerial photograph was taken in the 1950s, the railway industry was officially in decline. Visiting Swindon Junction in 1840, Brunel and his superintendent of locomotives, Daniel Gooch decided this would be an ideal place to establish a repair and maintenance depot.  The works opened in January 1843 with 423 men on the pay roll. Today the Churchward estate occupies what was once the site of  'A' Shop completed in 1920 and reputed to be one of the largest covered workshops in the world.  These were the heady days of the GWR when more than 14,000 worked 'inside' the vast railway factory complex. The railway industry was nationalised in 1948 by the post war Labour government and the 100 year old GWR works was renamed British Railways Workshops.  In 1960 the Evening Star was the last steam loco built for BR at Swindon and three years later a large part of the Carriage Works closed.  The end came at 4.30 pm Mar...

Town centre visitors could be forgiven for thinking of Edgeware Road as a mere shortcut behind Regent Street shops to the law courts on Princes Street.  But before the 1960s development Edgeware Road was a busy community presided over by St Paul’s Church. Building began on Edgeware Road in 1877 by H.C. Smith and by the time of the 1881 census there were seventeen occupied houses.  Primitive Methodist Minister Thomas Powell lived at the grandly named Bourne Villa, while his neighbours were mostly GWR employees, among them a coach builder, a railway clerk and a boiler maker. A new church was soon needed for the growing town centre community and in 1881 Gloucester builders D & C Jones & Co began work on St Paul’s Church, designed by Edmund Ferrey.   William Morris, founder of the Swindon Advertiser, recorded that St. Paul’s, like St Mark’s in the railway village, held highly ‘Ritualistic’ services.  He wrote that the High Church practises included ...

One of my favourite TV programmes on air at the moment is Secret History of Our Streets ,  a six part series showing on BBC 2 on Wednesday evening. Participants in the Secret Streets of London In 1886 Charles Booth, businessman, social researcher and philanthropist began work on a survey of London’s life and labour, a project that would occupy him for the next eighteen years.  As part of his research he produced coloured coded street maps indicating the status of London residents.  Streets were classified from black – lowest, semi criminal; through the blues – poor; to yellow – upper classes, wealthy.  These maps have provided the starting point for The Secret Streets of London. Charles Booth and the programme makers more than a hundred years later observed the changing fortunes of London streets such as those in Camberwell Grove.  Built for prosperous merchants in the 18 th century, these Georgian villas became multi occupancy properties in l...

A devastating fire in the early hours of Thursday October 4, 1923 saw one of the oldest workingmen’s clubs in Swindon destroyed.  When fire fighters eventually left the scene at 9 a.m. all that remained of the once elegant old building were the external walls.  The idea of a club for the labouring man was the brainchild of Unitarian Minister Reverend Henry Solly.  Established in 1862 the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union aims included non alcoholic recreation and education in an attempt to lure the labourers out of the pubs and beer houses.  Whilst the idea soon caught on, by 1875 the drinking restrictions were abandoned and members took over the running of their own clubs. The West Swindon Club in Radnor Street, pictured before the fire, was one of the oldest workingmen’s clubs and in 1923 had 700 members. Among the fixtures and fittings lost in the fire were two new billiard tables valued at £200 along with 30 or 40 barrels of beer and larg...

This 1950s aerial photograph shows Swindon town centre on the threshold of a major revamp.  Vast tracts of terraced housing would be demolished to make way for the new Brunel shopping complex, constructed in several phases between 1970-1979 and Fleming Way, a major new road, was built along part of the route of the old Wilts and Berks Canal. The distinctive uniform planning of the railway village dominated by the Mechanics' Institution building is easily recognisable.  Closed in 1986, the Mechanics' building has been the subject of unsympathetic and flawed building applications and more than 25 years of neglect.  But if you thought this historic building was doomed, think again.  The future is looking surprisingly bright for this iconic building - read more about the history of the Mechanics' and the exciting proposals made by the Mechanics' Institution Trust on  http://mechanics-trust.org.uk/proposal-for-mechanics/ On Rodbourne Road ...

When Joseph Boots of Highworth rashly declared he would rather spend his days in prison than pay money owed to Miranda Archer, that's exactly where magistrates sent him. Boots appeared before the Swindon Petty Sessions in September 1854 accused of failing to comply with a maintenance order for the illegitimate child he had fathered. Meeting just four times a year, the 18th century saw the Quarter Session Courts overwhelmed with work.  By the middle of the 19th century the Police Courts or Petty Sessions, the lowest tier in the English court system, were taking over the less serious crimes.  With no jury to be sworn in, two or more magistrates heard the cases, which were then speedily dealt with. When a similar case to the Boots/Archer one was brought before the Petty Sessions in 1881 the courtroom was cleared of 'females and juveniles' before the evidence could be heard. John Maslin, a hay binder from Liddington, was ordered to pay Mary Carter 2s per week for si...

Ken White’s Golden Lion Bridge mural is a focal point in Swindon town centre, just as the bridge itself once was. Local artist Ken White first painted the mural on the side of a terraced house in Medgbury Road in 1976 as part of a job creation scheme for Thamesdown Arts.  Based on a 19 th century photograph, Ken added his own touch with representations of hammerman poet Alfred Williams and bridge builder Brunel.  Repainted in 1983, Ken spruced up the mural in 2009 and with the recent demolition of the Whalebridge Roundabout in Fleming Way it is once again on full view. The elaborate iron lift bridge depicted in the mural was built in the GWR works in 1870, replacing the original wooden swing bridge over the Wilts and Berks Canal.   Its neighbouring pedestrian footbridge, paid for by public subscription, was added in 1877. Once a farm track leading from Upper Eastcott, the main road through New Swindon, soon became known as Bridge Street whi...