Swindon in the Past Lane

In 1943 Harry Gough sold the properties he owned at Washpool and with his wife and two daughters moved into the mansion house at Lydiard Park, the first caretaker to be appointed following the purchase of the house and parkland by Swindon Corporation. Joyce Vincent, Harry's daughter, recalled the first night the family spent in their new des res: Moving to a house of that size, from a small house, was, to say the least, somewhat overwhelming and nerve racking. The first night I thought my father was the most cruel person on earth taking us there because there were no conveniences, we had candles and aladdin oil lamps, and instead of a cooker mother had to use what was known as a Triplex. It was like a fire place with an oven to one side. The downstairs wasn't too bad but the upstairs was in a terrible state. I don't think there was a bedroom ceiling that didn't have a hug hole in it somewhere. You could look through right up into the attic. Harry was in his mid fo...

Nestled up against the Goddard family's secluded parkland, the Hermitage was an apt name for Charles Anthony Wheeler's house. Along with neighbouring Redville the entrepreneurial Wheeler built both properties in the early 1840s. Documents indicate that Bank Manager William Brewer Wearing lived there in 1859 and for the next thirty years the Victorian tenants came and went as revealed in census returns throughout the 19th century. By the 1890s the Kinneir family owned the property, but it was with the death of J. L. Calderwood in February 1960 that the house passed out of private ownership and into the public sector. Among documents held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham is a schedule drawn up by Swindon Corporation on August 30, 1960 concerning The Hermitage and three cottages in Dammas Lane. A stone and brick building with slated roof, The Hermitage contained five bedrooms and four attic rooms with extensive cellar space in the basement. Rooms...