Swindon in the Past Lane

As Swindon schools prepare to begin the summer holiday at the end of July, the debate continues about the validity of a long six week break. The tradition harks back to our agricultural past when children were required to work in the fields, earning a much needed additional income for their family. Today things are a little different and the long summer break is said by some educationalists to disadvantage children and set back their learning. School holidays are an expensive time to travel but parents potentially face fines for taking their children out of school during term time. Perhaps there is an argument for readjusting how we do things. Few firms still shut down for a fixed summer holiday, and nothing compares to TRIP when the mighty railway works closed for its annual break. 'Swindon changed its ways and adapted itself to accommodate TRIP, so significant was it for the town's economy and social well being. The council called special meetings, the shopkeepers chang...

Those who stayed behind recall food shortages and deserted streets, just some of the memories recorded by Rose Matheson, not of wartime Britain but TRIP week in Swindon. Railway historian Dr. Matheson paints an evocative portrait of holidays past in TRIP - The Annual Holiday of GWR's Swindon Works when the Great Western Railway ruled in Swindon. From the first one-day sightseeing trip to Oxford in June 1848 when a group of 500 Swindonians were guests of the Oxford branch of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Matheson charts the phenomenon that was TRIP week. Between the 1860s and 70s the holiday increased first to three days and by 1874 a nine day break during early July. Whilst the train journey may have been 'free' to members of the Mechanics Institution, families made considerable sacrifices both before and after the event. Today trip week has entered the realms of affectionate nostalgia but Dr Matheson points out that until the 1938 Holi...