Swindon in the Past Lane

If you are dreaming of a White Christmas, spare a thought for the folk of 1881. In January 1881 Britain witnessed hitherto unparalleled weather conditions and The Times reported 'a walk across London suddenly assumed the dimensions of an Alpine adventure.' After several days of intense cold and black frost, blizzard conditions swept across southern regions of the country during the evening of Monday January 18. The storm raged for thirty six hours, at the end of which the death toll numbered twenty people within a 20 mile radius of Swindon. One casualty was George Cook, a farm labourer at Walcot Farm. George had brought a consignment of milk from the farm for despatch from Swindon junction. Returning home via Old Swindon, he stopped off to collect medicine for one of his children who was unwell. Travelling down the precipitous hill on Cricklade Street, George passed Christ Church where he suddenly plummeted into a snowdrift and became trapped. Fortunately residen...

In 1952 Swindon embarked upon an ambitious programme of expansion. One of the objectives was to encourage London based industries to relocate and thereby revitalise a town too dependent on a declining railway industry. As central government made an attempt to tackle the chronic housing shortage in the post war capital, country towns were given incentives to develop and expand. But Swindon had first to address a few pressing housing problems of its own. A memorandum from the Medical Officer of Health to the Town Clerk dated September 11, 1951 confirmed that Swindon had '138 sub-standard dwelling houses.' Some were considered to be 'in such a condition as to be a potential danger to life and limb, or to the health of the occupants'. The state of Swindon' housing was already causing concern in the 1930s. Wilfred Moss with his wife and daughter lived in a bungalow at Lower Walcot Farm, described as having four small rooms with timber partitions, two of which ...

With completion of the Penhill estate in mid 1955, development began to the east of the town.  This aerial photograph of Swindon fifty years ago shows building under way at Walcot East where streets were named after famous 16 th and 17 th century Brits. Swindon Corporation acquired 1,000 acres of land for building to the east of the town, swallowing up long held Goddard property, including Lower and Upper Walcot Farms. Although it would be another three years before the borough adopted the 1952 Town Development Act perhaps the future of the dairy farm at Lower Walcot was already under threat when it came on the market in 1949. The estate agent’s blurb was rather restrained by today’s standards describing the stone built farmhouse as merely ‘convenient.’  The farmhouse boasted an entrance porch, dining room, sitting room with attractive new grate and built in cupboard, kitchen with Raeburn stove, back-kitchen with wash-hand basin, brush cupboard, separat...