Swindon in the Past Lane

  Swindon is an interesting town – no, honestly it is. From medieval market town to Victorian industrial hub, Swindon had members of the aristocracy living at Lydiard House and innovative engineers in New Swindon. We are surrounded by heritage at every turn. In West Swindon you might think the ancient agricultural heritage had been lost beneath the 1980s housing development, but even here there is plenty of evidence remaining. Wick Farmhouse and the neighbouring properties overlook the field which gives the housing estate its name – the Prinnels. In 1841, following the Tithe Commutation Act 1836, records reveal that Jonas Clarke farmed 150 acres of land at Wick, but the history of the farm goes back much further than that. Owned by Alfred of Marlborough when the Domesday survey was compiled in 1086 the farm passed to the Ewyas family down through the Tregoze, Grandison and Beauchamp families to the St. Johns who owned it for more than 500 years. The Victorian Wick Lane now fo...

On October 20, 1846 Elizabeth Harvey appeared before Ambrose Goddard, Esq at the County Sessions 'having feloniously stolen a piece of Lace'. The records show that she was sentenced 'to be confined in the New Prison at Devizes for Two Cal. Months to hard labour'. She was 18 years old and had been in the employ of Jonas and Alice Clark at Wick Farm who brought about the charge. Jonas and his family farmed at Wick for about 40 years and we will be visiting his grave on the first of our guided churchyard walks at St Mary's churchyard on June 5 between 2 - 4.30 pm. Jonas' rough account books are held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre and make for some fascinating reading. Particularly interesting is that he refers to his herd of more than 70 short horn cows by name. There is Pretymaid and Darling and Dainty, Squrel, Scarlet and Lovly, affectionate names for all his cattle. Perhaps Jonas had a soft side - unfortunately it didn't extend to young ...

Now you might think I had better things to do on a Bank Holiday Monday - but I spent it sorting out the Dore family. I don't mean I popped round to their house and threw about accusations until they all argued and fell out with one another. No, I spent most of the day, well to be honest all the day, comparing gravestone inscriptions, census returns and wills until I managed to create order out of chaos. And given the odd mis-transcribed date I think I can now safely say I've got them all sorted. As you've already seen their father William's Will included personal items such as beds and bedding, a mahogany tea table and his old Chestnut Hackney which he stated should not be sold or disposed of but be kept so long as it shall live. His son John was brief and to the point - he left everything in equal proportions to his two spinster sisters Sarah and Mary. But it was Anne's Will that tied in all the strands and helped me locate everyone. William and Sarah D...

There are two bus routes from the town centre to my neck of the woods, three if you count the number 19 whose destination is Sparcells.  The number 1A is the more direct route while the number 1 goes the wrong way or the long way home. Buses depart from the G stop on Fleming Way and take a left turn into Catherine Street.  From here both buses travel along Faringdon Road and past the Milton Road Baths on the left, the railway village on the right. A turn into Park Lane and under the railway bridge, making a left turn into the Churchward estate built on the site of the former railway factory 'A' Shop.  We're now on the Wootton Bassett Road approaching Mannington Roundabout and West Swindon. At the West Swindon centre the two routes part company.  The 1A travels up Tewkesbury Way while the number 1 goes the wrong way home, the long way home, travelling through first Grange Park and then the Prinnels. The western development of Swindon began in 1975.  Altho...

Today Wick Farmhouse is a substantial six bedroom house overlooking the Prinnels housing development in West Swindon. Once part of the extensive Bolingbroke estate, the former 150 acre dairy farm dates back to the medieval period. Aerial photographs taken in the 1970s clearly show the ridge and furrow pattern of open field farming. During the 19th century Wick Farm was home to Jonas Clarke senior for over 26 years. The Clarke family were pretty unconventional by Victorian social conventions. Although married in his late twenties, Jonas soon began an alliance with a servant girl called Alice Pinnell. Thirty years and seven children later they eventually married at St. Mary's Church, Lydiard Tregoze in 1853, after the death of Jonas' first wife. After Jonas senior's death in 1862 the tenancy at Wick Farm passed to his son, Jonas Clarke junior. A desirable property, the Clarke family obviously wanted to keep their stake in the farm, resulting in a Victorian mystery ...