Swindon in the Past Lane

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...

This bird's eye view taken in the 1950s illustrates the frenzy of Victorian building that created New Swindon as the town grew to keep pace with developments at the GWR works. Just visible above the rooftops is the line of Regent Street, with the Town Hall and the Baptist Tabernacle at Regent Circus. The Broad Street area of the town was built around 1900 with streets named after prominent Liberal politicians - Gladstone, Graham, Rosebery and Salisbury - possibly influenced by Swindon's own local Liberal Levi Lapper Morse. St. Luke's, a sister church of St Mark's, opened in 1903 in temporary accommodation. A new church, designed by W.A.H. Masters in the style of the 15th century, was dedicated in 1911. The 21 acre County Ground site opened in 1893. Fifteen years later Kelly's Directory describes the complex as comprising 'a bicycle track of 3 laps to the mile, and in addition to the space devoted to football and cricket, there is a Galloway racec...

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...

Once known as Blacksmiths Street, the 1841 census reveals that, like today, Wood Street was home to a diverse cross section of society. One of the oldest streets in Swindon with records dating from 1599, Blacksmiths Street wasn't its first name either.  Wood Street was also known locally as Windmill Street after a windmill that stood on the site of the Kings Hotel. Among the residents 171 years ago were surgeon John Gay and attorney Thomas Jeffries who lived and worked alongside the magnificently named tailor, Nehemiah Lea and printer James Morris, father of Advertiser founder William. Morris recalls in his book Swindon - Fifty Years Ago published 1885 how in Wood Street "there were no less than two blacksmiths' forges opening right onto the street" during a time when "the town was downright busy." Pigots 1844 Trade Directory lists five blacksmiths in Old Swindon, Thomas Grinaway or Greenaway who was based at Short Hedge, better known today as ...

The mystery of just where Sheppard's Mansion House stood is solved in the recollections of Richard James Tarrant written shortly before his death in 1926 aged 85.  Tarrant, a former boot and shoe maker, had once lived at 9, Wood Street, Old Swindon. "I knew John Harding Sheppard, brewer and malster," he wrote.   "He built Bowlys brewery and lived in the house opposite the Square, where Kinneirs had their offices, now turned into a garage, Skurrays."   Today the foundations of this building lie beneath the Co-operative store on the corner of High Street and Newport Street. Sheppard's extensive Kingshill estate caused quite a stir when it went under the hammer in September 1870. "The sale occupied several hours, and presented a scene but seldom witnessed on such occasions.  The preliminary wrangle over the conditions and particulars occupied from two to three hours," reported the Swindon Advertiser. With the population of both New and Ol...

"There've been Odys farming in North Wilts for five hundred years," local resident Harold Ody proudly told Elspeth Huxley when she was writing her book  Gallipot Eyes – a Wiltshire Diary,  about Oaksey village in 1975. With such well established roots, Swindon based Ody family historians have a head start with local parish registers available on microfiche at Swindon Central Library and the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham. Early parish records for St Mary's Church at Lydiard Tregoze reveal Richard Ody confirming the appointment of the churchwardens in 1742.  It was his descendant Noah Ody, who with the help of his wife Sarah, populated many of the local farms. Noah and his sons were tenants, at various times during the 19th century, at Hayes Knoll and Bagbury Farms in Purton, Haxmoor in Purton Stoke, Braydon, Marsh, Flaxlands and Glebe Farms in Lydiard Tregoze and Lower Shaw Farm in the parish of Lydiard Millicent.  It was the couple's ...