History of Swindon
Encyclopedia
Swindon is a town in Wiltshire
in the South West
of England
. People have lived in the town since the Bronze Age
and the town's location, being approximately halfway between Bristol
and London
, made it an ideal location for the Locomotive Factories
of the Great Western Railway
in the 19th century.
Swindon
has grown from a population of just 1,198 in 1801 to over 150,000 in 2001.
is built on and around a hill that stands over 450 ft (137.2 m) above sea-level, now known as Swindon Hill. Its location to the north of the Marlborough Downs and on the southern end of the Vale of White Horse
, with access to the River Cole
and others, made it suitable for use as farming land.
There have been settlements around the hill since pre-historic
times, but no evidence of occupation on the hill (including no evidence of any fortification
s) until the Bronze Age
.
Digs at Swindon's former quarry
sites uncovered the first Bronze Age relics, with burial sites, tools, pottery and later; Iron Age
artefacts also found.
Archaeological
excavations around Swindon Hill have revealed pre-Roman farms and an additional Iron Age farm complex was discovered on lowlands to the north of Swindon in the 1970s. There are various monuments and earthworks nearby, including Liddington Castle
, Barbury Castle
, Avebury
and the White Horses of Uffington
, Hackpen and Marlborough (see Chalk figures in England).
town called Durocornovium
existed to the east of Swindon from the 1st to 4th centuries, located in present day Wanborough
. It is probable that Swindon began life as a settlement linked to a military encampment in the early days of the Roman occupation.
The place that is now Swindon was on the junction of two Roman roads, one leading south from Cirencester
towards Marlborough and the other south eastwards to Silchester
(see Ermin Street
). Evidence exists to show that Swindon's quarries were in use at this time to produce stone for villas and clay from the Whitehill region (now West Swindon) was used to produce Whitehill Ware pottery.
Burial grounds
dating to the 4th century have been found in Purton
, but the most substantial find was made in 1996, when contractors redeveloping an area of Groundwell Ridge uncovered the buried walls of Roman buildings. Described as "a site of great importance, with a large complex of buildings, a hypocaust
(a system of under-floor heating, usually found as part of Roman bath houses), walls covered with painted plaster and a carefully designed and constructed water supply." - The area is now owned by Swindon Borough Council and English Heritage
, and is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument
. On 28 and 29 June 2003 the site was featured as parts of Channel 4's Time Team
'Big Dig' weekend.
to Rome
in the 5th century, the Roman settlements around Swindon declined rapidly. Although Germanic settlers may have been present earlier, the West Saxons advanced from the south coast in the 5th Century and brought Swindon under their control after the Battle of Beranburgh, reportedly at Barbury Castle
in 556.
There is some possibility of another battle fought against the native Romano-Britons at Wanborough in 591. Claims have been made that a further battle was fought at Wanborough in 717 between Ceolred
, King of Mercia
, and Ine
, King of Wessex
, and the area was still in dispute in 825 as demonstrated by the Battle of Ellandun
The Saxons built a farming community based on the top of Swindon Hill, with remains of wood-framed and Plaster huts found near to Market Square. Anglo-Saxon pottery and cloth finds suggest the town was still occupied throughout the 6th and 7th centuries.
The Saxons left many lasting marks on the landscape and surroundings, including names for local places and features and ultimately the future name of Swindon, possibly derived from the words "Swine" for "Pig" and "Down" for "Hill".
Recorded in the Domesday Book
as both Suindone and Suindune in 1086, the settlement was assessed at 12¾ hides and divided into 5 holdings. The largest holding under the ownership of Odin the Chamberlain, which was later known as the Manor
of High Swindon. 5 hides, known as the Manor of Nethercott, was owned by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, Earl of Kent
, and half-brother of King William
the Conqueror. Other holdings recorded in the Domesday Book are: Ulward, West Swindon (2 hides) and Alvred of Marlborough, 1½ hides. Smaller estates at Walcot, Even Swindon and Broome are also noted.
After Odo's imprisonment for having planned a military expedition to Italy, High Swindon reverted back to the Crown until the reign of Henry III in the 13th century who gave it to William de Valence
, Earl of Pembroke. It is under the ownership of William de Valence that the first recorded market held in Swindon is documented, in 1259.
The first recorded Member's of Parliament
in Swindon's history are John Ildhelfe and Richard Pernaunt. In 1295 they were elected into the Model Parliament
of King Edward I
. Swindon became part of the constituency of Cricklade
in 1660. (see also History of government in Swindon)
There are also records existing that show in 1334 there were 248 poll tax
payers in the town.
The oldest recorded street in the town is Newport Street near the cattle market (dated 1346), originally called Nyweport Street meaning 'New Market'. The cellars
of some houses in modern day Newport Street are thought to date back to this era.
During the 14th Century, the Manor of High Swindon was known as Hegherswyndon. High Swindon has perhaps seen the least development of all the Manors, remaining largely unchanged until the 19th century.
During the period from 1086 onwards, the boundaries of High and West Swindon were re-arranged into Over and Nether Swindon and eventually became known as West and East Swindon in the 16th century. Nethercott became the Manors of Eastcott and Westcott in the 16th century. Eastcott was bought by the Vilett family in the 18th century (now marked by Eastcott Hill in today's town) and Westcott was purchased by the Goddard family in the 18th century. In 1563, the Manor of Swindon (East and West Swindon) was purchased by Thomas Goddard. At the time of the purchase Swindon's economy revolved around the Agriculture
industry, with sheep
farms to the south, pig
s and cattle
to the north with Tanners
, woolmongers and other trades supporting the farms in the town itself.
Count (a type of 'guess census
', an estimation of growth from 25 years previous performed by the Christian Church) was undertaken in 1705. The figures for Swindon show - 600 men, women, children and 26 freeholders. With the Goddard's now owning the Manor of Swindon in its entirety, and being by right Lords of the Manor
- their income from rent, leases and taxation increased. In 1717, the Michaelmas Day
assizes for rent due to the Lord of Manor show 45 tenants and 34 Leaseholders (rent due on Michaelmas and Lady Day
for leases). One record from the time shows - 'Richard York, paying eight pence a year for "his house late a barn"'.
The main sources of revenue for the town were now from agriculture, livestock
and quarry
ing with the Purbeck Stone quarries being worked to provide stone for minor expansion and house-building.
The first non-market shops also appeared around this period, moving Swindon steadily away from a purely barter
driven economy, with Robert and Margaret Boxwell opening the first recorded grocer
independent of the market on the High Street
in 1705. This business lasted at least 50 years, records show at that time they were importing tea
and sugar
from London
.
Manorial records of Swindon from 1700 to 1900 show that many families chose to remain here instead of seeking fortunes elsewhere - 'Swindon was not a town that its occupants readily moved from or changed'.
The town's biggest employers in 1701 were the quarries, with 15 roughmasons
or stonecutters and 40 labourers
listed.
Manorial records also note the following tradesmen
/families in the town -
Four baker
s, four butcher
s, five innholders, 1 cooper
, 1 mercer, 1 draper
, 1 glove
r, 1 currier
, 1 saddle
r, 3 weaver
s. 20 servant
s, 4 tailor
s, 10 cobbler
s, 4 blacksmith
s, 2 carpenter
s, 1 chandler
, 1 cheese factor
, 1 joiner
, 2 slater
s, 1 wheelwright
, 1 ironmonger, 1 glazier
and 1 surgeon
.
The average diet
at the time consisting of bread
, meat
and beer
.
(1706), the four main access roads into the Town were turned into turnpikes
between 1751 and 1775. With the Swindon to Faringdon
road completed in 1757 and the Swindon to Marlborough road in 1761.
Toll houses were also placed on the roads to Stratton St Margaret
, Marlborough, Devizes
, Wootton Bassett
and Cricklade
.
Residents of Rodbourne Cheney and the Liddiard's came into Swindon via roadways that linked Shaw and Rushey Platt with the gate at Kingshill.
The amount levied depended on the type of cart, the number of horses used and the width of wheels (as the narrower wheels caused more damage to the road).
Roads were kept clean and in good repair by auctioning lots to townspeople who could possibly sell 'road scrapings and parings' (manure
etc.).
This practice continued at least until 1846, at which time the auction
eers Dore & Fidel published the lots for sale as
"1, From Swindon to the top of Kingshill. 2, From thence to the canal. 3, From thence to the hand post at Mannington. 4, From thence to the brow of the hill at Whitehill. 5, From thence to the Lodge Gate. 6, From thence to the west corner of Agbourn Coppice. 7, From thence to the Fourth Mile-stone. 8, From thence to the Gate, in the occupation of Ann Rudler. 9, From thence to the stream of water crossing the road by William Watt's. 10, From thence to the Turnpike Gate. 11, From thence to the borough of Wootton Bassett. Swindon Parish Road. 12, From Mr Blackford's Corner to the Wharf Bridge, and 13, The scraping and sweeping of all the streets in the Town of Swindon."
Lot 13, being the roads of the Town itself would provide the most work and also the best rewards. Additional terms were stipulated for this lot, including the requirement that sweepings be removed every Thursday and Saturday. Markets at this time were held on Monday's, so there would have been a rich covering on the road by the time of its Thursday sweeping.
The Goddard family was established within Swindon prior to the 15th Century, Thomas Goddard of Upham acquired the Manor
in 1563 and his descendant family were Lords of the Manor
up until the 20th century. The estate included the area known today as the Lawns, and was bounded by the High Street and the site of Christchurch.
At one point during the 17th century, the Goddard family leased their manor house to William Levett
Esq., courtier to King Charles I of England
who accompanied Charles on the day of his execution and owner of Levett's Farm within Savernake Forest
. (Levett
's nephew Richard Levett was Lord Mayor of London
in 1699 and owner of Kew Palace
; Levett's son was Dr. Henry Levett of London Charterhouse
; Levett's son Dr. William was principal of Magdalene Hall, Oxford, and later Dean
of Bristol
.)
On Jan. 22, 1658, Francis Bowman Gent., "guardian of Thomas Goddard, leased to Levett
a "mansion house lately occupied by Anne Goddard in Swindon." Later Goddard family leases to Levett
, who retained his farm within Savernake Forest
, would come to include other lands owned by the Goddard family in Swindon. By then Levett
was working as surveyor for the Duke of Somerset
. In the lease of April 5, 1664, the lease by Goddard notes that "the Parke etc." is included as well as the Goddard mansion. Two of Levett's children are buried at Holy Rood Church in Swindon.
The last of the Goddard male line, Major Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, a diplomat
, died in 1927. His widow, Eugenia Kathleen, left Swindon in 1931. Subsequent to this, the house remained empty until it was occupied by British and American forces during World War II
. Damaged by the military, it was bought from The Crown
by Swindon Corporation in 1947 for £16,000. The sale included 53 acres (214,483.6 m²) of land, the Manor house and the adjacent Holy Rood Church.
The house itself was derelict by 1952 and demolished. The Manor grounds were opened as parkland and remain so. Today; the wood, lake, sunken garden, elements of the walls and the gateposts at the entrance to Lawns are all open to the public. The former stables are now the Planks auction house.
William de Valence
, Earl of Pembroke (½ brother of Henry III
) is recorded as having held a market in Swindon from 1259. It is from these records that the name Swindon first appears, as well as 'Chepyng Swindon' in 1289 and 'Market Swindon' in 1336.bs
Although Thomas Goddard was granted a weekly market and two fairs a year in 1626, the Market in Swindon was in decline by 1640. However a cattle plague hit nearby Highworth
in 1652, allowing Swindon's livestock sales to increase.
In 1672, John Aubrey
remarked "Here on Munday every weeke a gallant Markett for Cattle, which increased to its new greatnese upon the plague at Highworth."
Swindon Market was one of the 32 weekly markets held throughout Wiltshire
up to 1718.
In 1814, John Britton
passed through Swindon and recorded 1,600 people and 263 houses in the town. He also wrote of the weekly corn market, fortnightly cattle market and regular Horse sales. However, by the mid-19th century the cattle market was poorly attended.
A new Cattle Market site was built in 1873 to try to revive the Market, a site which remained until the late 1980s when the final auction was held. There is no longer a Cattle Market in modern Swindon.
s and later due to the Railway
. Changes which helped the towns population double in the first half of the century from 1,198 in 1801 to 2,495 in 1841. With new houses being built along Bath Road using stone from the local quarries, Swindon continued to move away from being a purely agricultural town.
However, this did not stop an observation being made in 1830 that Swindon was "a town of two principal streets." and also "A small village of no importance on the summit of the hill near the important market town of Highworth."
The Canals came to Swindon in the early part of the century, to be replaced later by the siting of the Great Western Railway's Works
and the building of New Swindon in the mid-19th century.
Swindon at the beginning of the 19th century was still mainly centred at the top of Swindon Hill, some farmhouses, cottages and small dwellings were scattered around its base. Today's suburbs of Coate, Broome, Westleaze, Walcott, Russia Platt (later Rushey Platt), Westcott, Eastcott, Rodbourne Cheney, Westlecot and Kings Hill were all still small hamlet
s. A number of these are now in areas considered to be in the Town Centre
.
Eastcott became the focus of the new Swindon, with the Wilts and Berks Canal
Company building Swindon Wharf
and a number of canal buildings just north of the hamlet. Regent Circus is the site of a former orchard and a public house called the Red Cow (now recognised in the current pub named the Red Cow near to the original site).
A bridge placed across the canal in 1806 to provide access to a farm was later to become the Golden Lion bridge, now located in the centre of Swindon's main shopping area on Canal Walk. Up until 1840, what is known today as Swindon town centre was farms and fields.
) quarries.
Stone from these quarries had been used from the time of the Roman occupation
, Swindon stone has been found in Roman villa
s and settlements in the area.
Documented workings survive from 1641, with all new excavations sanctioned and taxed by the Goddard family. The quarries declined during the period 1775-1800, but rebounded during the building of the Wilts and Berks Canal
. Stone was used in building the canal walls, buildings and also exported using it. In 1820, 101 tons of Swindon stone was transported along the canal. This fell to 44 tons in 1845 with the introduction of the Railway, however the Great Western Railway
buildings and the creation of Swindon New Town saw a resurge in Stone production. Quarrying activity ceased altogether in the late 1950s with the sites of two quarries being in the locations of Queens Park and Town Gardens in the modern town. The site of the former Okus Quarry
is now a protected Site of Special Scientific Interest
.
In 1775, an act of parliament was passed authorising the building of the Wilts and Berks Canal
. A "waterway that would link the Kennet and Avon Canal
at Semington
, near Trowbridge
with the River Thames
at Abingdon
.." It reached Swindon in 1804, and Abingdon in 1810. In all, 58 miles (93.3 km) of waterway was created.
The canal enabled Swindon businesses and farmers to transport goods over a wider area in a quicker time-scale. It also provided an influx of new residents, both from out of county and also from those navvies
who settled after completion of the canal. With Ambrose Goddard, Lord of the Manor of Swindon at the time, also a major shareholder in the company. Goddard authorised a number of purchases on behalf of the canal company for land along its eventual route, land which he himself owned.
In 1813, another act of parliament was passed authorising the North Wilts Canal, a proposal by the Thames & Severn Canal Company and the Wilts & Berks Canal Company to link the existing Wilts and Berks Canal at Swindon with the Thames and Severn Canal
at Latton, Cricklade
. Consisting of nine miles (14 km) of waterway and 12 locks
, it was completed in 1814. The two canals were consolidated in 1821 and brought together under the auspices of the Wilts & Berks Navigation Company.
A 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) feeder reservoir was built at Coate
, a mile and a half south of the town, in 1822. This reservoir was created to keep the canal at a navigable
level in the Swindon area.
With the railways providing a faster and cheaper method of transport, the canal was relatively unused by 1895. It was dredge
d in 1908, but declared ruined soon after It was finally closed under the Wilts & Berks Canal Abandonment Act, 1914 and partly filled in.
Various elements of the Canal can still be seen in Swindon, with the route also being remembered at Canal Walk in the Town Centre. Swindon Borough Council is currently considering re-creating part of Canal Walk to celebrate the towns water-borne heritage.
This was to change markedly with the coming of the Great Western Railway.
In 1835 parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol, giving the role of Chief Engineer to Isambard Kingdom Brunel
.
There are several stories relating to how it came to pass through Swindon, with a well circulated myth that Brunel and Daniel Gooch
were surveying a vale
north of Swindon Hill and Brunel either threw a stone or dropped a sandwich and declared that spot to be the new location of the works.
The siting of the Locomotive works transformed Swindon from a small Market town
into a bona fide Railway town
, boosted the population considerably and also provided medical and educational facilities that had been sorely lacking.
was originally planned to cut through Savernake Forest
near Marlborough, however the Marquess of Ailesbury
who owned the land, objected. The Marquess had previously also objected to part of the Kennet and Avon Canal
running through his estate (see Bruce Tunnel
).
With the Railway needing to run near to a canal at this point, and as it was cheaper to transport coal for trains along canals at this time, Swindon was the next logical choice for the works 20 miles (32.2 km) north of the original route.
Once the plan was set for the railway to come to Swindon, it was at first intended to bring it closely along the foot of the hill, so as to be as close as possible to the town without entailing excessive engineering works. However, the Goddard family, following the example quoted above of the Marquis (and many other landowners of the day), objected to having it near their property, so it was eventually laid a couple of miles further north.
Eventually covering 320 acres (1.3 km²), it became the focal point for the creation of New Swindon and the influx of over 10,000 new residents in the next 50 years. "The period was the phenomenal growth of the GWR Works in Swindon where the GWR management concentrated, to a far greater degree than any other reailway company - most of their manufacture, repair, and serviceing operations. In the result there existed in Swindon by the end the 19th century, the largest industrial complex to be found in Europe."
In its heyday, it employed over 14,000 people and the main locomotive fabrication workshop, the A Shop was, at 11.25 acres (45,527.2 m²), one of the largest covered areas in the world.
to the tracks down the hill.
Swindon railway station
opened in 1842 with construction on the works continuing.
As the town of Swindon at that time was over a mile away on top of the hill, a modest Railway Village of 300 homes was proposed in 1841. Building began using stone from Swindon's quarries and also from stone excavated during the boring of Box Tunnel
, 243 houses were completed by 1853 with the towns population being estimated at over 2,500. All 300 houses were completed by the mid-1860s.
Consequently a new town was built, known as New Swindon. This town would remain both physically and administratively separate from Old Swindon until 1900.
granting Swindon Municipal Borough
status, this was enacted 9 November.
The charter amalgamated Old and New Swindon into one town (population 45,006 in 1901), enabling the pooling of resources from two different authorities. This provided enough money to open an electrical power station
in 1903 on land bought by the new council at Lower Eastcott Farm (now located in Corporation Street).
Taking advantage of this, trams were introduced in September 1904.
In 1906, the Swindon Tram disaster occurred. A number 11 tram taking passengers from the Bath and West Show
being held in Old Town suffered brake failure driving down Victoria Hill and crashed in Regents Circus killing 5.
The Wilts and Berks Canal
continued to fall out of use with the last passing vessel being recorded in this year.
By 1914, the canals had mostly dried up and taken over by council, Coate Water
was turned into a pleasure park. No improvements to the canal could be started due to the start of World War I
and it was abandoned.
In 1919, a flagpole war memorial
was the impetus for widespread rioting in the town by those who believed it to be disrespectful to the war dead. The flagpole itself was later burned down and was eventually replaced by a wooden cenotaph
. The existing stone cenotaph was introduced in 1920.
This period also saw the completion of the first council housing
estate in Pinehurst, on the site of the old Hurst Farm. The houses on the new estate included such luxuries as electric light and bathrooms. Developers had also provided a local shopping centre, post office and even a Community centre
and temporary school.
The Swindon Advertiser and the Wiltshire, Berkshire and Gloucestershire Chronicle were bought by Swindon Press in 1920 and became the Evening Advertiser, now the Swindon Advertiser
. The Chronicle is today known as the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald.
1924 saw the highest employment ever in the GWR Railway Works
, with 14,369 people employed in the various factories. And on April 28, 1924, King George V
and Queen Mary
visited the works to view the trains for themselves, witnessing the work's most famous locomotive in production: Number 6000, King George V
.
Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, last of the Goddard's and Lord of the Manor of Swindon held the post of High Sheriff
of Wiltshire during this period before his eventual death in 1927. Also, after only 25 years, Swindon's Trams were phased out by bus
es in 1929.
Swindon received its first purpose built Maternity Hospital
in 1931, now Kingshill House, located along Bath Road. Prior to this, the only facilities available were in the crowded Milton Road GWR Medical Fund Hospital.
The 30s also saw more motor cars
in private hands, with the town's purpose built car park
erected behind the Town Hall
.
Between 1934 and 1935, expansion began again in the Old Town area. With new houses and estates being built along the Marlborough Road, for sale at £730 each, and also the new Terraced housing estate in Walcot, where a house would cost £450.
With the declaration of war and the onset of World War II
, Evacuees
arrived in Swindon in 1939.
Troops were stationed in churches and school halls throughout town with a contingent of British and American forces stationed in The Lawns, leading to the Manor house's eventual dereliction.
Faringdon Road Park had trenches
dug under trees and air-raid shelter
s added due to its location near to both the Works and the Railway village.
The GWR Works
became a war factory which in turn led to Swindon becoming a target for Bombing raids, with the work's hooter used as one of the town's air raid siren
due to its volume.
The first air raid alerts started in June/July 1940 and Swindon received its first bomb
in August. The device fell to the rear of Shrivenham Road and no one hurt. However this good fortune was not to last and in October, bombs on York Road and Roseberry Street produced the Town's first fatalities.
To provide recreation for the wartime community, the town's first public library
was opened in 1943 in Regent Street with help from the Army. Followed later in 1946 with an arts centre
, also on Regent Street.
New estates appeared throughout the 1950s; with Penhill built from 1951, Walcot East in 1956 and then Park North & South.
The beginning of Swindon's association with Car building
also began in the 1950s, when Pressed Steel Fisher
arrived in the town and built a factory. The factory produced sheet metal pressings and bodywork for a variety of applications, including the Railway, before eventual takeover from Rover
. It is today owned by BMW
and provides some facilities to the Honda
car factory.
With the influx of new residents to the industrial Swindon, existing medical facilities were over-burdened and a new hospital was proposed. To be sited at Okus, many thought the hospital would be too remote and public transport would be insufficient (incidentally, these are reasons cited for its eventual closure in 2002 and the building of the new Great Western Hospital
).
Princess Margaret laid the foundation stone in 1957 of the Princess Margaret Hospital (abbreviated to PMH), it would not be completed until January 1960.
As Swindon entered the 1960s; the population increase of 22,000 since 1951 brought the total number of residents to 91,775 in 1961.
The new hospital and new residents heralded an era of redevelopment
in the town, with the council buying houses around the town centre for 'slum clearance' and transformation into retail units and shops.
For safety, the town centre began pedestrianisation; with vehicle gates placed at Bridge Street, Fleet Street and Regents Street. Originally only closed to traffic from 10am till 5pm on Saturdays, this was expanded to the eventual pedestrianisation of the main shopping area and paving over of the existing roads and canals.
Swindon as a major railway Locomotive
manufacturer ended in 1962, with work changing to focus on repairs to existing carriages and engines and large portions of the site sold. However, in 1967, the retailer WH Smith moved its book distribution centre to the town, a move designed to take advantage of Swindon's central placing. Other companies followed suit in the 1970s.
Construction began on the M4 motorway
in the late 1960s to provide quick and easy access from the region into London, something that Swindon's football club seemed to use as an inspiration, when in 1969 Swindon Town F.C.
recorded the most famous result in its history, winning 3-1 in the League Cup
Final against Arsenal
at Wembley Stadium
, a match watched by close to 100,000 people.
The football club later added the Anglo-Italian League Cup Winners' Cup to the 1969 honours, beating AS Roma 5-2 over two legs.
opened in 1971, providing Swindon with two motorway junctions (numbers 15 and 16). It was also the year of Decimalisation
in the United Kingdom, with Decimal Day
in February sounding the death knell for the old coinage.
Decimalisation helped to transform the retail stores in Swindon town centre, which was under redevelopment, with smaller family owned stores generally being pushed out of business under the invasion of the large chain store
s. The development of the town included the erection of the Wyvern Theatre.
It wasn't until 1972 the PMH, Swindon's main hospital at the time, finally had a purpose built Accident & Emergency unit
created. Up until this time the hospital had been using temporary hut based facilities.
The oil company Burmah Oil
built their world Headquarters along Pipers Way in 1972, now owned by Burmah-Castrol
.
Adding to Burmah Oil's ingress in the 70s, another large corporation, Hambro Life Assurance
, established their Headquarters in the town in the 1970s, with offices over the Railway station and over Debenhams in the Shopping area. The name was changed to Allied Hambro in 1984 and Allied Dunbar
in 1985, before its eventual purchase by Zurich Financial Services
.
Following boundary changes in 1974, the Borough of Swindon became Thamesdown. The new authority oversaw the construction of the Brunel shopping centre in the same year and the 1976 opening of the Oasis leisure centre
. The David Murray John Tower, a landmark dominating the town's skyline, was built as part of the shopping centre construction and is named after the Town Clerk who championed the boundary changes and ultimately - Swindon's regeneration.
The 1980s saw Swindon expand out West, with Toothill and Freshbrook forming the area now known as West Swindon. It was here also that the first out of town shopping centre was built in Swindon, owned by Carrefour
it is now an Asda
supermarket.
The GWR Works finally closed in 1986, although it was wound down slowly with some employees remaining until 1987. The Wills tobacco factory also closed in 1987, the site now the large Tesco
store on Ocotal Way.
On April 1, 1997 the area became known once more as the Borough of Swindon after the creation of a new Unitary Authority
, replacing the confusing Thamesdown name.
In 2002 the [New Swindon Company] http://www.newswindon.co.uk was formed with the brief to regenerate the town centre into a dynamic regional centre, reflecting the importance of Swindon in the region and to give the town the centre it deserves
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
in the South West
South West England
South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...
of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. People have lived in the town since the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
and the town's location, being approximately halfway between Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, made it an ideal location for the Locomotive Factories
Swindon Works
Swindon railway works were built by the Great Western Railway in 1841 in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire.-History:In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol. Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.From 1836, Brunel had been buying...
of the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
in the 19th century.
Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
has grown from a population of just 1,198 in 1801 to over 150,000 in 2001.
Pre-history
The modern town of SwindonSwindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
is built on and around a hill that stands over 450 ft (137.2 m) above sea-level, now known as Swindon Hill. Its location to the north of the Marlborough Downs and on the southern end of the Vale of White Horse
Vale of White Horse
The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. The main town is Abingdon, other places include Faringdon and Wantage. There are 68 parishes within the district...
, with access to the River Cole
River Cole, Wiltshire
The River Cole is a tributary of the River Thames in England which flows through Wiltshire and Oxfordshire, where it forms part of the border between the two counties....
and others, made it suitable for use as farming land.
There have been settlements around the hill since pre-historic
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
times, but no evidence of occupation on the hill (including no evidence of any fortification
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
s) until the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
.
Digs at Swindon's former quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
sites uncovered the first Bronze Age relics, with burial sites, tools, pottery and later; Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
artefacts also found.
Archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
excavations around Swindon Hill have revealed pre-Roman farms and an additional Iron Age farm complex was discovered on lowlands to the north of Swindon in the 1970s. There are various monuments and earthworks nearby, including Liddington Castle
Liddington Castle
Liddington Castle, locally called Liddington Camp, is a late Bronze Age and early Iron Age hill fort in the English county of Wiltshire....
, Barbury Castle
Barbury Castle
Barbury Castle is an Iron Age hill fort situated in Wiltshire, England. It is one of several such forts found along the ancient Ridgeway route. The site, which lies within the Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, has been managed as a country park by Swindon Borough Council since 1971...
, Avebury
Avebury
Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles which is located around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, south west England. Unique amongst megalithic monuments, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe, and is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain...
and the White Horses of Uffington
Uffington White Horse
The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long , formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk...
, Hackpen and Marlborough (see Chalk figures in England).
The Romans in Swindon
A RomanAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
town called Durocornovium
Durocornovium
Durocornovium was a Roman town situated on the Roman road between Corinium Dobunnorum and Calleva Atrebatum . In many ways Durocornovium was a typical small Roman town, and visitors to Corbridge at Hadrian's Wall in the north of England can get a sense of the claustrophobic conditions the town...
existed to the east of Swindon from the 1st to 4th centuries, located in present day Wanborough
Wanborough, Wiltshire
Wanborough is a village and civil parish in the borough of Swindon, Wiltshire. The village is about southeast of Swindon town centre. The parish includes the hamlet of Foxhill, southeast of the village.-History:...
. It is probable that Swindon began life as a settlement linked to a military encampment in the early days of the Roman occupation.
The place that is now Swindon was on the junction of two Roman roads, one leading south from Cirencester
Cirencester
Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...
towards Marlborough and the other south eastwards to Silchester
Silchester
Silchester is a village and civil parish about north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is adjacent to the county boundary with Berkshire and about south-west of Reading....
(see Ermin Street
Ermin Street
Ermin Street or Ermin Way is one of the great Roman roads of Britain. It runs from Gloucester via Cirencester to Silchester . Much of it is now covered by the modern A417, A419 and B4000 roads....
). Evidence exists to show that Swindon's quarries were in use at this time to produce stone for villas and clay from the Whitehill region (now West Swindon) was used to produce Whitehill Ware pottery.
Burial grounds
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
dating to the 4th century have been found in Purton
Purton
Purton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire. The civil parish includes the village of Purton Stoke and the hamlets of Bentham, Hayes Knoll, Restrop and Widham....
, but the most substantial find was made in 1996, when contractors redeveloping an area of Groundwell Ridge uncovered the buried walls of Roman buildings. Described as "a site of great importance, with a large complex of buildings, a hypocaust
Hypocaust
A hypocaust was an ancient Roman system of underfloor heating, used to heat houses with hot air. The word derives from the Ancient Greek hypo meaning "under" and caust-, meaning "burnt"...
(a system of under-floor heating, usually found as part of Roman bath houses), walls covered with painted plaster and a carefully designed and constructed water supply." - The area is now owned by Swindon Borough Council and English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, and is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument
Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...
. On 28 and 29 June 2003 the site was featured as parts of Channel 4's Time Team
Time Team
Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on Channel 4 since 1994. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode features a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining...
'Big Dig' weekend.
The Saxons
With the recall of the legionsRoman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the 5th century, the Roman settlements around Swindon declined rapidly. Although Germanic settlers may have been present earlier, the West Saxons advanced from the south coast in the 5th Century and brought Swindon under their control after the Battle of Beranburgh, reportedly at Barbury Castle
Barbury Castle
Barbury Castle is an Iron Age hill fort situated in Wiltshire, England. It is one of several such forts found along the ancient Ridgeway route. The site, which lies within the Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, has been managed as a country park by Swindon Borough Council since 1971...
in 556.
There is some possibility of another battle fought against the native Romano-Britons at Wanborough in 591. Claims have been made that a further battle was fought at Wanborough in 717 between Ceolred
Ceolred of Mercia
-Mercia at the end of the 7th century:By the end of the 7th century, England was almost entirely divided into kingdoms ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, who had come to Britain two hundred years earlier. The kingdom of Mercia occupied what is now the English Midlands, bordered by Northumbria to the...
, King of Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
, and Ine
Ine of Wessex
Ine was King of Wessex from 688 to 726. He was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, Cædwalla, who had brought much of southern England under his control and expanded West Saxon territory substantially...
, King of Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
, and the area was still in dispute in 825 as demonstrated by the Battle of Ellandun
Ellandun
Ellandun was the site of the Battle of Ellandun between Egbert of Wessex and Beornwulf of Mercia in 825. Sir Frank Stenton described it as "One of the most decisive battles of English history", effectively ending the Mercian supremacy over the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy...
The Saxons built a farming community based on the top of Swindon Hill, with remains of wood-framed and Plaster huts found near to Market Square. Anglo-Saxon pottery and cloth finds suggest the town was still occupied throughout the 6th and 7th centuries.
The Saxons left many lasting marks on the landscape and surroundings, including names for local places and features and ultimately the future name of Swindon, possibly derived from the words "Swine" for "Pig" and "Down" for "Hill".
Medieval Swindon
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
as both Suindone and Suindune in 1086, the settlement was assessed at 12¾ hides and divided into 5 holdings. The largest holding under the ownership of Odin the Chamberlain, which was later known as the Manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of High Swindon. 5 hides, known as the Manor of Nethercott, was owned by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, Earl of Kent
Earl of Kent
The peerage title Earl of Kent has been created eight times in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.See also Kingdom of Kent, Duke of Kent.-Earls of Kent, first creation :*Godwin, Earl of Wessex...
, and half-brother of King William
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
the Conqueror. Other holdings recorded in the Domesday Book are: Ulward, West Swindon (2 hides) and Alvred of Marlborough, 1½ hides. Smaller estates at Walcot, Even Swindon and Broome are also noted.
After Odo's imprisonment for having planned a military expedition to Italy, High Swindon reverted back to the Crown until the reign of Henry III in the 13th century who gave it to William de Valence
William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke
William de Valence, 1st Earl of Wexford and 1st Earl of Pembroke , born Guillaume de Lusignan or de Valence, was a French nobleman and Knight, who became important in English politics due to his relationship to Henry III...
, Earl of Pembroke. It is under the ownership of William de Valence that the first recorded market held in Swindon is documented, in 1259.
The first recorded Member's of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in Swindon's history are John Ildhelfe and Richard Pernaunt. In 1295 they were elected into the Model Parliament
Model Parliament
The Model Parliament is the term, attributed to Frederic William Maitland, used for the 1295 Parliament of England of King Edward I. This assembly included members of the clergy and the aristocracy, as well as representatives from the various counties and boroughs. Each county returned two knights,...
of King Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
. Swindon became part of the constituency of Cricklade
Cricklade (UK Parliament constituency)
Cricklade was a parliamentary constituency named after the town of Cricklade in Wiltshire.From 1295 until 1885, Cricklade was a parliamentary borough, returning two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, previously to the House of Commons of...
in 1660. (see also History of government in Swindon)
There are also records existing that show in 1334 there were 248 poll tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
payers in the town.
The oldest recorded street in the town is Newport Street near the cattle market (dated 1346), originally called Nyweport Street meaning 'New Market'. The cellars
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
of some houses in modern day Newport Street are thought to date back to this era.
During the 14th Century, the Manor of High Swindon was known as Hegherswyndon. High Swindon has perhaps seen the least development of all the Manors, remaining largely unchanged until the 19th century.
During the period from 1086 onwards, the boundaries of High and West Swindon were re-arranged into Over and Nether Swindon and eventually became known as West and East Swindon in the 16th century. Nethercott became the Manors of Eastcott and Westcott in the 16th century. Eastcott was bought by the Vilett family in the 18th century (now marked by Eastcott Hill in today's town) and Westcott was purchased by the Goddard family in the 18th century. In 1563, the Manor of Swindon (East and West Swindon) was purchased by Thomas Goddard. At the time of the purchase Swindon's economy revolved around the Agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
industry, with sheep
Domestic sheep
Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...
farms to the south, pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
s and cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
to the north with Tanners
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
, woolmongers and other trades supporting the farms in the town itself.
Swindon in the 1700s
An EcclesiasticalEcclesiology
Today, ecclesiology usually refers to the theological study of the Christian church. However when the word was coined in the late 1830s, it was defined as the science of the building and decoration of churches and it is still, though rarely, used in this sense.In its theological sense, ecclesiology...
Count (a type of 'guess census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
', an estimation of growth from 25 years previous performed by the Christian Church) was undertaken in 1705. The figures for Swindon show - 600 men, women, children and 26 freeholders. With the Goddard's now owning the Manor of Swindon in its entirety, and being by right Lords of the Manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
- their income from rent, leases and taxation increased. In 1717, the Michaelmas Day
Michaelmas
Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September...
assizes for rent due to the Lord of Manor show 45 tenants and 34 Leaseholders (rent due on Michaelmas and Lady Day
Lady Day
In the western Liturgical year, Lady Day is the traditional name of the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin in some English speaking countries. It is the first of the four traditional English quarter days. The "Lady" was the Virgin Mary. The term derives from Middle English, when some...
for leases). One record from the time shows - 'Richard York, paying eight pence a year for "his house late a barn"'.
The main sources of revenue for the town were now from agriculture, livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
and quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
ing with the Purbeck Stone quarries being worked to provide stone for minor expansion and house-building.
The first non-market shops also appeared around this period, moving Swindon steadily away from a purely barter
Barter
Barter is a method of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. It is usually bilateral, but may be multilateral, and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a...
driven economy, with Robert and Margaret Boxwell opening the first recorded grocer
Grocer
A grocer is a bulk seller of food. Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, pepper, sugar, and cocoa, tea and coffee...
independent of the market on the High Street
High Street
High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
in 1705. This business lasted at least 50 years, records show at that time they were importing tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
and sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Manorial records of Swindon from 1700 to 1900 show that many families chose to remain here instead of seeking fortunes elsewhere - 'Swindon was not a town that its occupants readily moved from or changed'.
The town's biggest employers in 1701 were the quarries, with 15 roughmasons
Stonemasonry
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures...
or stonecutters and 40 labourers
Manual labour
Manual labour , manual or manual work is physical work done by people, most especially in contrast to that done by machines, and also to that done by working animals...
listed.
Manorial records also note the following tradesmen
Tradesman
This article is about the skilled manual worker meaning of the term; for other uses see Tradesperson .A tradesman is a skilled manual worker in a particular trade or craft. Economically and socially, a tradesman's status is considered between a laborer and a professional, with a high degree of both...
/families in the town -
Four baker
Baker
A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...
s, four butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
s, five innholders, 1 cooper
Cooper (profession)
Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...
, 1 mercer, 1 draper
Draper
Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...
, 1 glove
Glove
A glove is a garment covering the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each...
r, 1 currier
Currier
A currier is a specialist in the leather processing industry. After the tanning process, the currier applies techniques of dressing, finishing and colouring to the tanned hide to make it strong, flexible and waterproof...
, 1 saddle
Saddle
A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, but specialized saddles have been created for camels and other creatures...
r, 3 weaver
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
s. 20 servant
Domestic worker
A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...
s, 4 tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
s, 10 cobbler
Shoemaking
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...
s, 4 blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
s, 2 carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
s, 1 chandler
Candle
A candle is a solid block or cylinder of wax with an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.Today, most candles are made from paraffin. Candles can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow...
, 1 cheese factor
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
, 1 joiner
Joiner
A joiner differs from a carpenter in that joiners cut and fit joints in wood that do not use nails. Joiners usually work in a workshop since the formation of various joints generally requires non-portable machinery. A carpenter normally works on site...
, 2 slater
Slater
Slater is an occupational surname of English origin. A slater is a tradesman.-Surname:* Allana Slater , Australian artistic gymnast* Bert Slater , Scottish football player* Bill Slater , English footballer...
s, 1 wheelwright
Wheelwright
A wheelwright is a person who builds or repairs wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the archaic word "wright", which comes from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker...
, 1 ironmonger, 1 glazier
Glazier
A Glazier is a construction professional who selects, cuts, installs, replaces, and removes residential, commercial, and artistic glass. Glaziers also install aluminum storefront frames and entrances, glass handrails and balustrades, shower enclosures, curtain wall framing and glass and mirror...
and 1 surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
.
The average diet
Diet (nutrition)
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...
at the time consisting of bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
, meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
and beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
.
Roads
With the expansion of the Quarries and also the introduction of the Turnpike ActTurnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
(1706), the four main access roads into the Town were turned into turnpikes
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
between 1751 and 1775. With the Swindon to Faringdon
Faringdon
Faringdon is a market town in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. It is on the edge of the Thames Valley, between the River Thames and the Ridgeway...
road completed in 1757 and the Swindon to Marlborough road in 1761.
Toll houses were also placed on the roads to Stratton St Margaret
Stratton St Margaret
Stratton St Margaret is a civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The parish covers north-eastern suburbs of Swindon including Stratton St Margaret itself along with Upper Stratton, Lower Stratton, Nythe and Kingsdown.-History:...
, Marlborough, Devizes
Devizes
Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The town is about southeast of Chippenham and about east of Trowbridge.Devizes serves as a centre for banks, solicitors and shops, with a large open market place where a market is held once a week...
, Wootton Bassett
Wootton Bassett
Royal Wootton Bassett , informally known as Wootton Bassett, is a small market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001...
and Cricklade
Cricklade
Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire in England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester.On 25 September 2011 Cricklade was awarded The Royal Horticultural Society's 'Champion of Champions' award in the Britain in Bloom competition.Cricklade is twinned with...
.
Residents of Rodbourne Cheney and the Liddiard's came into Swindon via roadways that linked Shaw and Rushey Platt with the gate at Kingshill.
The amount levied depended on the type of cart, the number of horses used and the width of wheels (as the narrower wheels caused more damage to the road).
Roads were kept clean and in good repair by auctioning lots to townspeople who could possibly sell 'road scrapings and parings' (manure
Manure
Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...
etc.).
This practice continued at least until 1846, at which time the auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
eers Dore & Fidel published the lots for sale as
"1, From Swindon to the top of Kingshill. 2, From thence to the canal. 3, From thence to the hand post at Mannington. 4, From thence to the brow of the hill at Whitehill. 5, From thence to the Lodge Gate. 6, From thence to the west corner of Agbourn Coppice. 7, From thence to the Fourth Mile-stone. 8, From thence to the Gate, in the occupation of Ann Rudler. 9, From thence to the stream of water crossing the road by William Watt's. 10, From thence to the Turnpike Gate. 11, From thence to the borough of Wootton Bassett. Swindon Parish Road. 12, From Mr Blackford's Corner to the Wharf Bridge, and 13, The scraping and sweeping of all the streets in the Town of Swindon."
Lot 13, being the roads of the Town itself would provide the most work and also the best rewards. Additional terms were stipulated for this lot, including the requirement that sweepings be removed every Thursday and Saturday. Markets at this time were held on Monday's, so there would have been a rich covering on the road by the time of its Thursday sweeping.
The Goddard Family - Lords of the Manor of Swindon
which is greatThe Goddard family was established within Swindon prior to the 15th Century, Thomas Goddard of Upham acquired the Manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in 1563 and his descendant family were Lords of the Manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
up until the 20th century. The estate included the area known today as the Lawns, and was bounded by the High Street and the site of Christchurch.
At one point during the 17th century, the Goddard family leased their manor house to William Levett
William Levett
William Levett, Esq., was a longserving courtier to King Charles I of England. Levett accompanied the King during his flight from Parliamentary forces, including his escape from Hampton Court palace, and eventually to his imprisonment in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, and finally to the...
Esq., courtier to King Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
who accompanied Charles on the day of his execution and owner of Levett's Farm within Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest is on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately .It is privately owned by the Trustees of Savernake Estate, the Earl of Cardigan, and his family solicitor. Since 1939 the running of the forest has been...
. (Levett
Levett
Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...
's nephew Richard Levett was Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
in 1699 and owner of Kew Palace
Kew Palace
Kew Palace is a British Royal Palace in Kew Gardens on the banks of the Thames up river from London. There have been at least four Palaces at Kew, and three have been known as Kew Palace; the first building may not have been known as Kew as no records survive other than the words of another...
; Levett's son was Dr. Henry Levett of London Charterhouse
London Charterhouse
The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Smithfield, London dating back to the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square. The Charterhouse began as a Carthusian priory, founded in 1371 and dissolved in 1537...
; Levett's son Dr. William was principal of Magdalene Hall, Oxford, and later Dean
Dean (religion)
A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...
of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
.)
On Jan. 22, 1658, Francis Bowman Gent., "guardian of Thomas Goddard, leased to Levett
Levett
Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...
a "mansion house lately occupied by Anne Goddard in Swindon." Later Goddard family leases to Levett
Levett
Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...
, who retained his farm within Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest is on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately .It is privately owned by the Trustees of Savernake Estate, the Earl of Cardigan, and his family solicitor. Since 1939 the running of the forest has been...
, would come to include other lands owned by the Goddard family in Swindon. By then Levett
Levett
Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...
was working as surveyor for the Duke of Somerset
Duke of Somerset
Duke of Somerset is a title in the peerage of England that has been created several times. Derived from Somerset, it is particularly associated with two families; the Beauforts who held the title from the creation of 1448 and the Seymours, from the creation of 1547 and in whose name the title is...
. In the lease of April 5, 1664, the lease by Goddard notes that "the Parke etc." is included as well as the Goddard mansion. Two of Levett's children are buried at Holy Rood Church in Swindon.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
, died in 1927. His widow, Eugenia Kathleen, left Swindon in 1931. Subsequent to this, the house remained empty until it was occupied by British and American forces during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Damaged by the military, it was bought from The Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
by Swindon Corporation in 1947 for £16,000. The sale included 53 acres (214,483.6 m²) of land, the Manor house and the adjacent Holy Rood Church.
The house itself was derelict by 1952 and demolished. The Manor grounds were opened as parkland and remain so. Today; the wood, lake, sunken garden, elements of the walls and the gateposts at the entrance to Lawns are all open to the public. The former stables are now the Planks auction house.
Markets
The economy of Swindon has, pre-predominately over the years, depended on Land, agriculture and livestock markets.William de Valence
William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke
William de Valence, 1st Earl of Wexford and 1st Earl of Pembroke , born Guillaume de Lusignan or de Valence, was a French nobleman and Knight, who became important in English politics due to his relationship to Henry III...
, Earl of Pembroke (½ brother of Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
) is recorded as having held a market in Swindon from 1259. It is from these records that the name Swindon first appears, as well as 'Chepyng Swindon' in 1289 and 'Market Swindon' in 1336.bs
Although Thomas Goddard was granted a weekly market and two fairs a year in 1626, the Market in Swindon was in decline by 1640. However a cattle plague hit nearby Highworth
Highworth
Highworth is a market town in the unitary authority of Swindon in Wiltshire, England, located about north-east of Swindon town centre. At the 2001 census it had a population of 7,996...
in 1652, allowing Swindon's livestock sales to increase.
In 1672, John Aubrey
John Aubrey
John Aubrey FRS, was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the collection of short biographical pieces usually referred to as Brief Lives...
remarked "Here on Munday every weeke a gallant Markett for Cattle, which increased to its new greatnese upon the plague at Highworth."
Swindon Market was one of the 32 weekly markets held throughout Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
up to 1718.
In 1814, John Britton
John Britton (antiquary)
-Early life:Britton was born on 7 July 1771 at Kington St. Michael, near Chippenham. His parents were in humble circumstances, and he was left an orphan at an early age. At sixteen he went to London and was apprenticed to a wine merchant. Prevented by ill-health from serving his full term, he found...
passed through Swindon and recorded 1,600 people and 263 houses in the town. He also wrote of the weekly corn market, fortnightly cattle market and regular Horse sales. However, by the mid-19th century the cattle market was poorly attended.
A new Cattle Market site was built in 1873 to try to revive the Market, a site which remained until the late 1980s when the final auction was held. There is no longer a Cattle Market in modern Swindon.
The 1800s, canals and steam
The 19th century saw the beginnings of Swindon's growth, firstly through the CanalCanal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
s and later due to the Railway
Rail transport in Great Britain
The railway system in Great Britain is the oldest in the world, with the world's first locomotive-hauled public railway opening in 1825. As of 2010, it consists of of standard gauge lines , of which are electrified. These lines range from single to double, triple, quadruple track and up to twelve...
. Changes which helped the towns population double in the first half of the century from 1,198 in 1801 to 2,495 in 1841. With new houses being built along Bath Road using stone from the local quarries, Swindon continued to move away from being a purely agricultural town.
However, this did not stop an observation being made in 1830 that Swindon was "a town of two principal streets." and also "A small village of no importance on the summit of the hill near the important market town of Highworth."
The Canals came to Swindon in the early part of the century, to be replaced later by the siting of the Great Western Railway's Works
Swindon Works
Swindon railway works were built by the Great Western Railway in 1841 in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire.-History:In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol. Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.From 1836, Brunel had been buying...
and the building of New Swindon in the mid-19th century.
Swindon at the beginning of the 19th century was still mainly centred at the top of Swindon Hill, some farmhouses, cottages and small dwellings were scattered around its base. Today's suburbs of Coate, Broome, Westleaze, Walcott, Russia Platt (later Rushey Platt), Westcott, Eastcott, Rodbourne Cheney, Westlecot and Kings Hill were all still small hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
s. A number of these are now in areas considered to be in the Town Centre
Town centre
The town centre is the term used to refer to the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town.Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus stations...
.
Eastcott became the focus of the new Swindon, with the Wilts and Berks Canal
Wilts and Berks Canal
The Wilts & Berks Canal is a canal in the historic counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington, near Melksham, to the River Thames at Abingdon. The North Wilts Canal merged with it to become a branch to the Thames and Severn Canal at Latton near...
Company building Swindon Wharf
Wharf
A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...
and a number of canal buildings just north of the hamlet. Regent Circus is the site of a former orchard and a public house called the Red Cow (now recognised in the current pub named the Red Cow near to the original site).
A bridge placed across the canal in 1806 to provide access to a farm was later to become the Golden Lion bridge, now located in the centre of Swindon's main shopping area on Canal Walk. Up until 1840, what is known today as Swindon town centre was farms and fields.
Purbeck Stone Quarries
From the mid-17th century till the end of 18th century, Swindon's economy began to increase with the exploitation of the Purbeck Stone (a type of limestoneLimestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
) quarries.
Stone from these quarries had been used from the time of the Roman occupation
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
, Swindon stone has been found in Roman villa
Roman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
s and settlements in the area.
Documented workings survive from 1641, with all new excavations sanctioned and taxed by the Goddard family. The quarries declined during the period 1775-1800, but rebounded during the building of the Wilts and Berks Canal
Wilts and Berks Canal
The Wilts & Berks Canal is a canal in the historic counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington, near Melksham, to the River Thames at Abingdon. The North Wilts Canal merged with it to become a branch to the Thames and Severn Canal at Latton near...
. Stone was used in building the canal walls, buildings and also exported using it. In 1820, 101 tons of Swindon stone was transported along the canal. This fell to 44 tons in 1845 with the introduction of the Railway, however the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
buildings and the creation of Swindon New Town saw a resurge in Stone production. Quarrying activity ceased altogether in the late 1950s with the sites of two quarries being in the locations of Queens Park and Town Gardens in the modern town. The site of the former Okus Quarry
Okus Quarry
Okus Quarry is a 2,500 square metre geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1951.The site was formerly notified under the name "Okus Quarries".-Source:* -External links:*...
is now a protected Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
.
Canals
Wilts and Berks Canal
The Wilts & Berks Canal is a canal in the historic counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington, near Melksham, to the River Thames at Abingdon. The North Wilts Canal merged with it to become a branch to the Thames and Severn Canal at Latton near...
. A "waterway that would link the Kennet and Avon Canal
Kennet and Avon Canal
The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is commonly used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section...
at Semington
Semington
Semington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is about south of Melksham and about northeast of Trowbridge.The parish includes the hamlets of Littlemarsh and Littleton....
, near Trowbridge
Trowbridge
Trowbridge is the county town of Wiltshire, England, situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, approximately 12 miles southeast of Bath, Somerset....
with the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
at Abingdon
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...
.." It reached Swindon in 1804, and Abingdon in 1810. In all, 58 miles (93.3 km) of waterway was created.
The canal enabled Swindon businesses and farmers to transport goods over a wider area in a quicker time-scale. It also provided an influx of new residents, both from out of county and also from those navvies
Navvy
Navvy is a shorter form of navigator or navigational engineer and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects...
who settled after completion of the canal. With Ambrose Goddard, Lord of the Manor of Swindon at the time, also a major shareholder in the company. Goddard authorised a number of purchases on behalf of the canal company for land along its eventual route, land which he himself owned.
In 1813, another act of parliament was passed authorising the North Wilts Canal, a proposal by the Thames & Severn Canal Company and the Wilts & Berks Canal Company to link the existing Wilts and Berks Canal at Swindon with the Thames and Severn Canal
Thames and Severn Canal
The Thames and Severn Canal is a canal in Gloucestershire in the south of England, which was completed in 1789. It was conceived as part of a canal route from Bristol to London. At its eastern end, it connects to the River Thames at Inglesham Lock near Lechlade, while at its western end, it...
at Latton, Cricklade
Cricklade
Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire in England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester.On 25 September 2011 Cricklade was awarded The Royal Horticultural Society's 'Champion of Champions' award in the Britain in Bloom competition.Cricklade is twinned with...
. Consisting of nine miles (14 km) of waterway and 12 locks
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...
, it was completed in 1814. The two canals were consolidated in 1821 and brought together under the auspices of the Wilts & Berks Navigation Company.
A 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) feeder reservoir was built at Coate
Coate Water Country Park
Coate Water is a country park situated to the southeast of central Swindon, near Junction 15 of the M4. It takes its name from the main feature, a reservoir originally built to provide water for the Wilts and Berks Canal....
, a mile and a half south of the town, in 1822. This reservoir was created to keep the canal at a navigable
Navigability
A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and slow enough for a vessel to pass. Preferably there are few obstructions such as rocks or trees to avoid. Bridges must have sufficient clearance. High water speed may make a channel unnavigable. Waters may be...
level in the Swindon area.
With the railways providing a faster and cheaper method of transport, the canal was relatively unused by 1895. It was dredge
Dredge
Dredging is an excavation activity or operation usually carried out at least partly underwater, in shallow seas or fresh water areas with the purpose of gathering up bottom sediments and disposing of them at a different location...
d in 1908, but declared ruined soon after It was finally closed under the Wilts & Berks Canal Abandonment Act, 1914 and partly filled in.
Various elements of the Canal can still be seen in Swindon, with the route also being remembered at Canal Walk in the Town Centre. Swindon Borough Council is currently considering re-creating part of Canal Walk to celebrate the towns water-borne heritage.
Brunel, the Railway and Swindon the industrial giant
Swindon as reported in 1830 was still a quiet, market town -Swindon is a market town in the hundred of Kingsbridge, eighty miles from London, thirty-eight from SalisburySalisburySalisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
, nineteen from Devizes, and eleven from Marlborough; pleasantly seated on the banks of the Wilts and Berks canal, by which navigation the trade of this place is much facilitated; - Mr William Dunsford, whose residence is at the Wharf, is the superintendent. Adjoining the church yard is a fine spring of water, which turns a corn mill within fifty yards of its source; and about a mile and a half south of the town is a reservoir, covering upwards of seventy acres, for supplying the canal. The population of the entire parish, according to the census of 1821, consisted of 1,580 inhabitants.
This was to change markedly with the coming of the Great Western Railway.
In 1835 parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol, giving the role of Chief Engineer to Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
.
There are several stories relating to how it came to pass through Swindon, with a well circulated myth that Brunel and Daniel Gooch
Daniel Gooch
Sir Daniel Gooch, 1st Baronet was an English railway and transatlantic cable engineer and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1865 to 1885...
were surveying a vale
River Valley
River Valley is the name of an urban planning area within the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.The River Valley Planning Area is defined by the region bounded by Orchard Boulevard, Devonshire Road and Eber Road to the north, Oxley Rise and Mohamed Sultan Road to the east, Martin...
north of Swindon Hill and Brunel either threw a stone or dropped a sandwich and declared that spot to be the new location of the works.
The siting of the Locomotive works transformed Swindon from a small Market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
into a bona fide Railway town
Railway town
A railway town is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site.In Victorian Britain, the spread of railways greatly affected the fate of many small towns...
, boosted the population considerably and also provided medical and educational facilities that had been sorely lacking.
The Railway Works
The Great Western RailwayGreat Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
was originally planned to cut through Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest is on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately .It is privately owned by the Trustees of Savernake Estate, the Earl of Cardigan, and his family solicitor. Since 1939 the running of the forest has been...
near Marlborough, however the Marquess of Ailesbury
Marquess of Ailesbury
Marquess of Ailesbury is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 17 July 1821 for Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury....
who owned the land, objected. The Marquess had previously also objected to part of the Kennet and Avon Canal
Kennet and Avon Canal
The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is commonly used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section...
running through his estate (see Bruce Tunnel
Bruce Tunnel
The Bruce Tunnel is on the summit pound of the Kennet and Avon Canal between Wootton Top Lock and Crofton Locks in Wiltshire, England.This is the only tunnel on the canal and it is 502 yards long...
).
With the Railway needing to run near to a canal at this point, and as it was cheaper to transport coal for trains along canals at this time, Swindon was the next logical choice for the works 20 miles (32.2 km) north of the original route.
Once the plan was set for the railway to come to Swindon, it was at first intended to bring it closely along the foot of the hill, so as to be as close as possible to the town without entailing excessive engineering works. However, the Goddard family, following the example quoted above of the Marquis (and many other landowners of the day), objected to having it near their property, so it was eventually laid a couple of miles further north.
Eventually covering 320 acres (1.3 km²), it became the focal point for the creation of New Swindon and the influx of over 10,000 new residents in the next 50 years. "The period was the phenomenal growth of the GWR Works in Swindon where the GWR management concentrated, to a far greater degree than any other reailway company - most of their manufacture, repair, and serviceing operations. In the result there existed in Swindon by the end the 19th century, the largest industrial complex to be found in Europe."
In its heyday, it employed over 14,000 people and the main locomotive fabrication workshop, the A Shop was, at 11.25 acres (45,527.2 m²), one of the largest covered areas in the world.
Swindon Station
With the railway passing through town in early 1841, the Goddard Arms public house in Old Swindon was used as a railway booking office in lieu of a station. Tickets purchased included the fare for a horse-drawn carriageCarriage
A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...
to the tracks down the hill.
Swindon railway station
Swindon railway station
Swindon railway station is in the town of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The station entrance is on Station Road, to the south of the line.It is approximately from the central bus station and the town centre...
opened in 1842 with construction on the works continuing.
The Railway Village and New Swindon
The factory had to be immediately adjacent to the railway, and it was necessary for the workers to be housed as close as possible to it.As the town of Swindon at that time was over a mile away on top of the hill, a modest Railway Village of 300 homes was proposed in 1841. Building began using stone from Swindon's quarries and also from stone excavated during the boring of Box Tunnel
Box Tunnel
Box Tunnel is a railway tunnel in Western England, between Bath and Chippenham, dug through Box Hill, and is one of the most significant structures on the Great Western Main Line...
, 243 houses were completed by 1853 with the towns population being estimated at over 2,500. All 300 houses were completed by the mid-1860s.
Consequently a new town was built, known as New Swindon. This town would remain both physically and administratively separate from Old Swindon until 1900.
1900-1910 - One Swindon
On January 22, 1900, Queen Victoria signed the charterCharter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
granting Swindon Municipal Borough
Municipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
status, this was enacted 9 November.
The charter amalgamated Old and New Swindon into one town (population 45,006 in 1901), enabling the pooling of resources from two different authorities. This provided enough money to open an electrical power station
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
in 1903 on land bought by the new council at Lower Eastcott Farm (now located in Corporation Street).
Taking advantage of this, trams were introduced in September 1904.
In 1906, the Swindon Tram disaster occurred. A number 11 tram taking passengers from the Bath and West Show
Agricultural show
An agricultural show is a public event showcasing the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show , a trade fair, competitions, and entertainment...
being held in Old Town suffered brake failure driving down Victoria Hill and crashed in Regents Circus killing 5.
The Wilts and Berks Canal
Wilts and Berks Canal
The Wilts & Berks Canal is a canal in the historic counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington, near Melksham, to the River Thames at Abingdon. The North Wilts Canal merged with it to become a branch to the Thames and Severn Canal at Latton near...
continued to fall out of use with the last passing vessel being recorded in this year.
By 1914, the canals had mostly dried up and taken over by council, Coate Water
Coate Water Country Park
Coate Water is a country park situated to the southeast of central Swindon, near Junction 15 of the M4. It takes its name from the main feature, a reservoir originally built to provide water for the Wilts and Berks Canal....
was turned into a pleasure park. No improvements to the canal could be started due to the start of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and it was abandoned.
In 1919, a flagpole war memorial
War memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...
was the impetus for widespread rioting in the town by those who believed it to be disrespectful to the war dead. The flagpole itself was later burned down and was eventually replaced by a wooden cenotaph
Cenotaph
A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion...
. The existing stone cenotaph was introduced in 1920.
This period also saw the completion of the first council housing
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
estate in Pinehurst, on the site of the old Hurst Farm. The houses on the new estate included such luxuries as electric light and bathrooms. Developers had also provided a local shopping centre, post office and even a Community centre
Community centre
Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...
and temporary school.
The Swindon Advertiser and the Wiltshire, Berkshire and Gloucestershire Chronicle were bought by Swindon Press in 1920 and became the Evening Advertiser, now the Swindon Advertiser
Swindon Advertiser
The Swindon Advertiser is a daily tabloid newspaper, published in Swindon. The newspaper was founded in 1854, and had a circulation in 2006 of 22,321....
. The Chronicle is today known as the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald.
Swindon Works
Swindon railway works were built by the Great Western Railway in 1841 in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire.-History:In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol. Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.From 1836, Brunel had been buying...
, with 14,369 people employed in the various factories. And on April 28, 1924, King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
and Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
visited the works to view the trains for themselves, witnessing the work's most famous locomotive in production: Number 6000, King George V
GWR 6000 Class 6000 King George V
thumb|right|6000 King George V at Swindon having just hauled the last King-hauled train from Wolverhampton and Birmingham Snow Hill . Note the bell which was given to the engine when it toured the U.S...
.
Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, last of the Goddard's and Lord of the Manor of Swindon held the post of High Sheriff
High Sheriff
A high sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.In England and Wales, the office is unpaid and partly ceremonial, appointed by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall, the High Sheriff is appointed by the Duke of...
of Wiltshire during this period before his eventual death in 1927. Also, after only 25 years, Swindon's Trams were phased out by bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es in 1929.
1930-1950 - War years
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
in 1931, now Kingshill House, located along Bath Road. Prior to this, the only facilities available were in the crowded Milton Road GWR Medical Fund Hospital.
The 30s also saw more motor cars
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
in private hands, with the town's purpose built car park
Parking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
erected behind the Town Hall
Swindon Town Hall
The current Swindon Town Hall, England was built in the late 19th century to be a centrepiece of New Swindon, powers transferred to it from the Old Town Hall in 1891.The Whole building is currently used by SWINDON DANCE a National Dance Agency...
.
Between 1934 and 1935, expansion began again in the Old Town area. With new houses and estates being built along the Marlborough Road, for sale at £730 each, and also the new Terraced housing estate in Walcot, where a house would cost £450.
With the declaration of war and the onset of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Evacuees
Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II
Evacuation of civilians in Britain during the Second World War was designed to save the population of urban or military areas in the United Kingdom from aerial bombing of cities and military targets such as docks. Civilians, particularly children, were moved to areas thought to be less at risk....
arrived in Swindon in 1939.
Troops were stationed in churches and school halls throughout town with a contingent of British and American forces stationed in The Lawns, leading to the Manor house's eventual dereliction.
Faringdon Road Park had trenches
Trench warfare
Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...
dug under trees and air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelters, also known as bomb shelters, are structures for the protection of the civil population as well as military personnel against enemy attacks from the air...
s added due to its location near to both the Works and the Railway village.
The GWR Works
Swindon Works
Swindon railway works were built by the Great Western Railway in 1841 in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire.-History:In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol. Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.From 1836, Brunel had been buying...
became a war factory which in turn led to Swindon becoming a target for Bombing raids, with the work's hooter used as one of the town's air raid siren
Civil defense siren
A civil defense siren is a mechanical or electronic device for generating sound to...
due to its volume.
The first air raid alerts started in June/July 1940 and Swindon received its first bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
in August. The device fell to the rear of Shrivenham Road and no one hurt. However this good fortune was not to last and in October, bombs on York Road and Roseberry Street produced the Town's first fatalities.
To provide recreation for the wartime community, the town's first public library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
was opened in 1943 in Regent Street with help from the Army. Followed later in 1946 with an arts centre
Arts centre
An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues for musical performance, workshop areas, educational...
, also on Regent Street.
1950-1970 - Modernising, expanding and Wembley
After the war, the influx of new residents to Swindon and the post–World War II baby boom increased the town's population to 68,953 by 1951 and it became clear that more housing was needed. This number was an increase of 13,000 residents since 1921.New estates appeared throughout the 1950s; with Penhill built from 1951, Walcot East in 1956 and then Park North & South.
The beginning of Swindon's association with Car building
Automaker
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....
also began in the 1950s, when Pressed Steel Fisher
Pressed Steel Company
The Pressed Steel Company Limited was a British car body manufacturing company founded at Cowley near Oxford in 1926 as a joint venture between William Morris, the Budd Corporation and an American bank. Today at what was the company's Cowley plant, the BMW new MINI is assembled, this site is...
arrived in the town and built a factory. The factory produced sheet metal pressings and bodywork for a variety of applications, including the Railway, before eventual takeover from Rover
MG Rover Group
MG Rover was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000....
. It is today owned by BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
and provides some facilities to the Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
car factory.
With the influx of new residents to the industrial Swindon, existing medical facilities were over-burdened and a new hospital was proposed. To be sited at Okus, many thought the hospital would be too remote and public transport would be insufficient (incidentally, these are reasons cited for its eventual closure in 2002 and the building of the new Great Western Hospital
Great Western Hospital
Great Western Hospital is a large hospital situated in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, next to junction 15 of the M4 motorway.- Building :The architect was Whicheloe Macfarlane, who designed the hospital with a concrete frame design. Flat slab concrete floors 30 cm deep are supported by a...
).
Princess Margaret laid the foundation stone in 1957 of the Princess Margaret Hospital (abbreviated to PMH), it would not be completed until January 1960.
As Swindon entered the 1960s; the population increase of 22,000 since 1951 brought the total number of residents to 91,775 in 1961.
The new hospital and new residents heralded an era of redevelopment
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
in the town, with the council buying houses around the town centre for 'slum clearance' and transformation into retail units and shops.
For safety, the town centre began pedestrianisation; with vehicle gates placed at Bridge Street, Fleet Street and Regents Street. Originally only closed to traffic from 10am till 5pm on Saturdays, this was expanded to the eventual pedestrianisation of the main shopping area and paving over of the existing roads and canals.
Swindon as a major railway Locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
manufacturer ended in 1962, with work changing to focus on repairs to existing carriages and engines and large portions of the site sold. However, in 1967, the retailer WH Smith moved its book distribution centre to the town, a move designed to take advantage of Swindon's central placing. Other companies followed suit in the 1970s.
Construction began on the M4 motorway
M4 motorway
The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...
in the late 1960s to provide quick and easy access from the region into London, something that Swindon's football club seemed to use as an inspiration, when in 1969 Swindon Town F.C.
Swindon Town F.C.
Swindon Town Football Club are a team based in Swindon, Wiltshire. Currently in League Two, Swindon have been managed by Paolo Di Canio since 23 May 2011...
recorded the most famous result in its history, winning 3-1 in the League Cup
Football League Cup
The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...
Final against Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
at Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
, a match watched by close to 100,000 people.
The football club later added the Anglo-Italian League Cup Winners' Cup to the 1969 honours, beating AS Roma 5-2 over two legs.
1970-1990 - From the Railway to Offices
The M4 motorwayM4 motorway
The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...
opened in 1971, providing Swindon with two motorway junctions (numbers 15 and 16). It was also the year of Decimalisation
Decimalisation
Decimal currency is the term used to describe any currency that is based on one basic unit of currency and a sub-unit which is a power of 10, most commonly 100....
in the United Kingdom, with Decimal Day
Decimal Day
Decimal Day was the day the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies.-Old system:Under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence , with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a...
in February sounding the death knell for the old coinage.
Decimalisation helped to transform the retail stores in Swindon town centre, which was under redevelopment, with smaller family owned stores generally being pushed out of business under the invasion of the large chain store
Chain store
Chain stores are retail outlets that share a brand and central management, and usually have standardized business methods and practices. These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. In retail, dining and many service categories, chain businesses...
s. The development of the town included the erection of the Wyvern Theatre.
It wasn't until 1972 the PMH, Swindon's main hospital at the time, finally had a purpose built Accident & Emergency unit
Emergency department
An emergency department , also known as accident & emergency , emergency room , emergency ward , or casualty department is a medical treatment facility specialising in acute care of patients who present without prior appointment, either by their own means or by ambulance...
created. Up until this time the hospital had been using temporary hut based facilities.
The oil company Burmah Oil
Burmah Oil Company Ltd.
The Burmah Oil Company was a leading British oil business which was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:The company was founded in Glasgow, Scotland in 1886 by David Sime Cargill to develop oil fields in the Indian subcontinent...
built their world Headquarters along Pipers Way in 1972, now owned by Burmah-Castrol
Castrol
Castrol is a brand of industrial and automotive lubricants which is applied to a large range of oils, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications...
.
Adding to Burmah Oil's ingress in the 70s, another large corporation, Hambro Life Assurance
Allied Dunbar
Allied Dunbar was a large British assurance group. In its early years as Hambro Life Assurance it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index...
, established their Headquarters in the town in the 1970s, with offices over the Railway station and over Debenhams in the Shopping area. The name was changed to Allied Hambro in 1984 and Allied Dunbar
Allied Dunbar
Allied Dunbar was a large British assurance group. In its early years as Hambro Life Assurance it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index...
in 1985, before its eventual purchase by Zurich Financial Services
Zurich Financial Services
Zurich Financial Services AG is a major financial services group based in Zurich, Switzerland.-History:The Company was founded in 1872 as subsidiary of the Schweiz Marine Insurance Company under the name Versicherung Verein...
.
Following boundary changes in 1974, the Borough of Swindon became Thamesdown. The new authority oversaw the construction of the Brunel shopping centre in the same year and the 1976 opening of the Oasis leisure centre
Leisure centre
A leisure centre in the UK and Canada is a purpose built building or site, usually owned and operated by the city, borough council or municipal district council, where people go to keep fit or relax through using the facilities.- Typical Facilities :...
. The David Murray John Tower, a landmark dominating the town's skyline, was built as part of the shopping centre construction and is named after the Town Clerk who championed the boundary changes and ultimately - Swindon's regeneration.
The 1980s saw Swindon expand out West, with Toothill and Freshbrook forming the area now known as West Swindon. It was here also that the first out of town shopping centre was built in Swindon, owned by Carrefour
Carrefour
Carrefour S.A. is an international hypermarket chain headquartered in Levallois-Perret, France. It is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world...
it is now an Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
supermarket.
The GWR Works finally closed in 1986, although it was wound down slowly with some employees remaining until 1987. The Wills tobacco factory also closed in 1987, the site now the large Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
store on Ocotal Way.
1990-2000 - Millennium Swindon
Unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national...
, replacing the confusing Thamesdown name.
In 2002 the [New Swindon Company] http://www.newswindon.co.uk was formed with the brief to regenerate the town centre into a dynamic regional centre, reflecting the importance of Swindon in the region and to give the town the centre it deserves
See also
- Borough of Swindon
- Swindon WorksSwindon WorksSwindon railway works were built by the Great Western Railway in 1841 in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire.-History:In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol. Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.From 1836, Brunel had been buying...
- Swindon Steam Railway MuseumSwindon Steam Railway MuseumSTEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway, also known as Swindon Steam Railway Museum, is located at the site of the old railway works in Swindon, England – Wiltshire's 'railway town'...
- History of WiltshireHistory of WiltshireWiltshire is a historic county located in the South West England region. Wiltshire is landlocked and is in the east of the region.-Early history:...
- Goddard familyGoddard familyThe Goddard family were a prominent landed family chiefly living in the northern region of the English counties of Wiltshire and Hampshire and the western part of Berkshire, between the Tudor period and the late modern era....
- History of government in Swindon
External links
- Swindon Collection - Local Studies Library - Holds copies of all local printed books and periodicals, newspaper archives, Census and family history records and historical maps
- Swindon Collection Local Studies Gallery - Free online gallery of photographs, postcards, maps, portraits and other local material
- Historic Swindon video clips, photos and postcards - BBC Wiltshire
- Roman finds - Groundwell Ridge community website
- Groundwell Ridge Villa - English Heritage
- History of Swindon - Swindon Borough Council
- Swindon's Heritage - SwindonWeb
- Newsreel footage of Swindon 1918-1969 - British Pathe