SWINDON
Growth of the Town, p. 106. Manors and Other Estates, p. 119. Agriculture,
p. 124. Trade and Industry, p. 126. Mills, p. 131. Markets and Fairs, p. 132. Local
Government and Public Services, p. 133. Social Life, p. 141. Anglican Churches,
p. 144. Roman Catholicism, p. 151. Protestant Nonconformity, p. 151. Education, p. 159. Charities, p. 166.
Swindon, the largest town in Wiltshire, lies near
the north-eastern boundary of the county. (fn. 1) The
geology of its site has been discussed at length by
W. J. Arkell, (fn. 2) and need only be summarized here.
The site of Old Swindon, the ancient centre of the
parish, is at the eastern side of a hill rising to almost
500 ft. above sea level. (fn. 3) Apart from a small outlier
of Wealden Beds, the summit of the hill, somewhat
over a mile long from east to west, consists of successive exposures of Purbeck and Portland Beds.
Below these beds, round the slopes of the hill,
are narrow exposures of Swindon Clay and Pectinatus Sand. These two formations are more extensively exposed on a ridge about 400 ft. high,
extending south-eastward from Old Swindon to
the borough boundary near Broome Farm. On the
eastern side of this ridge a smaller area of Portland
Beds is exposed, while the ridge is overlaid by con-
siderable areas of Lower Greensand. North and
east of the slopes of Swindon Hill the land drops
more gradually from about 375 ft. to below 300 ft.
near Rodbourne Cheney. Much of New Swindon
is built on Kimmeridge Clay, but in the north of the
borough are Corallian outcrops on which the Pinehurst and Penhill estates are built, and beyond them
the Oxford Clay appears. The River Ray forms the
western boundary of the borough, and a tributary
of the River Cole runs from Coate Reservoir on
the south-eastern boundary through Coate and
Walcot before turning away eastwards.
The ancient parish of Swindon is of an irregular
shape, about three miles from north to south and
the same distance from east to west; it contained
3,136 acres. (fn. 4) Swindon Hill lies near its centre. The
hill was clearly a place of resort for men since Neolithic times, for many scattered finds, including
some burials, have been made there. The earliest
evidence of continuous occupation is from Roman
times. A Roman building near the west end of
Westlecott Road was excavated in 1897. (fn. 5)
Swindon is first mentioned by name in Domesday
Book. (fn. 6) Very little is known of it during the Middle
Ages, but it is probable that the growth of an urban
settlement on the hill is due to the powerful de
Valence family, lords of High Swindon in the
13th century. In 1274 it was said that William de
Valence had been holding a market at Swindon for
15 years, (fn. 7) and in 1289 it was distinguished as
Chipping Swindon. (fn. 8) Later references to burgages, (fn. 9)
and to the town as a 'borough', (fn. 10) suggest that
deliberate steps were taken to foster urban growth,
probably in the 13th century. The name of Newport
Street, first mentioned in 1346, (fn. 11) adds weight to this
supposition. That the attempt was not unsuccessful
may be inferred from 14th-century assessments. In
1334 High Swindon was assessed at 133s. 4d., considerably more than the adjoining rural manors,
and comparable to the assessments of, for instance,
Devizes, Westbury, and Warminster. (fn. 12) In 1377 its
figure of 248 poll-tax payers (fn. 13) indicates more than
a rural manor, and compares with several of the
smaller market towns in the county.
Very little more is known of Swindon until the
17th century, and the only inference from the lack
of references to it must be that it remained a very
small market town of little importance. In 1627 the
constables of Kingsbridge hundred considered that
nine licensed alehouses were too many for a place
which did not contain 300 communicants and was
on no through road. (fn. 14) Somewhat later in the
century, however, Swindon's fortunes took an
upward turn when a quarry of white smooth stone
suitable for paving the insides of houses was found, (fn. 15)
and there is evidence of considerable quarrying
activity in Swindon in the late 17th century. (fn. 16)
Aubrey records the increased prosperity of the
market, dating from the Civil War. (fn. 17) It was in the
17th century, too, that much of the lower land of
the parish was inclosed and converted from arable
to pasture. (fn. 18)
A picture of the parish at the end of the 17th
century is provided by a list of inhabitants made in
1697. (fn. 19) Its population was then 791. Most of the
retail trades and handicrafts of a small country
town were represented and 40 labourers are
recorded. There were also 14 men described as
yeomen and 4 others owning land worth £50 a year.
At least five inns and an alehouse existed. The lord
of the manor, the lay rector, two other members of
the Vilett family, a 'gentleman', the vicar, and two
other clergymen formed the core of the polite
society of the town.
Just over a century later it was the politeness of
society in Swindon which struck John Britton.
'The pleasantness of its situation', he wrote, 'combined with other circumstances, may have induced
many persons of independent fortune to fix their
residence at Swindon; and their mansions contribute
as much to ornament the town as their social intercourse may be said to animate and enliven it.' (fn. 20) He
considered that Swindon had advanced both in
prosperity and in 'liberality of mind' over the past
century, alluding to the savage persecution of nonconformists which had taken place in the 1740s. (fn. 21)
The population had certainly increased, for in 1801
it was 1,198. (fn. 22) The opening of the Wilts. and
Berks. Canal in 1810 and the North Wilts. Canal in
1819 increased the general trade of the town. (fn. 23) The
market and fairs seem to have been well attended (fn. 24)
and the population increased at each census until
it was 1,742 in 1831. (fn. 25) Yet this was a town on the
smallest scale. As telling a reference as any to its
lack of importance occurs in a newspaper of 1798,
when the inhabitants of Wroughton referred to their
village as 'near Marlborough'. (fn. 26) William Morris,
Swindon's first historian, has left a vivid description
of the air of activity which arose in the quiet little
town when a blacksmith bonded a wheel, and of the
sport of backsword-playing for which the town
was noted. (fn. 27)
In 1840 the Great Western Railway Company's
line reached Swindon and almost immediately the
company decided to build its railway works there. (fn. 28)
With this decision a completely new course of
development began for Swindon. The railway works
were built to the north of the line and in 1842 the
first estate of some 300 cottages for employees was
laid out on the southern side. From these beginnings
grew the town of New Swindon which only about
ten years later had, with the hamlet of Eastcott
which it had engulfed, a population of 2,468,
slightly larger than that of the old town. (fn. 29) Nearly a
mile of open country separated the works and the
first housing estate from the town on the hill, but as
the works expanded the intervening land was
hurriedly built over with streets of workers' houses.
Throughout the 19th century, however, Old and
New Swindon remained physically separate and
were under separate authorities from 1864 until
1900. (fn. 30) But by 1900 with the rapid expansion of
New Swindon southwards and the slower growth of
Old Swindon northwards the two towns had
virtually merged on Swindon Hill and their physical
junction was crowned that year by their incorporation into one municipal borough. (fn. 31)
From 1900 until the end of the Second World
War the history of Swindon is one of slowly increasing population, gradual diversification of industry,
and, because of changing standards of housing, of
some outward expansion. After the end of the Second
World War a programme of greatly accelerated
expansion was planned in order to attract new industry to the town and so avoid too great a dependence upon the railway works for employment.
This programme was well under way when in 1952
Swindon became one of the towns approved under
the Town Development Act to receive overspill
population and industry from London. (fn. 32) Thereupon
building and re-development proceeded at such a
pace that by c. 1960 all land suitable for building
within the borough boundary had been covered.
Permission was then given for building beyond the
boundary to the east and here in the early 1960s
housing and industrial estates built by Swindon
Corporation were being laid out.
The following study of the growth of the town is
divided roughly into four periods: before 1840, from
1840 to 1864, from 1864 to 1900, and after 1900.
Growth of the Town.
Little is known of the
topography of Swindon before the 18th century.
Newport Street, first mentioned in 1346, Wood
Street in 1599, High Street in 1645, the principal
streets of the town, (fn. 33) seem to have been fairly continuously built up by 1773. (fn. 34) The topography of the
town and parish can best be studied by a survey of
the town as it was just before the railway came. (fn. 35)
Its centre was High Street, where lived the rather
large number of people in easy circumstances for
which the town was still remarkable in 1838. (fn. 36)
Here too were the principal inns of the town, of
which the 'Goddard Arms' remains little altered, a
late-18th-century building of brick with a long
frontage of nine bays, a Doric porch, and a stonetiled mansard roof. It had replaced a thatched
building called the 'Crown', the history of which
can be traced to the 16th century. (fn. 37) The 'Bell', the
other posting house in Swindon in the early 19th
century, occupies a building with a Victorian
frontage from which hangs a huge metal bell. There
are traces of a galleried upper story in the yard at
the rear and the inn is reputed to date from 1515. (fn. 38)
The former 'King of Prussia', now no. 4 High
Street, (fn. 39) is a low stone building which may be of
17th-century origin. The houses on the west side of
High Street, including the 'Bell' and no. 4, form the
most substantial range of old buildings in the town.
Several, however, have been faced with stucco or
altered by the insertion of shop fronts. No. 2, at the
corner of Wood Street, carries a date tablet of 1708
and until the late 19th century had two gables
facing High Street. Nos. 6 and 8 are late-18thcentury houses retaining their original pedimented
doorways. The rainwater-heads of no. 16 are dated
1631; this is a timber-framed building with a twingabled front in which sash windows have been inserted. Nos. 18 and 20 both date from c. 1700. A
block of six bays near the corner of Newport Street
called Manchester House was of the same period
and had a shell hood over its door. It was demolished
in 1964.
Opening out of the east side of High Street is the
small Market Square. On its south side, where the
town hall now stands, were stables for the horses of
the London stage waggon, with stores above for
cheese and other goods awaiting transit. (fn. 40) In the
centre once stood a small circular market cross on
oaken pillars, which existed in 1662, (fn. 41) but was
removed in 1793. Nearby stood the stocks and
pillory. (fn. 42) On the north side were two stone-tiled
cottages, (fn. 43) replaced in the later 19th century by
John Toomer's corn store. (fn. 44) Next to this stands
Square House, an 18th-century brick building of
two stories with a symmetrical front and an original
doorway; the gable-end of its adjoining outhouse is
surmounted by a weather-cock and has an inserted
Victorian window with Gothic shafts. Set back in its
garden on the east side of the Square stood the
Rectory House, a large brick building of the early
19th century. (fn. 45)
The other principal street of the town, Wood
Street, was colloquially known as Blacksmiths'
Street from the three forges which stood there, or
Windmill Street from the windmill which once
stood on the site of the 'Kings Arms'. About 1840
it contained a number of poor thatched cottages
occupied by labouring people, (fn. 46) but Richard
Jefferies spoke of it as a pleasant street in which
vines were trained against several houses on the
sunny side. (fn. 47) In 1964 two dignified houses of
c. 1800 survived at the west end of the street —
no. 31 and, opposite to it, no. 32. Elsewhere the
frontages had mostly been rebuilt in the later 19th
and 20th centuries. Like Wood Street, Newport
Street was the home of many of the lesser tradesmen
of the town, shoemakers, bakers and the like, but
was reckoned more humble. It was generally called
Bull Street from a public house called the 'Bull'
opposite the present Railway Hotel, and consisted
chiefly of thatched and whitewashed cottages, many
of which survived into the present century. (fn. 48) In
1964 there was no visible work earlier than the 16th
century. At the western end stood the parish lockup, called the 'black hole', removed c. 1853, (fn. 49) while
the Independent chapel, the earliest nonconformist
meeting in Swindon, was built in Newport Street
in 1804. (fn. 50)
Swindon, c.1773
These three streets form three sides of a square of
which the fourth, now called Devizes Road, was
known as Short Hedge. (fn. 51) There were apparently no
houses there in 1773, (fn. 52) and none on the west side in
1811; (fn. 53) by 1828 a few had been built on the east side
and one or two on the west, (fn. 54) and there were 12
houses there in 1841. Some still existed in 1964,
such as no. 13 (Canford House), with a wrought
iron porch, and nos. 15–16, 19–21, smaller houses.
The date 1818 on a house in Britannia Place may
indicate the first growth of this part of the town,
although most houses there are later. This part of
the town was also known as Horse Fair. (fn. 55) Southward from Short Hedge the road to Wroughton ran
through open country, past the old parish workhouse, a brick building which stood at the corner of
the road to the quarries, now Springfield Road. (fn. 56)
Westward a lane to the quarries ran unfenced
through Okus Great Field past a few cottages, while
near the centre of the field stood the pest house
which had been there since at least 1773. (fn. 57) The road
through Wroughton to Beckhampton was turnpiked in 1761–2. (fn. 58)
From High Street southwards the present Marlborough Road was known as Lower Town. There
were a few houses on it as far as its junction with the
lane to the mill; one thatched house still survived in
1964. The 'Bell and Shoulder of Mutton', which was
here in 1830, (fn. 59) was in 1964 housed in an elaborate
brick building of the late 19th century. On to the
south-east the road ran through country, which had
long been inclosed, on its present course past Coate
Water. The main way to Marlborough in 1773 was a
road, now partly lost, running along Marlborough
Lane and thence southwards down the western
boundary of Chiseldon. (fn. 60) The southern part of
Swindon parish, the former manor of Broome, remained largely rural in 1964. Besides the farmhouse the only other houses in this neighbourhood
in 1841 were three or four labourers' cottages and
the house of the keeper of Coate reservoir. (fn. 61)
Immediately east of High Street stood the house
and park of the Goddards; early-19th-century gate
piers and stone walls still flank its approach from
High Street but its two single-storied lodges have
disappeared. The house, known as the Lawn by
1830, was demolished in 1952, (fn. 62) but the grounds,
stretching down the hill to the south and east, have
been retained as an open space. Adjoining the site of
the house on the south are the remains of the old parish
church. (fn. 63) In front of the churchyard was formerly a
pond, while a water-mill stood in the hollow below
until c. 1850. (fn. 64) Eastward from the park to the parish
boundary stretched the inclosed land belonging to
Church and Park Farms, both of which lay at the
edge of the park. Eastward from High Street and
Marlborough Road run three lanes; Mill Lane has a
stone lodge at its western end, and at the park end
three stone cottages with stone-tiled roofs and
hipped dormers, and one larger house of similar
design. The Planks leads from the Square to the site
of the Lawn, named no doubt from the flags which
paved it. (fn. 65) On its south side are the stables which
formerly belonged to the Lawn, a long stone range
dating from the 18th century, and on its north side
the former vicarage now converted to industrial
use. (fn. 66) Dammas Lane, a cul-de-sac, was so named
in 1684 (fn. 67) and contained 19 houses in 1841; few are
left now. The Sanctuary is a small stone house of the
early 19th century; adjoining is the neo-Tudor house
called the Hermitage, described in 1848 as a pretty
residence (fn. 68) and since extended.
The chief road out of the town northwards was
Cricklade Street, or Brock Hill, continuing the line
of High Street. It was turnpiked in 1755–6, (fn. 69) but
even in the early 19th century it remained very
steep, rising at the top to the level of the high pavement behind which Christ Church now stands.
Extra horses were needed to bring up heavy loads.
At the bottom of the hill a stream ran across the
road and formed a water supply for that end of the
town. (fn. 70) In 1773 the road was lined with trees which
remained a feature of this way out of Swindon until
the present century. (fn. 71) Half way down, Brock Hill
was joined by Little London, or Back Lane, a
narrow lane running from the west end of Wood
Street. In 1964 it was largely a neglected backway;
almost the only house remaining was a thatched
cottage near the top end. This and Brock Hill were
in 1841 the poor quarter of the town; in Brock Hill
stood a common lodging house. Yet at the top on
the east side stands no. 42 Cricklade Street, built in
1729, the finest surviving 18th-century house in
Swindon. It was occupied by Robert Harding
(d. 1770) and then by 1773 by Thomas Vilett. (fn. 72)
The front is of five bays and two stories, of brick
with elaborate stone dressings, which include a
central doorway surmounted by a segmental pediment and flanked by pilasters, a Venetian window
above, grotesque masks on the keystones of the
other windows, and broad pilasters at the angles.
The whole is crowned by a wide dentil cornice and
a central pediment flanked by balustraded parapets.
Internally there is a contemporary staircase. Bow
windows on the side walls were added in c. 1800.
Northwards the Cricklade road ran through inclosed ground on its present course, now called
Drove Road. At the north end it crossed the Wilts.
and Berks. Canal at Swindon Wharf, where was the
house of the manager, 'a villa, surpassing the second
and approaching the first class' as Cobbett described
it in 1826. (fn. 73) Beyond the canal the road towards
Stratton St. Margaret turned off; it was turnpiked
in 1757–8. (fn. 74) East of the Cricklade road were only
the two farms at Walcot and one at Swindon Marsh.
The fields of Eastcott manor occupied much of the
lower ground to the north of the town. From the
town the hamlet of Eastcott was reached by a lane
which followed the course of Eastcott Road and
Eastcott Hill. Along this were scattered some twenty
cottages; six thatched cottages in two groups of three
stood on a bank on the side of the entrance to
Crombey Street. (fn. 75) Northwards the road ran between
high stone walls to a small open space on the site of
Regent Circus. On its east side were Upper Eastcott Farm and the manorial pound, and some ten or
a dozen other houses were scattered near at hand;
orchards occupied the area later covered by Regent
Place. Here the ways branched; northwards a lane
followed the course of the southern part of Princes
Street then wound round Cow Lane, now a back way
to the west. At the northern end of Cow Lane was a
swing bridge over the canal, beyond which an unfenced track led along the edges of fields to Lower
Eastcott Farm, on a site occupied in 1964 by the
omnibus depot.
North-westwards from Upper Eastcott another
track ran through fields on the course of Regent
Street, again crossing the canal by a swing bridge, to
the point now the crossing of Bridge and Fleet
streets. Here it met an ancient lane which ran southwestward toward Rushey Platt. This track was in
existence and called 'le flet' in 1600; (fn. 76) it was hedged
for most of its length. Northwards from there a lane
to Rodbourne Cheney ran along the present Park
Lane and Rodbourne Road. Rushey Platt at the
western end of Fleetway was probably the area
called Rushmore in 1657. (fn. 77) It was one of the bogs
which the inhabitants called 'quaring gogs', (fn. 78) and
caused great difficulties when the Wilts. and Berks.
Canal was made across it. (fn. 79) Here were one or two
poor cottages and a turnpike-gate house; in the part
of the parish north-west of Fleetway and the
Wootton Bassett road were the farms at Westcott,
and at North Laines, the site of which is now
occupied by Horace Street, and a cottage near the
parish boundary, whose site is included in the railway yards. South of the Wootton Bassett road stood
a water-mill close to the 'Running Horse', with a
few cottages adjoining, and southwards beyond the
canal Okus Farm lay at the western end of Swindon
Hill. Eastwards from Rushey Platt the road to
Swindon ran up the steep Kingshill, past some half
dozen cottages on the north side, to the western end
of Wood Street. This way out of Swindon was turnpiked in 1757–8. (fn. 80)
The view of the town c. 1840 must be completed
by mentioning its recent suburban growth. Apart
from Croft House, a large villa just east of the
Devizes road built by 1841, this was confined to the
north-west of the town. By 1841 eleven middleclass houses stood in Bath Road, then commonly
called the Sands. One house at least stood there in
1830, (fn. 81) probably Apsley House (now Swindon
Museum), a plain stone house of three bays with a
Greek Doric porch, banded rustication, and acroteria above the parapet. Further west nos. 8–14
Bath Road comprise one detached house and three
double-fronted terrace houses of red brick, dating
from c. 1835; (fn. 82) all have wide eaves and cast-iron
trellis porches of intricate design. Opposite, on the
south side of the road, were no houses, only a high
stone wall and a belt of fir trees. (fn. 83) Just down the hill
Prospect Place was also begun by 1830; (fn. 84) this was
the area known in the mid 20th century as Prospect,
where double-fronted stone houses remained. By
1841 there were 21 houses.
The railway made an impact on Swindon before
it actually arrived. Thus in 1836, when three fields
in Eastcott were offered for sale, the vendors pointed
out that they were bounded by the proposed lines of
the Great Western and Cheltenham and Great
Western Union Railways, and added that since the
important depot for the junction of the lines was
'not unlikely to be actually upon, and must at all
events be very near this property, its future value
was incalculable'. (fn. 85) The works were built on land
which belonged to the Cheltenham Railway just
north of the line, and opened in 1843. (fn. 86) Their
history is traced elsewhere, (fn. 87) and can only be mentioned here as it affected the growth of a new town.
In 1843 the establishment at the works was 423 men
and by 1848 had risen to 1,800. (fn. 88) The company's
decision to provide accommodation was acted upon
immediately and in 1842 it was said that a scheme of
about 300 houses was begun. (fn. 89) To save the company
from capital expenditure the actual building of the
cottages and of permanent station buildings was
undertaken by Messrs. J. & C. Rigby of London who
were to be compensated by the tenants' rents and
a 99-year lease of the profits of the refreshment
room; a ten-minute stop at Swindon was compulsory
until 1895, making the lease very profitable. (fn. 90) The
station buildings were opened in July 1842 and still
existed in 1964. They consist of two three-storied
stone blocks, one on each side of the line, built in a
plain Georgian style. The estate of houses is
thought to have been designed by Sir Matthew
Digby Wyatt, architect of Paddington Station. (fn. 91) It
was laid out on a symmetrical plan about a central
square originally called High Street, later Emlyn
Square. In High Street provision was made for
some half dozen shops. (fn. 92) From it ran four parallel
streets on each side, the southernmost almost on the
line of Fleetway, and the northernmost parallel to
and facing the railway. They were named after
stations on the line; the western ones were Bristol,
Bath, Exeter, and Taunton Streets, and the eastern
ones London, Oxford, Reading, and Faringdon
Streets. Bath Street was changed to Bathampton
Street c. 1902. (fn. 93) Along these streets were built the
stone terraces which still remained in 1964.
Although the individual houses were cramped by
modern standards, some having only one bedroom,
the terraces were attractively designed and sturdily
built of local stone. (fn. 94) In general the style still
followed the Georgian tradition but the facades
facing London Street and Bristol Street were embellished with small gables. Each house had a small
front garden and a yard at the rear containing a
wash-house and a privy; back alleys gave access to
the yards. Facing Emlyn Square a few larger gabled
houses, some incorporating ground-floor shops or
public houses, accommodated the better-paid employees. In the 1850s similar houses were built in
Church Place to mask the western end of the terraces.
A block of houses which later included the G.W.R.
hospital was also added across the south end of
Emlyn Square. (fn. 95) Between London Street and the
railway stood two large villas in extensive grounds
for managers at the works. By 1885 their site had
been taken into the works, as had the company's
school at the western end of Bristol Street. (fn. 96) St.
Mark's Church, opened in 1845, the adjoining
vicarage, and a sports ground on the site of the
Park, bought in 1844, completed the planned
scheme. (fn. 97)
With the expansion of the works mentioned
above, it could hardly be supposed that the original
scheme as laid down in 1841 would be adequate to
house the greatly increased number of employees.
Indeed it is clear that in 1851 the G.W.R. estate
was seriously overcrowded and many houses were
subdivided. (fn. 98) These were ideal conditions for the
speculative builder. The first considerable area of
working-class housing was built on the line of
Fleetway, and was known by its present names of
Westcott Place and Westcott Street. Many of the
long terraces of houses, which in 1964 still lined the
north side of the eastern end of Westcott Place,
must date from the mid 1840s, (fn. 99) while on the south
side, which contains fewer houses of that period, are
two inscribed 'Munn's Cottages 1846'. By 1850 the
group of houses could be described as 'the modern
village of Westcott'. (fn. 100) On the station side of the railway estate development was slower and more
informal. In 1841 it was limited to one beerhouse
standing on the western bank of the North Wilts.
Canal where it went under the railway. (fn. 101) Seven years
later a short row of buildings on both sides of the
canal had grown up there, near what was later the
north end of Bridge Street. (fn. 102) These were distinguished in 1851 as Sheppard's cottages, taking
their name from the owner of the fields in which
they stood. They included inns or beerhouses called
the 'Old Locomotive', the 'Wholesome Barrel', and
the Union Railway Inn. (fn. 103) At the station itself was
the Queen's Arms Inn; (fn. 104) near the Wilts. and Berks.
Canal were some buildings in a close called Little
Medgbury, which included the terrace of 12 houses
called Cetus Buildings, erected c. 1842, and also
probably the Whale beerhouse. (fn. 105) By 1849 also a small
group of houses had been built at the swing bridge
where the lane from Upper Eastcott crossed the
Wilts. and Berks. Canal; it included the Golden
Lion Inn and several cottages adjoining. Another
group lay facing the part of Fleetway later called
Fleet Street. Here was the Locomotive Inn, a building which still survived in 1964, and a Baptist chapel,
built in 1848, beside one or two other houses. (fn. 106)
Finally, standing alone on the track up to Eastcott
was a Primitive Methodist chapel opened in 1849;
'it was like building a chapel on some foreign land,
scarcely a house was near, there was a road through
the field but not a stone was to be seen upon it',
a member later wrote about the present course of
Regent Street. (fn. 107)
Three years later the 1851 census reveals little
change in New Swindon, perhaps a reflection of a
short but severe recession of business at the works
c. 1848–50. (fn. 108) The town in 1851 consisted of Westcott Place and Street, the railway estate, and the
groups of houses adjoining the station, the 'Golden
Lion', the 'Locomotive', the 'Union Railway', and
the 'Whale'. The only significant additions since
1848 were five houses then being built in Fleetway.
Further south a number of houses were built on the
hill up to the old town from Eastcott between 1841
and 1851; they were mostly for working people,
and included a row of eleven houses called Tarrant's
Villas. (fn. 109)
The 1851 census shows that there were some
dozen inns and beerhouses in New Swindon; it was
true, as Jefferies said, that 'publicans discovered
that steel filings make men quite as thirsty as hay
dust'. But although he went on to point out the
higher needs of the mechanics in meat, groceries,
other comforts, and smart clothes, (fn. 110) yet shopkeepers
were at first slower to take advantage of them. By
1851 the population of St. Mark's district, which
included the whole new town and the hamlet of
Eastcott, was 2,468 compared with 2,411 in the
remainder of the parish, yet there were not more
than a dozen shops to serve the larger population. (fn. 111)
This lack led to the formation in 1853 of the New
Swindon Improvement Company and the building
of the Mechanics' Institute with an adjoining
covered market in the middle of the railway estate. (fn. 112)
Even with this, however, the old town remained the
chief shopping centre for some years; a weekly
shopping parade took the inhabitants of New
Swindon up a steep and narrow footpath, across
stiles and through fields and allotments, from the
end of Regent Street to the Castle Inn in Prospect. (fn. 113)
The decade 1851–61 was one of expansion at the
works. (fn. 114) The population of the new town grew by
1,478, (fn. 115) an increase of 67 per cent. The period saw
further provision of housing by the G.W.R.;
£5,000 was allotted for that purpose in 1853–4, (fn. 116)
and it was probably at this time that the original
layout was amended by the addition of houses
facing Church Place and East Street. A company
experiment which failed was the provision of
accommodation for unmarried men in a large
building 'upon the plan of French lodging houses,
to have a common kitchen and common entrance,
with a day and night porter'. (fn. 117) The 'Barracks', as it
was called, still stood in 1964 towards the west end
of Faringdon Road, a large stone building in a
somewhat forbidding Gothic style. It was apparently under construction in 1849, (fn. 118) but not
occupied by 1851. (fn. 119) By 1867 it was derelict, (fn. 120) and
after many years of use as a Methodist chapel (fn. 121) it
was in 1962 opened as a railway museum.
The most important private development in the
new town in this period was the building of houses
along the lane from Eastcott to the end of Fleetway,
and so north to the Union Railway Inn. This is now
the line of Regent and Bridge Streets, but until
c. 1867 the whole street on both sides of the canal
was called Bridge Street. (fn. 122) The fields through which
the lane ran were called Culverys, or Upper and
Lower Harris's Meads. (fn. 123) They were sold in lots in
1854, (fn. 124) and by 1861 the part south of the canal contained some 50 houses. Most were clearly built in
small terraces with names such as Hope Cottages,
Crimea Cottages, Ebenezer Cottages, Alliance
Terrace, Mount Pleasant, and Barnes's Cottages.
York Place, that part of the north side of Regent
Street which faces what became Regent Circus, was
also built. On the corner, about on the site in 1964
of the Post Office, stood the house reckoned to be
the manor-house of Eastcott. (fn. 125) In this part of Bridge
Street also were the 'Rifleman's Arms', the 'Cross
Keys', behind which was the Primitive Methodist
chapel of 1849. (fn. 126) North of the canal were about 50
houses in Waterloo Terrace, Bellwood Place, Alma
Terrace, and Albion Terrace; the last is commemorated in the name of the Albion Club. At the canal
crossing the 'Golden Lion' gave its name to the
swing bridge which crossed the canal there, while
further north were the 'Jolly Sailor' and the 'Foresters' Arms'. Some buildings which must date from
the development of this area still stood in 1964, much
obscured by shop fronts. Running off the northern
part of Bridge Street was Queen Street, laid out by
1855. (fn. 127) The part of Queen Street which adjoins
Fleet Street was then known as Chapel Street, from
the Methodist chapel nearby. By 1861 eight houses
stood in Chapel Street, while in Queen Street
apparently lay the 13 houses of Breeze's Buildings. (fn. 128)
Connected with this growth was some building in
what was beginning to be called Fleet Street. Here
the low terrace opposite the 'Locomotive' is probably
Fleetway Terrace, built by 1861, (fn. 129) and remembered
as a row of private houses with neat gardens in
front. (fn. 130) Some other building of the period survived,
derelict in 1964, between John Street and the line
of the North Wilts. Canal. This growth of the
Bridge Street area, although notable, was still
sporadic, and confined to what were only workmen's
cottages and beerhouses; the street contained only
four small shops, and ran from a farmyard at the
Eastcott end past a brick-field and waste ground
near the canal. (fn. 131)
At the western end of New Swindon a few houses
had been added in Westcott Place; nos. 1–7 Falcon
Terrace must be the western end of the long stone
terrace of which the pedimented Falcon Inn forms
the principal feature. (fn. 132) Adjoining, the 'Wild Deer'
also existed by 1855. (fn. 133) The only other significant
growth in the district had been in Eastcott Lane,
probably in the stretch between the site of the
entrance to North Street and the 'George'. The
latter was built by 1861, while almost opposite, on
the site of the gardens of the houses in Warwick
Road, stood Hay Lane Cottages. (fn. 134) This terrace of
single-storied timber-framed houses took its name
from Hay Lane Wharf in Wroughton, where it was
first put up for G.W.R. workmen employed there
when the line was being built. When the need for it
ended it was apparently sold, and re-erected on this
site. (fn. 135)
Between 1861 and 1871 the G.W.R. works continued to expand owing to the company's policy of
concentration at Swindon. (fn. 136) By 1871 the population
of New Swindon was 7,628, (fn. 137) an increase of 83 per
cent over 1861. Many Welsh families had moved to
the town to work in the rolling mills, and for
their accommodation the stone-fronted terraces at
Cambria Place were built c. 1864, and the small
Welsh Baptist chapel there in 1866. (fn. 138) Other growth
of the early 1860s took place in two areas. On a field
called Road Ground immediately east of the G.W.R.
estate three streets were laid out. At first they were
reckoned as parts of London, Oxford, and Reading
Streets, but in 1870 J. H. Sheppard, who had owned
the field, asked that they should be called Sheppard,
Harding, and John Streets after his names. In fact
John Street was known from the beginning as Henry
Street, probably because John Street south of Fleet
Street was already so named. On Sheppard's estate
might still be seen in 1964 some well-built brick
houses with stone window surrounds and string
courses, having prominent flat hoods on elaborately
shaped brackets over the doors. A few similar houses
still remained in the other estate built at this time.
This consisted of three streets on the south-west
side of Regent Street, called Cromwell Street,
Brunel Street, and Havelock Street (the northeastern part only). (fn. 139) Havelock Street originally consisted of a row of brick cottages standing in a field
in which cattle pastured close to the front and back
doors. (fn. 140) The three streets were adopted by the
Local Board in 1867. (fn. 141) To these developments of
the early 1860s should probably be added some
houses on the east side of Cow Lane. A field here
was bought by John Page in 1863, and on it he must
have built Page Street, which is now the western
part of Beckhampton Street, and perhaps some of
the houses in what became Princes Street as well. (fn. 142)
Boards of Health for Old and New Swindon were
set up in 1864 (fn. 143) and their records provide a more
accurate picture of the growth of Swindon than is
possible earlier, since the boards had to grant permission for new building. (fn. 144) Apart from the addition
of small numbers of houses to streets already existing,
the earliest significant development in New Swindon
which they reveal dates from 1868, when 19 houses
were added to complete Falcon Terrace in Westcott.
A larger scheme was begun in the following year by
the newly-founded Swindon Permanent Building
Society, which bought a field called Great Culvery
on the north-east side of the North Wilts. Canal.
Here were laid out streets called Gloucester, Cheltenham, and Wellington Streets, in which over 200
houses had been built by the time they were adopted
by the board in 1871. (fn. 145) A sale of lands in Eastcott
in 1869 led to the development of two new areas; (fn. 146)
both were on the way to Old Swindon, probably
because of the convenience for its shops and for the
pleasant aspect which the slope of the hill afforded.
On a field south of Upper Eastcott Farm Henry
Marrin and John King laid out Rolleston Street and
Byron Street. On an adjoining field to the south
again the Berkshire Estates Company laid out
Dover Street, Western Street, North Street, Prospect Hill, and the western part of Cross Street. On
these, houses were built intermittently for a number
of years, and the estate was not fully complete in
1885. (fn. 147) Perhaps the chief public work of these years
was the replacement of the old wooden swing bridge
over the Wilts. and Berks. Canal at the 'Golden
Lion', by an iron drawbridge more suitable to the
greatly increased traffic. This had been advocated as
early as 1854, (fn. 148) but was not accomplished until
1870. The establishment of the New Swindon Gas
Company in 1863 with works near the canal off
Queen Street may also be noticed. (fn. 149)
The 1870s saw Swindon little affected by the
national depression of trade, and in fact the works
expanded steadily. Each year the local directory
recorded the addition or extension of shops, including new carriage shops, which replaced managerial
villas and gardens between Bristol Street and the
railway line at this time. (fn. 150) The villas were probably
replaced by others which by 1880 stood north of the
station, (fn. 151) on ground later itself taken into the works.
Other industries began to appear at Swindon as will
be shown below. (fn. 152) The rapid expansion of the town
had given rise to a considerable building industry,
and bricks were made in large works at several
places on the fringes of the new town. (fn. 153) In 1867
Jefferies called New Swindon the Chicago of the
western counties, (fn. 154) and it was indeed the late sixties
and seventies that saw New Swindon change from a
large working-class suburb into a town in its own
right. Almost monthly the local board sanctioned
the alteration of buildings in Bridge Street and
Regent Street to provide for shops, and by 1880 New
Swindon had outstripped the old town in the number of its tradespeople. (fn. 155) In 1881 it was almost four
times as large as its neighbour, and with a population of 17,678 was the largest town in Wiltshire. (fn. 156)
It was in this decade that a factor appeared which
exerted a decisive effect on the development of New
Swindon for a generation to come. This was the fact
that the extensive estates of the Vilett family, which
had become the property of Colonel W. V. Rolleston, (fn. 157) were involved in a Chancery suit, and could
only with difficulty be offered for building by the
trustees. (fn. 158) They almost encircled New Swindon, for
they included much of the land between Old
Swindon and the railway bounded on the west by
Eastcott Hill and the lines of Princes and Corporation Streets, and another large area north of Westcott Place and east of the railway works. The most
serious impediment to the expansion of the new
town was a third area which extended from Faringdon Road across to Eastcott Hill and Rolleston
Street. In these circumstances builders were driven
to lay out streets where they could find land, irrespective of its convenience. What was available on the
east side of the town was taken up early in the decade.
Near the station Haydon Street and Mill Street
(now the west end of Manchester Road) were laid
out by Merrin and King in a field called Great
Breach, and adjoining it on the south the Oxford
Building Society squeezed Carfax, Oriel, Merton,
and Turl Streets into a small and awkwardly shaped
field called Briery Close. Slightly to the east Gooch
Street and the northern part of Gladstone Street
were laid out in a field called Martins, and the Trowbridge Building Society built a road adjoining Cetus
Buildings in a narrow field near the canal called
Medgbury. All these streets were considerably built
up by 1875. It was probably the following year
which saw the building of Princes Street between
the end of Regent Place and the canal, thus reducing
Cow Lane to a backway. Many of the houses, said
to be in Cow Lane at this time, must be the brick
terraces, which in 1964 still faced parts of Princes
Street. Regent Place, demolished by 1964, may also
have belonged to this period.
To the west of the town one small part of the
Rolleston estate was built over by the United Kingdom Land and Building Association in the early
1870s; it included Catherine, Vilett, and Carr
Streets, the east side of Farnsby Street, and the
buildings on the south side of that stretch of Faringdon Road. (fn. 159) In the centre of the town small pieces
of land were used. Holbrook Street, off Bridge Street,
was mostly built in 1872, and College Street, Sanford Street, and Edgware Road are slightly later.
In 1871 a terrace of 15 houses was put up on a
narrow strip of ground between King Street and the
canal. In Eastcott, Swindon Street was added to the
estate at Prospect in 1878, and Carlton Street, off
Wellington Street, is of about the same time. Carlton
and Carfax Streets still preserved in 1964 the shape
of the orchard of Lower Eastcott Farm which lay
between them.
For larger schemes builders had to look further
afield. Beyond the Vilett estate lay the Kingshill
estate of J. H. Sheppard which first came into the
market in 1870. On a large field called Gilbert's Hill
two roads called Dixon and Stafford Streets were
laid out, and the land adjoining them offered in plots
in 1873. Further sales followed in 1877 and 1881, (fn. 160)
but the estate was for some reason not popular, for
the streets were only thinly built in 1885. (fn. 161) Perhaps
the reserve price on the plots was high, for houses
here were more expensive than in most parts of New
Swindon, and included some semi-detached 'villas'.
The more westerly part of Sheppard's estate was also
offered in 1870 and again in 1875, the largest part of
it in one lot of 28 a. The auctioneer, pointing out the
extensive prospect, remarked that 'the fortunate
purchaser who may desire to exchange the busy
scenes and anxieties of commercial life for the more
agreeable pursuits of agriculture may find here an
opportunity of exercising his taste and judgement
in the erection of a suitable residence commensurate
with his views'. (fn. 162) This idyllic future was not to be
realized, for between 1877 and 1880 some 300 houses
were built on parts of the estate, forming the eastern
parts of Albion and William Streets, Redcross
Street (changed to Radnor Street in 1881), Clifton
and Exmouth Streets. One field became the
cemetery, opened in 1881. (fn. 163) Another field adjoining
Kingshill, sold separately, attracted some terrace
builders to the main road there, but the most ambitious scheme on the Sheppard estate proved a
failure. This was an elaborate layout of large villas
in extensive grounds on the Down Field and Quarry
Close, a site later occupied by Ashford and Hythe
Roads; although the lots were offered in 1870 and
1875, (fn. 164) the whole was still vacant in 1885, (fn. 165) perhaps
because of the stipulation that the houses to be built
had to be of the villa type.
It was in the seventies also that New Swindon
began to grow north of the railway. Development
here was prompted no doubt partly by shortage of
building land near the works, but also by the wish
to avoid paying the heavier rates in the local board
district. The beginning of a working-class suburb at
Even Swindon in the parish of Rodbourne Cheney
belongs to the period 1870–5 following sales of lands
there in 1870 and 1871. (fn. 166) In 1874 some houses there
were connected to the New Swindon sewers, and
had to pay a special rate in consequence. They no
doubt lay in William (now Manton), Charles, Thomas,
and Henry (now Hawkins) Streets, east of Rodbourne Lane, and Percy and Morris Streets opposite.
The extra rating presumably made it of little consequence whether the houses were inside or outside
the district boundary and the next streets were built
within it. They were Jennings, Linslade, and Guppy
Streets, accepted by the board in 1875. To the east
the history of Gorse Hill, then in Stratton St.
Margaret, is similar. Where once had only been one
or two houses and a public house called the 'Tabernacle', (fn. 167) grew up Avening, Chapel, Hinton, and
Bright Streets, and long terraces on the west side
of the Cricklade road. Both districts were taken into
the local board area for public health purposes in
1880. (fn. 168)
The lack of bridges over the two canals caused
great inconvenience; the Golden Lion drawbridge
frequently made men late for work when it was up, (fn. 169)
and in 1877 a fixed foot-bridge of the type used on
railways was placed beside it by public subscription.
A year later the local board gave £200 towards
building a drawbridge in Fleet Street to avoid the
detours to the old fixed bridges in Sheppard Street
(Union or Bullen's Bridge), and John Street (Stone
Bridge). The board was, however, unwilling to help
in a scheme to provide a road across part of the
Rolleston estate from the end of Regent Street to
Old Swindon. In spite of this the road was laid out
in 1875 on the course of Victoria Road from Cannon
Street to Byron Street; it became the common
pedestrian way between the towns, and the old footpath to Prospect was closed. (fn. 170) The New Swindon
board again refused to have anything to do with the
scheme in 1884.
Between 1878 and 1887 the G.W.R. works suffered
a severe depression and construction of new shops
ended. Between 1881 and 1891 the population of
New Swindon increased by 9,617 to 27,295. The
increase was, however, largely due to transfers to
the parish of parts of neighbouring parishes. In 1884
Coate, a detached part of Liddington, was added,
and in 1890 Even Swindon and Gorse Hill. The
populations of the last two amounted to over 6,000, (fn. 171)
so that the real increase over the period was comparatively small. In such circumstances building was
bound to slacken off, although fair numbers of
houses were added to streets already begun, chiefly
in the Kingshill and Even Swindon areas. Yet the
western parts of Albion and William Streets, marked
out by 1880, (fn. 172) had no houses in them five years
later. Ashford Street and Hythe Road were also laid
out but without houses in 1885. (fn. 173) During this pause
in the expansion of New Swindon the building trade
in the town was kept busy by the provision of five
schools for the newly-formed school board between
1877 and 1885, St. Paul's Church in 1881, St. John's
in 1883, and, among other nonconformist chapels,
with which the town had always been prolific, the
monumental Baptist building at the top of Regent
Street in 1886. (fn. 174)
Meanwhile the most immediate bar to the further
progress of the town was removed when the Rolleston estate came into the market for building in
1885. (fn. 175) The beginning of the west side of Farnsby
Street in the following year (fn. 176) marked the start of a
building boom such as Swindon had not yet seen.
Between then and 1901 the whole of the centre part
of the Rolleston estate, stretching from Faringdon
Road and Cambria Bridge Road across the fields to
the top end of Regent Street in the east and the
back of Dixon Street in the south, was covered
with streets of closely-built brick terraces. Such
terraces had always been the staple product of New
Swindon builders. Even Commercial Road, the axis
of the whole scheme, contains only two-storied
dwelling-houses which in 1964 had been variously
adapted as shops and offices. At its western end a
market house was built in 1892, and it is said that
it was intended to replace Regent Street as the chief
shopping centre of the town. (fn. 177) Only in its northern
extension, Milton Road, can be seen more pretentious buildings of three stories, but in general the
layout of the whole estate is that of a working-class
suburb. At the eastern end of the estate the top of
Regent Street was remodelled to form the small
square known as Regent Circus, an idea proposed
as early as 1883 and carried out in 1888–9. In the
centre of it the local board built its offices, later
known as the Town Hall. Surprisingly no opportunity was taken to line Regent Circus with large
blocks of shops or offices. In the very centre of the
town and facing its principal building several brick
villas were built, some of which survived in 1964
and were used as offices. Nearby in Regent Street,
another villa of the same period adjoining the
'Rifleman's Arms' was still in 1964 occupied as a
private house.
Swindon. Growth of urban area
The growth of the town in the 1890s was by no
means confined to the area just described. The new
road, called Victoria Road, was made up in 1888,
and considerably built up by 1899. Hunt Street ran
out of it to the bottom of Belle Vue Road; in it are
elaborate brick terraces dated 1895 bearing the
initials of Thomas Turner, a brickmaker, who also
built several villas near his works in Drove Road.
His name is perpetuated in Turner Street, off Westcott Place. The estate containing Ashford, Kent,
Hythe, Maidstone, and Folkstone Roads was almost
complete by 1899, as were the older streets north
of Kingshill. North of Westcott Place the area
between Dean and Birch Streets was built on part
of the Rolleston estate, (fn. 178) while north of the railway
Redcliffe Street was built and additions made to
other streets west of Rodbourne Road. To the east
of the railway works the Eastcott Lodge estate took
its name from a house built c. 1860 in a field north
of the station. (fn. 179) The land fronting Ferndale Road
was for sale in plots as part of the Gorse Hill Farm
estate by 1895, (fn. 180) and by 1900 both that road and
Florence, Whiteman, Poulton, and Beatrice Streets
were considerably built along. South of the railway
the farm track from the Whale Bridge past Lower
Eastcott Farm had been made into Corporation
Street, and east of it several streets were begun,
stretching from Elmina Road to Manchester Road,
partly built, and so to Volta Road. The period of
expansion between 1885 and 1900 was not confined
to dwelling houses; the amenities of the town were
increased in the same period by a new church of
St. Barnabas at Gorse Hill, the town hall and market
house mentioned above, general and isolation hospitals, a theatre, new baths, a recreation ground at
Rodbourne, a sports ground at the County Ground,
electric lighting, and a municipal water works.
The development of Old Swindon in the 60 years
after the coming of the railway may be traced more
briefly. In 1841 the population of the whole parish
was 2,459, but this figure included 500 navvies employed on the railway. Fifty years later the old town
district contained 5,545 inhabitants. (fn. 181) Although the
growth was clearly to be traced to the coming of the
railway, its impetus was not solely derived from the
rise of New Swindon. The inhabitants of the new
town long continued to rely on the old for shopping,
but the influence of Old Swindon spread much
wider before it was engulfed in the growing suburb
below. The days when Swindon people went to
Wootton Bassett to buy groceries (fn. 182) had gone; the
cattle market flourished, and when in 1867 Jefferies
wrote that Swindon had become the emporium of
North Wiltshire and the neighbouring counties, (fn. 183)
and another writer said that its shops were equal to
those of Bath or Cheltenham, (fn. 184) it was the old town
that they meant. The influence of this period of unexampled prosperity can clearly be seen in its streets,
where buildings of the middle decades of the 19th
century outnumber earlier ones. In 1878 it was said
that within a decade almost every place of business
in the town had been rebuilt, enlarged, or improved. (fn. 185) In High Street nos. 10–14 formed the
street frontage of the North Wilts. Brewery. (fn. 186) Nos.
9–11, 14, 24–26, and the 'Bell' frontage all appear to
be of c. 1850–70. Other work of this time may be
seen in Newport Street in the Railway Hotel, and
the premises of Messrs. Rentaset, and in Wood
Street in no. 7, the 'Cross Keys', and the National
Provincial Bank. Wood Street also contains the most
striking Victorian frontage in Swindon, that of the
'King's Arms', which is a three-storied building of
red brick with stone dressings; it has windows with
stilted arches and gothic shafts, a projecting central
chimney supported at first-floor level on similar
shafts, the royal arms in bold relief, and four
gables containing carved roundels. Another impressive building, slightly earlier, is the corn warehouse of John Toomer at the corner of the Square, a
four-storied brick building with wide eaves supported by shaped brackets.
The same period gave Old Swindon its chief
public buildings. Christ Church replaced the small
old parish church in 1851. (fn. 187) About the same time an
assembly room used for public business was added
to the 'Goddard Arms'. (fn. 188) Three years later a market
house was built on the south side of the Square and
the corn exchange adjoining was opened in 1866. (fn. 189)
Swindon's first police station, built in 1852–3 in
Devizes Road, was replaced by the present one in
Eastcott Hill in 1873. (fn. 190) In 1872 the idea of making
Old Swindon a railway town itself was mooted by
the promoters of a line to Marlborough and
Andover. After many delays the line to Marlborough
was opened in 1881 with a station in the old town
just south of Newport Street. The line was joined
to the G.W.R. at Rushey Platt in the following year,
and completed to Andover in 1883. (fn. 191) It was closed
to passenger traffic in 1961. (fn. 192)
But although Old Swindon, with its market,
shops, and banks, retained a certain commercial
pre-eminence over the new town for many years, its
growth was paradoxically connected with its position as a suburb of New Swindon. Something of the
atmosphere of the genteel little town which John
Britton described in 1814 has always clung to Old
Swindon, (fn. 193) and made it socially acceptable as a
dwelling place. In 1850 it was said that what houses
had been built were of a superior class, and that the
tenants, more or less connected with the railway
were a 'well-behaved and intelligent class of
persons'. (fn. 194) It has been pointed out above that even
before the coming of the G.W.R., Old Swindon had
begun to spread slightly to the north-west. This continued to be the principal direction of growth, no
doubt because land was more easily available there,
the park and farms of the Goddards preventing
growth on the other sides. By 1851 Bath Terrace,
facing the end of Victoria Street, and Bath Buildings,
on the west of the north part of Devizes Road, had
been built. (fn. 195) On the opposite side of Devizes Road,
most of the twenty humble cottages of Britannia
Place, which were described as new-built in 1850, (fn. 196)
remained in 1964, and a small terrace of stone houses
on the same side may have been built then too. To
the north two new streets had been built on a small
field west of Little London: Albert Street, which
still contains a few of its original small stone terrace
houses, and Victoria Street, now the southernmost
part of Victoria Road, which was the home of prosperous tradesmen and professional men. (fn. 197) Most of
the long stone terrace on its east side still remained
in 1964. A plaque on one of the houses records that
Richard Jefferies lived here for one year. At the
bottom of these streets Union Row was built, and a
number of houses had been built in Prospect. Here
may be seen a terrace of three houses surmounted by
a large segmental pediment, (fn. 198) no doubt built by
1851. Another addition of the same period, which
still remains, is the pair of suburban houses near the
park entrance in Drove Road, still inscribed with
their original names, Rose Cottage and Woodbine
Cottage. (fn. 199)
The chief growth of the 1850s took place in the
same direction. In 1852 land called the Orchard at
the bottom of Victoria Street was sold, (fn. 200) and the
extension of Victoria Street northwards was probably begun soon after. Adjoining it on the east
another field was sold in 1854, and let in over 120
building plots. (fn. 201) On it Belle Vue Road was laid out
and partly built by 1861; (fn. 202) by then it included Belle
Vue Villas, a few Italianate houses still remaining in
the lower part of the road. Mostly, however, the
road contains terrace houses of varying design, some
with flat hoods over the doors. Some larger houses
probably of the 1850s remain in Devizes Road,
where there are two pairs of stone villas on the east
side, and in Bath Road, near the corner of the
Avenue. (fn. 203) In the 1860s more houses were built in
Bath Road, and north of it Lansdown Road and
King William Street were laid out. (fn. 204) In the same
decade Belle Vue Road and the northern part of
Victoria Street were largely built upon. Union
Street, leading off Victoria Street, was begun c. 1865,
while South Street is slightly later. A curious feature
of the 1860s was the building of a few working class
terraces on waste ground near the quarries; some
may still be seen in Quarry Road, but Trout's Folly,
an insanitary group which caused the local board
much trouble in the 1870s has disappeared. (fn. 205) It
stood near the site of the bowling green in the Town
Gardens. (fn. 206)
In the later 1870s and early 1880s the growth of
Old Swindon northward was prevented by the
Rolleston and Sheppard estates, whose history has
been described above, while the Goddard family
still declined to have its land built upon. Only along
Bath Road was there much building, mainly of villas
and terraces of large houses. (fn. 207) It did, however, share
in the building boom of the end of the century;
Avenue Road was begun in 1890, (fn. 208) while Ripley
and Lethbridge Roads are of about the same time.
By 1900 Goddard Avenue, St. Margaret's Road,
and Winifred Road were laid out and partly built,
and building had just begun on Okus and Westlecott Roads. (fn. 209)
By the end of the 19th century the two towns had
virtually merged and their physical junction was
acknowledged in 1900 by the incorporation of the
whole town into one municipal borough, whose
population the following year was 45,006. (fn. 210) From
that time until the end of the Second World War
the town's population slowly increased. There is
new building of the years before 1914 in many parts
of the town. West of Old Swindon the chief growth
was along Westlecott Road and Belmont Crescent,
and in the northern part of the Mall and Okus Road.
Much of Kingshill Road belongs to this period.
Vacant places in older areas were filled up. Between
Corporation Street and what was now called
County Road the whole of the remaining space
was built over, and encroachments were made on
the area south of the canal with Newcastle, Plymouth, and Portsmouth Streets and York Road.
Not far away Euclid Street and several nearby streets
were begun. North of the railway the settlements at
Even Swindon and Gorse Hill were extended,
especially in the Ferndale Road area. The final
abandonment of the Wilts. and Berks. Canal in 1914
quite soon resulted in a noticeable change in the
appearance of the centre of the town, for the canal
was drained and filled in although its course
remained clearly visible in 1964. (fn. 211)
In the period between the two World Wars the
chief expansion of the town was to the north. The
large corporation housing scheme at Pinehurst was
planned by Sir Raymond Unwin just after 1918,
while to the west the 1920s saw the beginning of
Rodbourne Cheney as a residential suburb. In 1928
the borough boundary was extended to take in the
parts of Stratton St. Margaret and Rodbourne
Cheney in which the new housing lay and at the
same time small parts of Chiseldon, Wroughton,
Lydiard Tregoze, and Lydiard Millicent were
added to Swindon. With the transfer of the land in
Chiseldon the whole of Coate Water was brought
within the borough boundary. (fn. 212) In the 1920s the
remaining area west of Drove Road was built, and
there was much ribbon development here and along
Shrivenham, Marlborough, and Croft Roads. The
1930s saw estates of private houses grow in five
main areas. At Rodbourne Cheney, Churchward
Avenue, Northern Road, and associated roads were
built. Off Cricklade Road areas around Headlands
Grove and Malvern Road were developed. East of
Drove Road the fields of Walcot were first encroached upon by the building of Burford Avenue,
Walcot Road, and several other roads. Off Marlborough Road the estate south of the Lawn was
built and finally some roads were laid out south of
Kingshill Road. This extension of the town accommodated a population growth from 54,920 in 1921
to about 61,000 in 1939. (fn. 213)
After the Second World War besides a general
shortage of housing due to war-time restrictions,
houses were needed for the workers in industries
which had moved to Swindon during the war, and
also for workers in the new industries it was hoped
would come to the town. (fn. 214) In 1952 the need to build
became even greater when Swindon was approved
as one of the towns to be expanded for the reception
of population and industry from the Greater London
area. (fn. 215) It was estimated that, as a result, housing for
some additional 26,000 people would be required,
all, at first, to be built within the borough
boundary. (fn. 216)
To meet the immediate post-war needs some
temporary houses were added to the corporation's
only housing estate at Pinehurst, but this had been
virtually completed in 1925. (fn. 217) Beech Avenue, leading from Pinehurst to Rodbourne Green, and some
associated roads, were also built up with council
houses in the first years after the war. In 1948, however, the corporation bought farms at Rodbourne
Cheney and Moredon, (fn. 218) in the north-west corner of
the borough, and on this land a new estate of some
1,685 houses and 12 shops was built. Post-war
shortages of labour and materials are reflected in
some of the houses where non-traditional materials
and methods of construction were employed. Extensive use was made of the Easiform House, designed
and erected by Messrs. John Laing & Son, Ltd. and
of the Airey House, both built substantially of concrete. Schools for the new estate were opened
between 1952 and 1955, but by 1951 almost all the
land available for housing in this area had been
used.
In 1951 the corporation acquired 250 a. for
another housing estate by the purchase of Penhill
Farm, which lay in Stratton St. Margaret just outside the borough boundary. (fn. 219) Next year the boundary was extended northwards somewhat to bring
all the land acquired within the borough. (fn. 220) At
Penhill use was also made of several types of
partially pre-fabricated houses, but more variety
was introduced than on the Moredon Estate and
as an experiment part of the Penhill Estate was laid
out on Radburn lines. A small community hall, a
branch library, and a parade of shops in Penhill
Drive were designed to provide a focal point for the
estate. St. Peter's Church nearby was consecrated
in 1956 and the Free Church, built by the Congregationalists in 1959, also lies in Penhill Drive.
By 1965 there were just over 2,000 dwellings, including three multi-story blocks of flats, on the
Penhill estate, which occupied the whole of the
northern tip of the borough. Schools for the estate
were opened between 1955 and 1963.
As soon as Swindon became a receiving district
for overspill population from London in 1952, over
1,000 a. were acquired by the corporation for the
next big housing development. (fn. 221) This land was made
up almost entirely of the farmlands of the Goddard
estate, namely of Upper and Lower Walcot Farms,
and of Park, Church, Manor, Coate, and Prince's
Farms. (fn. 222) On it between c. 1954 and c. 1960 nearly
1,500 dwellings were built. While negotiations for
the land were proceeding some houses for overspill
population were built on the newly developed Penhill
estate. But as soon as negotiations were complete
building began on a new estate which was to be
called Walcot East. It was built by the corporation
with a residential density of 45 persons to the acre. (fn. 223)
The need to build quickly and cheaply, which was
felt when this estate was being developed, can be
detected in the appearance of some of its houses and
its lay-out. Walcot East has been criticized for its
small houses in long, somewhat monotonous
terraces and for its 'overwide avenues and aimless
closes'. (fn. 224) Later, however, greater variety was introduced and improvements in design were achieved
where local architects were employed. A block of
flats for more prosperous tenants was included on
this estate, but this experiment was not repeated
on other Swindon housing estates. Building began
at about the same time on the Walcot West estate
which is separated from Walcot East by the Queen's
Drive dual carriage-way (see below). Much of
Walcot West was developed by private enterprise
with a residential density of 35 to the acre. (fn. 225)
The Walcot estates were the first in Swindon to
have fully developed neighbourhood centres. Sussex
Square, designed by the borough architect, is a
paved and arcaded shopping precinct, containing 14
shops with maisonettes above. (fn. 226) A community hall
and a branch library adjoin the precinct, and nearby
are a petrol station and public house, built by
private enterprise. Sussex Square, opened in 1958,
won a Civic Trust award. (fn. 227) In its centre stands a
Sarsen stone, 8 ft. in height, which was found on
the site. The church of St. Andrew, built in 1958,
lies a little to the north-east of the square, but
can be plainly seen from it. The Walcot schools
were opened between 1957 and 1959.
Swindon street plan, c.1945
1. Site of Mill
2. Site of Methodist Ch.
3. Site of Independent Ch.
4. Site of Free Sch.
5. Former Corn Exch. and Town
Hall
6. Former Vicarage Ho.
7. Former Rectory Ho.
8. Former Congreg. Ch.
9. Methodist Ch.
10. Methodist Ch.
11. Baptist Ch., South St.
12. The College, formerly Swindon and N. Wilts. Tech. Inst.
13. Trinity Presbyt. Ch.
14. Holy Rood R. C. Ch.
15. Empire Theatre
16. Town Hall
17. Tabernacle Baptist Ch.
18. Methodist Ch.
19. Congreg. Ch., Sanford St.
20. Golden Lion Bridge
21. Covered Market
22. Baptist Ch., Cambria Pl.
23. Site of G.W.R. Sch.
24. Mechanics' Inst.
25. G.W.R. Hosp.
26. The 'Barracks'
27. Whale Bridge
28. Site of Wharf
Besides the land in Walcot West, an area, known
as the Lawn, lying between the Marlborough road
and Queen's Drive, was handed over by the corporation for private development. Here in the 1950s and
early 1960s such roads as Sandringham Road and
Windsor Road were built up with houses for private
ownership.
Shortly after work on the Walcot East estate was
begun, building began on the remaining land to the
south-east, which was to take Swindon's housing
development right up to the borough's eastern
boundary. Here two estates, Park North and Park
South, were laid out. They are divided from one
another by Whitbourne Avenue and on them 3,670
dwellings, including three multi-story blocks of
flats, were built by the corporation. Park neighbourhood centre, designed by Frederick Gibberd, provides a shopping precinct for both estates, and also a
community hall and a branch library. The precinct
was designed to give an effect of a tightly built-up
urban core. (fn. 228) The Reuben George Hall, opened
within the precinct, in 1956, provides a hall for social
activities. The church of St. John the Baptist, built
in 1957, faces the precinct, and schools for the Park
estates were opened in 1959 and 1960.
While the Penhill estate was being developed on
the north side of the town early in the 1950s, an
industrial estate was being created on 75 a. of land
acquired by the corporation between 1949 and 1951
in the Rodbourne Cheney district to the west. On
this site between 1955 and 1964 some 20 factories
and warehouses were built, either by the corporation
or by the firms concerned. (fn. 229)
Since a large part of Swindon's population was to
live on the estates lying to the east of Drove Road
and the old town, a new direct traffic route to the
centre of the town and beyond to the industries on
its western side became necessary. This was provided in part by the opening in 1953 of Queen's
Drive, a dual carriage-way, running between Marlborough road and Shrivenham and County Roads,
and forming also an eastern by-pass for both the old
and the new towns.
With the plan for the full development of the
Park estates virtually all land within the borough's
boundaries available for large-scale housing schemes
was used up. In 1961 the corporation was authorized
to develop farm-land to the east of the boundary
lying in the parishes of Stratton St. Margaret, Wanborough, Liddington, and Chiseldon. (fn. 230) About 90 a.
of this were allotted for industrial development and
the rest was to be used for housing. In 1965 work
on two housing estates, Covingham and Nythe,
developed by the corporation and private enterprise
respectively, was well advanced and the Greenbridge
and Nythe industrial estates had advanced commensurately. But since they all lie outside the borough
boundary, any further account of them is reserved
for treatment with the parishes in which they are
situated.
As has been shown above, New Swindon, apart
from the G.W.R.'s first housing estate, was developed piecemeal, mostly by local builders in later
19th century. Already by the end of the Second
World War the town, which had grown so quickly
and so haphazardly, lacked any shopping, commercial, or administrative centre suited to its size
and importance. With the enormous industrial and
suburban expansion planned for the post-war years,
the need for a completely remodelled town centre
was obvious. A plan for this was prepared in 1962
and approved subject to certain amendments by the
Government in 1964. (fn. 231) In 1965 there had been much
clearance of the old central area but only a very
small part of the plan had been carried out. Between
1960 and 1964 the site of the former Wilts. and
Berks. Canal on either side of Regent Street was
transformed into a pedestrian shopping precinct as
part of a plan to make all Swindon's central shopping
streets pedestrian ways only. This site was planned
by the borough engineer and surveyor, assisted by
Messrs. Shingler and Risdon, architects to the
property developers, and the corporation's consultant architect, Frederick Gibberd. (fn. 232) In 1965
Fleming Way, a dual carriage-way, also following
the route of the disused canal, and leading from the
Drove Road roundabout to Fleet Street, was opened
as the first section of a proposed inner ring-road to
serve the central shopping area. Many of the streets
of houses to the east and north of Regent Street had
been demolished to make way for car parks and
service roads, and for the public buildings it was
planned to build along Princes Street. On the west
side of this street the Courts of Justice, designed by
the borough architect, were opened in 1965,
and in the same year the first part of a new Post
Office sorting office in Wellington Street came into
use.