In which I continue my Swindon pilgrimage ...
I cross busy Bath Road at the traffic lights by the Monkey Puzzle tree and begin my descent down the hill.
Today the former market town has a number of routes down the hill, but back in the day shopping in Old Swindon involved a trek across muddy fields up Eastcott Hill for the housewives in New Swindon.
My regular route is Kingshill Road, considerably easier walking down than climbing up. The Kingshill area is named after the medieval, landowning King family.
The earliest surviving registers for Holy Rood, the original parish church in Old Swindon, contain numerous references to the King family.
'Elinour King widdow' was buried in the churchyard at Holy Rood on March 24, 1681 and her will was published the following year.
Elianour's husband Stephen died in 1667 and at the time of her death 14 years later the couple had four surviving children, sons Henry, Stephen and Bartholomew and a daughter, Mary.
Elinour divided her money between her sons and grandsons but it was her daughter who received the more personal items.
She leaves Mary Coventrie - the wife of Joseph Coventrie - 'one little kittle and one skillatt, one little table board and frame, one pewter platter, three pewter plates and all my waring apparell,' along with seven pounds of good and lawful money. Mary and Elizabeth Tyler, Mary's daughters by her first husband, receive 50 shillings each in their grandmother's will.
What is immediately obvious as you walk along Kingshill Road is the variety of property styles where new building continues until the present day.
Susannah Phillips, a builder and quarry owner, built a property in 1877, although whether it survives today is unknown. A short terrace of houses at the top of the hill with the distinctive terracotta face in the brickwork above the doors and windows are probably the work of Thomas Turner who was in business between 1869 until about 1904 when he left Swindon.
A.J. Colborne submitted an estate plan in 1907 and between 1908 and 1911 built 55 properties. Other building projects were less extensive. In 1912 E Hill built a traphouse and in 1930 Edwin Blake built a shop.
Meet me tomorrow along Wootton Bassett Road which once marked the end of the building to the west of Swindon.
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I cross busy Bath Road at the traffic lights by the Monkey Puzzle tree and begin my descent down the hill.
Today the former market town has a number of routes down the hill, but back in the day shopping in Old Swindon involved a trek across muddy fields up Eastcott Hill for the housewives in New Swindon.
My regular route is Kingshill Road, considerably easier walking down than climbing up. The Kingshill area is named after the medieval, landowning King family.
The earliest surviving registers for Holy Rood, the original parish church in Old Swindon, contain numerous references to the King family.
'Elinour King widdow' was buried in the churchyard at Holy Rood on March 24, 1681 and her will was published the following year.
Elianour's husband Stephen died in 1667 and at the time of her death 14 years later the couple had four surviving children, sons Henry, Stephen and Bartholomew and a daughter, Mary.
Elinour divided her money between her sons and grandsons but it was her daughter who received the more personal items.
She leaves Mary Coventrie - the wife of Joseph Coventrie - 'one little kittle and one skillatt, one little table board and frame, one pewter platter, three pewter plates and all my waring apparell,' along with seven pounds of good and lawful money. Mary and Elizabeth Tyler, Mary's daughters by her first husband, receive 50 shillings each in their grandmother's will.
What is immediately obvious as you walk along Kingshill Road is the variety of property styles where new building continues until the present day.
Susannah Phillips, a builder and quarry owner, built a property in 1877, although whether it survives today is unknown. A short terrace of houses at the top of the hill with the distinctive terracotta face in the brickwork above the doors and windows are probably the work of Thomas Turner who was in business between 1869 until about 1904 when he left Swindon.
A.J. Colborne submitted an estate plan in 1907 and between 1908 and 1911 built 55 properties. Other building projects were less extensive. In 1912 E Hill built a traphouse and in 1930 Edwin Blake built a shop.
Meet me tomorrow along Wootton Bassett Road which once marked the end of the building to the west of Swindon.
