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Season of mists Pt II
The leaves are swept off the trees and branches creak and moan as the wind whips across the cemetery on the hill today. But the sun is shining and I'm wrapped up warmly so off we go.This is the final...
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Season of mists Pt III
There has been heavy rainfall over night and underfoot is very damp and slippy. But I have come prepared as today I am taking you to a crowded corner of the cemetery where there are some magnificent...
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Season of mists Pt IV
Let's make an early start on our walk today. The sun is out but the weather forecast is not good.It’s easy to almost miss this magnificent pink granite monument to another railway father and son. Like...
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Season of mists - last day
Sadly we have arrived at the last day of our walk through Radnor Street Cemetery - it's been fun, hasn't it?We conclude by stopping off at the grave of William Chambers.Despite a shortage of readily...
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Looking Down on the Civic Centre in the 1950s
Two buildings in this aerial view of Swindon fifty years ago are testament to the town's continuing record of expansion.Clarence Street School on the corner of Euclid and Clarence Streets was build in...
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Queen's Park
It is difficult to believe that this town centre parkland oasis was once a brown field site. Queen's Park is a twelve acre beauty spot with a Victorian industrial past, the site of builder Thomas...
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Princes Street
Swindon has been a work in progress since Brunel and Gooch sited an engineering works for the maintenance and repair of locomotives here in 1840. Of course the industrial new town grew bigger and was...
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Ghostly goings on at the Clifton
Any old building worth its bricks and mortar should have a spectral presence and the Clifton has long boasted one of its own. Supernatural sightings have included those of a hooded figure, possibly a...
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Apsley House, Bath Road, Swindon
Self portrait of L.S. LowryToday is the 125th anniversary of the birth of artist Laurence Stephen Lowry, famous for painting scenes of industrial landscapes. Swindon has often been described as a...
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The Railway Factory
It was railway engineer Daniel Gooch who identified Swindon as the most suitable site for the much debated principal engine establishment in a letter to Brunel dated September 13, 1840. Isambard...
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Jake the Juggler
Another of the many faces of Town Gardens was on show today where British Slackline Walker Champion, Jake Hirsch-Holland embarked upon a fund raising endurance test. Families on a Saturday walk,...
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The GWR Company Doctors
A Bonfire Night prank led to a tragic accident and swift action from the Great Western Railway's company doctor. George Money Swinhoe had been in the job just 12 days when he was called out to the...
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Looking Down on Moredon in the 1950s
A hundred years ago Moredon was a hamlet in the parish of Rodbourne Cheney. William Loder farmed at Moredon House and Charles Pitman Staight was landlord at the Red Lion. At the time of the 1901...
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Royal Wootton Bassett Field of Remembrance
Veterans, service personnel and members of the public gathered together today for the opening of the Royal Wootton Bassett Field of Remembrance in the walled garden at Lydiard Park.Following the...
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Mary E. Slade
The Swindon Committee for the Provision of Comforts for the Wiltshire Regiment was formed in 1915. Over thirty years later Mary Slade and Kate Handley would still be supporting the soldiers who had...
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William and Ernest Leggett
The Leggett brothers - William (left) Ernest (right)Recent publicity concerning the future of Sanford Street School has highlighted the importance of a roll of honour on display there to former pupils...
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Remembrance Day 2012 at Radnor Street Cemetery
Other writers have said it far better than I ever could - They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the...
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Looking Down on the GWR Works
It is difficult to believe that at the time this aerial photograph was taken in the 1950s, the railway industry was officially in decline.Visiting Swindon Junction in 1840, Brunel and his...
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A Soldier's Life in the Trenches
In this remembrance week it was appropriate that the speaker at the Swindon Society monthly meeting was Steve Williams who gave a talk about a soldier's life in the trenches. Dressed in authentic WWI...
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Looking Down on Regent Street
'There is very little architecture in Swindon and a great deal of building,' John Betjeman famously wrote in 1950. 'But Swindon is more interesting than many towns which are more beautiful,' he also...
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