Thetownend.com

Just found this online and my word Swindon has grown/changed in the past 50 years.

http://vimeo.com/4140360

A brilliant find, enjoyed watching that

Enjoyed that, and great music  :dance:

Was that the CG floodlights seen from the top of the college?

That will make for good viewing. Will light up a cohiba on Friday night and nurse a large Laphraiog with a bowl of chipsticks and savour the footage. I really like reminisces like this. Thanks for the link  :popcorn:

Thanks, great find

 What a find....utterly wonderful  :)

 Despite the continued desecration of the Town by the Borough Council, my first thoughts are that many of the best bits picked out in this are just about intact. OK, they may be the playgrounds of flashers, junkies and alkys, but what do expect in the post-Thatcher dystopia?

 Shame that the kiddys paddling pool and fountain at Coate has gone...also the Power Station was rather fine, but they have a finite shelf life, so inevitable.

The train round the loop ...brilliant. Opportunity lost there, for some kind of light railway/tram system to have been developed, rather than complete reliance on roads.

Newport Street, another downside....I was looking at old pics on that Flickr site recently, and essentially it was a quiet rustic back street full of olde thatched buildings with the school and a couple more pubs. Could possibly have been renovted into something interesting, but no, one side was bulldozed for road widening, along with the Mason's Arms which was on the end of the Corn Exchange.

I'm pretty sure what they said used to be the King of Prussia, wasn't, but hey ho.

The floodlights were visible from Lawns, they were built in 1960...remember them going up....well exciting.

Really enjoyed that but it really highlights what a shithole Britain and Swindon has become.
First footage i've seen of a train going along the line of what is now the cycle path to old town. What a disgrace that was killing the railways in the 60's. Also the grass neatly cut and the roads nice and tidy compared the the knee high grass verges, pot holes and litter strewn streets now in the same places.
People dressed smartly and it just looks a decent place to be back then.

If the greedy society we have today 50 years later is progress then I just cannot see how. The standards look to have gone backwards to me from that footage.

have you got the link to the website so I can email it to my dad ?

I imagine the 60's was Thatchers fault as well Arriba :)

hxxp://vimeo.com/4140360

replace xx with tt in the above.

ta

The civic pride that Arriba alludes to in his post, came about because local councils had much more power back then. Hence they could achieve a lot in parks and leisure facilities. Local councils tended to be stuffed with trade unionists and Methodists. The Metodists in particular, wished to see healthy, happy people; children with something to aspire to, as a goal of their Christian faith.

Thatcher hated localism, and started the drive to strip Councils of their power through the notorious rate capping...a process which her accolytes like Gove have been happy to carry on.

This led inexorably to the Poll Tax...where in Thatcher's eyes a duke paid the same as a dustman...as I recall my tax trebled if not quadrupled overnight...simply there was no way I could pay, as was the case with thousands of others. many refuseniks were either threatened with or put in prison, I was quite happy to be a martyr, but fortunately the system collapsed, the Tories saw sense and got rid of Thatcher, before she could completely ruin the country.

The Scots, were used as a guinea pig for this...Cameron may find when he campaigns for retaining the UK, that memories of this will make his job harder.

Victorian Swindon was where it was at.

[url width=488 height=640]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3467/3822226769_d9f981e035_z.jpg[/url]

Extrapolating from what it looked like then to what it looked like in that video to what it looks like now I dread to imagine what sort of dystopian nightmare awaits our descendants 100 years from now.

Flippin heck Reg I was only joking :)

Arriba won't be happy until we've gone 100% communist. Don't know who he'll blame for everything then though.

Enjoyed that....enjoyed that a lot.

The music played was by Gordon Talbot and his Orchestra, well known to the older generation - but was reputedly one of the best dance bands in the UK!

Don't know if you've seen this site Ronnie...

http://www.swindonmusicscene.co.uk/portal/

That's great, love it. Will watch it all the way through when I get time.

Is there a way any of you clever lot can download it/rip it so it can be saved it locally?

Thanks Reg, Gordon Talbot and Johnnie Stiles!!!  We'll never see the likes of them again, mind you, you wouldn't get them in the Vic or the Rolleston would you!!  A lot of the old musicians from my era . . the 70-80's on there!!!

Cant seem to copy that....would love to copy that if anyone has any ideas.

no.

twat

Take no notice arriba....the weekend is on the horizon :D

The repression has started already

:)

Here you go fella, just right click this link and hit "save link as" (it might be labelled something slightly different such as "save target as" if you are not using Chrome)

http://av.vimeo.com/88029/265/1811036.mp4?aksessionid=fe90e5ffa058b85dc13a645f1ec3bc99&token=1365716476_a0e7a48c5852125dae1456c0ef20d177

Great stuff, thanks very much :)

really good stuff how come they never showed Penhill??
As for Penhill
 Reg i am sure the photo of Stadium dogs had Andy Partridge in the photo (penhill Boy) but not mentioned in the photo

Agreed

I'm glad that you liked it.

As Arriba says the saddest thing is the demise of the environment and although this probably comes with the territory in regards to being a large town it is quite shocking to see how buildings have been taken down and green verges and wide roads removed for apparantly no reason.

We have many buildings remaining that are on that video clip and the vast majority of those are in disrepair and dereliction and there is no sign of any improvement.

It's easy to point the finger and lay the the blame at central government for national failings but on a local level this town has been run down to an appauling level because of continous failing local councils which spread over the past 30-40 years.

Good watch, that. Where the train was running up the old Swindon Loop is where I cycle most weekends. Bit odd to actually see it from the same viewpoint when it was functioning.

And was that Reg hosting the opening of the new Queens Park? ;)

Think my grandfather was in that...apparently I look like him.

I once saw a pic of a stone train, on The Loop in about 1970....some years after it closed, but the metals were still there. It was delivering the stone for the construction of the M4. Finding the thing again, has so far eluded me.

What way did the trainline go out of old town to go onto andover?
I presume it went out Evelyn street way due to the bridge but where did it go from there?

Through Broome Manor down to Chiseldon according to this map

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=214165614467799124580.0004c922b0115cb630016&msa=0

I've only ever walked the front of Old Town bit up to Newport Street, where the station used to be apparently.

cheers Pete.

Which is also now all cycle path too, all the way to Marlborough.

You can still see bits of it going down through the Collingbournes, the lines are (or were last year) still in situ at Ludgershall whee the army has a train depot.  Of course going north the line is being preserved at Blunsdon Station, I think it now runs almost up to Mouldon Park and they do hope to get it as far as Cricklade in the other direction.

Up until about I suppose 7 or 8 years ago now, you could walk all the way to South Cerney on the old track bed...not sure what happened at Ciren as never tried it. The Swindon starting end picking up just beyond Mannington, where it got lost before the OT cycle path. The last time I did it though, whereas before the route was doable previously a fucking great housing estate had been dumped on it and the track bed ripped out  >:(   I was coming back from South Cerney.

Couple of years ago went up there to investigate the latest situation having read about the Moulden Hill thing and no evidence of a link.

I've explored the line south of Marlborough....last time I did it again a while back, the bit heading out of Marlborough, was completely overgrown, it was just about followable up to the cutting opposite Granham Farm, but at this point waded into 12 foot high scrub....in the spirit of adventure gave it my best shot, but without a machete impossible.

Marlborough, used to have 2 lines, and so 2 stations, Marlborough Low level, I think was on the M and SWJ, and Marlborough High Level was on the Pewsey main line branch. Confusingly the next stops, were Savernake High and Savernake Low respectively.

There used to a train line in Stratton there was a bridge  next to a shop called the  little shop with a big reputation near the coop on ermin street  that went North to Highworth not sure were the line went after that

Wondered which way the line used to run out to Highworth as I seem to recall a crossing gate on the Blunsdon to Highworth road near to the Stanton Fitzwarren turn, unless a farmer put it there

You can still walk bits of the Highworth Branch out near Stanton. That's another one where, some sort of tram or light railway, could have had a future with a bit of foresight.

You would struggle to find the old Highworth station area now, all housing, but the gate is still there on the Blunsdon road and if you go on up the road and turn left at the Freke Arms you can see where it crossed the Hannington road, an enterprising farmer has reclaimed it on the right hand side as a dump for manure and silage.  You can also follow this line from South Marston industrial estate by taking the old track bed just past Cats Brain Farm (what a wonderful name!) on the Highworth road- by the almost derelict gas pumping station - and walking it across the field and through the woods to the Blunsdon road.  Of course that line can still be seen in Gypsy Lane as it formed the Pressed Steel sidings and I believe it still may be used ocasionally by EMR (formerly Coopers) scrap yard.

Here's a shot from about 4 years ago...think it should link to the site OK.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevekingd1015/3685107896/

Ah up to the old "bunky bridge" spent a few years there as a pre teen.

Another shot of the Highworth Branch....from the wonderfully strange "Man with a stick" Collection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal/7226305602/in/photostream/

What's the story about him, was it some kind of survey or was he just the local nutcase?

I just randomly found a photo of my Great Grandfather from 1914 on this website:
http://www.swindonviewpoint.com/

Great pic in that set of the view from the bridge looking towards what is now BMW, it's just fields!!

Working for Ordnance Survey...doesn't necessarily rule out nutcase mind.

I remember a bridge in Ermin Street....near to where the Kingsdown chippy is now.

Also new houses have just been built where Stratton station stood...Stratton Halt i think it was called.

Stratton had a station on the Highworth Branch...but also Stratton Park Halt on the mainline. This was just off Ermine Street, not far from where it crossed the Oxford Road. Used to go out there as a kid train spotting. It was more or less a trip to the sticks.....no Nythe, no Covingham, Stratton still its separate bits St Margaret, Upper, Lower and Stratton Green.

I've a bit of a collection of old maps, and one of my favourites is a 1925 Swindon 6 inch to the mile sheet. Remarkably, and its something I've never really seen anything about, there were railway sidings right up to the back of Stratton Bank!

This thread has educated me regarding the local train routes. Always like to learn about the towns history.

And me

were did the highworth line run to ?

Highworth Station

Thank goodness my dad knew where to invest, Marlborough Road and Burford Avenue.

Thank god for that

How old are you lee if you don't mind me asking ?

 Found this photo of A Shop OK it's in the 80's, but seems a lot longer ago.  I'd forgotten just how big it was, apparently at one time the biggest single workshop space in the world.

 The small holding in the pic, was still going up til a few years ago, and the last time I was down there, nothing had been built on it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal/8626413583/

Rinse and repeat Troll

That is an extraordinary photo Reg. Shows what a hive of industrial activity our town was back in the day

That is still there at the bottom of Redcliffe Street.

Funnily enough was driving down Ocotal way and noticed the new estate is  called the "Sidings".
Cant remember a railway line being there,thought it was the site of the canal.

There were sidings all down the back end of Colbourne St. Many led into the Wills Factory. I've no idea what the ones running right up to the back of the Bank were for. The line of the Canal, is essentially still there, up to the Stratton St Margaret boundary, but beyond that had already seemingly largely vanished in 1925.

For years, there used to be a small factory called Martyn Lynshaw, at the Boundary Works, just inside Swindon. SSM was considered important enough to have its own proper naming sign on the road at that point.

Martyn Lynshaw...used to advertise on the back of the program, that they made stadium seats...that in the days when most grounds were terraced.

Went down to Andover the other day via Marlborough and the old line is still, complete with sidings and flat bed railway wagons, active at Ludgershall.  The road to Andover past Ludgershall runs parallel to the line for some distance.

Remember going to functions in the old Wills club in the 70's, parking on site and walking scross the lines to gain access.  Wouldn't be allowed now, the old h&s would have something to say about that!!

That is unusual, my dad went to Andover via an overnight stop in Marlborough the other day, maybe same business.

You mention "Boundary works" and that rings a bell.Was it  between Marshgate and the Brown + Knight canning factory?

Right by where the path ran up to the footbridge across railway...the entrance the A Ground, was there as well. Marshgate where you had Coopers, was over the other side of the road.

Know where you mean now,think Mike Knight tyres used the building in later years.
Clarke bros (builders) was next door then Bamptons?

Talking of Coopers, any old Walcott boys & girls remember the four squares?

The M4 south of the town ran into difficulties over soft ground, hence the reason the old line was press ganged into delivering stone. They had to reinstate the run around loop at the Town station. That station was my playground in the late '50s, and to this day I can recall the wonderful aroma of beer and baccy coming from the station bar which kept open after the station closed - the locals called it the Ghost Train, and it was out of bounds to us young whippersnappers.

It was strange seeing that film, featuring as it did not only the road I was born in but the road I lived in all my early life. Road, as in a house in those roads before the sarky comments.

Newport Street was not a quiet backwater in my memory. It was still the main road to the south / A4, particularly busy on market day. The pub at the bottom was the Shoulder of Mutton, very lively on market days. I watched the old school etc being pulled down. Exciting as a kid, not knowing the damage it was doing to the old town though.

Not sure it's been mentioned however a wonderful website about the 'other' railway is www.swindonsotherrailway.co.uk. Oh  and the cameraman I seem to recall from somewhere - Eric Arman. Maybe I knew his son?

 :) so presumably...the same soft ground, that a load of houses are being built on now.

I recall it being the Bell and Shoulder of Mutton...what an ace name for a pub. With the Bell must have confused a few. Very sad day when it went...if it couldn't have staayed a pub at least te building should have been kept, like the Frome Hotel.

That's it...and also Isis, were in the next door building....our first shirt sponsors.

My father's family lived down the bottom of Hayden Wick opposite a working men's club if I remember..Although moving to Hagbourne Berkshire in 1910 our family name was Wheeler..we had family (I was told large) of the surname of Nipress. Never ever knew any of them...does anyone know any people of that name. 
Also remember having an uncle called Tom Turtle in Rodborne...fuck he would be 136 now...soapy tit wank.


   

My great aunt was a nipress. My nans sister who was married to Cyril nipress. They lived in Northampton street and died in the early to mid 90s

Interesting...I am lead to believe there were over ten and possibly nearer to fourteen brothers and sisters that my grand mother had named Nipress. She died many many years ago as my father was born in 1912. That said only knew one aunt possibly 2nd cousin who was called Alice and she was married to John Muzonawick (spelling questionable)worked at the railway works. They had a son called Tony who supported Town mostly for the fighting if I remember;D.They moved to Southampton in the early 70"s.

Don't really know what this has to do with Swindon in the 60's  ;D

Can remember a taxi driver with the surname of Nipress.
Think he used to drive for Tramps,would have been in the  early 90s -sound bloke.

No but can remember the smell from the offal heaps on a summers day ,courtesy of Coopers farm services. :no:

I remember broken biscuits at Dairyfresh.
I reamember Brays fish and chips in Gorse Hill.
I Remember the Tartan Cafe in Commercial Road.
I remember Nottons in County Road.
I remember Borthwicks at Greenbridge.
I remember the Auctions at the Planks.
I remember the Toffee Apple man.
I remember the sleigh parade round the streets at Xmas.
I remember the old market...dark and dingy.
I remember the revolving bar in the Brunel Romms.
I remember the Ampitheatre in the Brunel Rooms.
I remember the Ring cafe at Cafe.
I remember the Reuben George Hall disco.
I remember the Cock Robin.
I remember the Piccadilly.
I remember Bon Marche.
I remember Bejams.
I remember Seymour Clinic.
I remember Rimes Coaches.
I remember Scarrotts the fair.
I remember Edwards the Fair.
I remember Kempsters.
I remember Brians the hairdressers(Ferndale Road)
I remember Pedro's the tattooist.
I remember Dewhurst.
I remember Macfisheries.
I remember Grays the Bakers.

Probably loads more i can't remember.

I looked at that & saw the now & then section. The part that was about the queens visit ( before she was queen ) was to my father in laws parents house.

http://www.swindonviewpoint.com/content/akers-way-moredon-princess-elizabeths-visit-1950 (http://www.swindonviewpoint.com/content/akers-way-moredon-princess-elizabeths-visit-1950)

Wasnt the Tartan cafe on Curtis st? . . oh and you forgot to mention Harry Lunns fish bar and Terry Warners sports shop,both on Commercial rd iirc.
Oh not forgetting Sunday lunchtime upstairs at the Grapes  ;)

I done an apprenticeship with Dewhurst, i qualified then got made redundant at the age of 18.

You got the chop.

badumtish.

There might have been a vacancy but jutty didn't fillet

I do. We were told as kids that they were bottomless and  we were scared stiff of falling in!
Also remember the stench from Coopers.

Was talking to a forest fan in the hobgoblin in bath yesterday. He lived in swindon in the 90s for a year and was actually saying he loved it here. He did say he was sad at the decline of the place since. Makes a change to the usual slating by all and sundry.