Thetownend.com

I have been rooting around the family tree as my daughter has to do some homework on it.

I have an uncle who has been researching our family for years, and has got back between 14 to 16 generations for both my parents' families.

My wife was born in Birmingham - I was surprised to see that she is only the third person to marry into the family from outside Wiltshire since 1650!

How Wiltshire are you?

(I am off to trim the webbing from between my 12 toes now!)

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Half Bosnian, half English. And the English side is a mix of Gloucestershire and the North East.

We  have Gloucestershire, German, Danish, Swedish, Guernsey, Irish relatives but not as far as I am aware any from  Wiltshire (except son #2).

Was born and spent my early years in Nottingham, my wife was born in Essex ( and blonde ! ) but through different circumstances both ended up living in Wiltshire. Now have our own family who will continue the name in this part of the country. We call Wiltshire the gateway to the south west and have always enjoyed living hear.

Me and my parents were all born in leicester, but moved to swindon 'cause my dad got a job down here.

Interestingly (but not really) my nans mum was one of the first romany gypsys to move to this country

Mother hails from Forest Hill and father from Newton Abbot.

Grandparents hail from Exeter, Bromle, Bedford and Canterbury.

So none.

Born in Somerset,Dad Somerset, Mum Dorset

West Country la la la

mum has always lived in swindon so has my dad, fathers grand parents moved from cork to swindon before the 1st world war not exactly sure when though.

mums family are from europe ive heard france maybe germany and that was because of the war.

the missis fathers side of the family are from poland also moved here because of the war. her mothers side have always lived in swindon

both parents born and raised in swindon, but my dad outside of wilts but english and rest of my mums family all northern irish.

We moved here when I was a kid, but a distant relative (great, great, great grandmother or something similar) lived in Stratton. My dad is in to genealogy and I think he's found a few distant relatives descended from the same ancestor that live here still.

My mum and dad's families all come from Devon, although I was born in Germany.

I only lived in Swindon for a few years in the late 80's, but my son is Swindon born and bred.

My mothers side is Swindon. Grandad was from Rodbourne and a Railwayman and Gran from Stratton. Dad's side is a bit of a mystery because Grandad was bought up in Barnardos and Gran was from London.

My mum and dad met at the Moonrakers Pub. 

I can't be the only proper moonraker on here, can I?

Don't fret wiggy, I too have six fingers and toes. As far as i'm aware my great-grandparents are all from West Wiltshire, specifically Keevil, Steeple Ashton and Trowbridge.

I was born in Swindon, my Dad, Grandad, Great-Grandad were all born in South Marston.
My mum was born in Surrey and is of Irish descent.

Snap. Must have been a bit of a pulling parlour back in the day.

My dad and grandad and his dad (at least) lived in Rodbourne and also both railwaymen. My mum, while born in West Brom moved to Wroughton at a very young age. I was born in the PMH and lived in Stratton with parents until i was 9 when the railway works shut. Have lived in the land of the plastics (Reading) ever since.

Born in PMH, lived in Cricklade till I moved to Wokingham.

I think we got back to 6 generations of my dads family in and around Cricklade before we gave up.

I'm from Calne so no one is more Wiltshire than me :). (well, I'm half Wiltshire half Devon with a splash of Scottish and Irish in the mix).

Mum's family are Wiltshire, Dad's family Hampshire.

So about half.

I was born in Swindon, as was my mother, my grandfather, and my great grandfather.

My great great grandfather was born in Shrewton in Wiltshire but moved to Bristol with his job on the Great Western Railways hence moving to Swindon later in his life.

Previous to that all of my family were Wiltshire born back to the 1600 and before then.

The rest of my family, my mums mother and both the grandparents on my fathers side are from Lydney in the Forest of Dean and they go back to the mid 1800s there.

So I am 1/4 pure Wiltshire and 3/4 Forester.

My grandad was from Sunderland and ended up in Swindon via Hull. My Gran was Wiltshire but her parents were Irish (they owned Keogh Brothers shop in town). Both my other grandparents were Wilshire born and bred - my grandma was from Purton.
 
My mum, dad, sister and I were all born in Swindon however my twins were born in Chichester.

Go back a few generations and I'm South Yorkshire, Reading/N Hampshire, London and South Wales.  A proper mongrel...and not a trace of Wiltshire (so far as I'm aware.)

Dad is from devizes, old dear is from kent

Old dears born in Maidenhead, grandparents a mixture of Maidenhead and Hillingdon.

I was born in Reading, lived in Wokingham most of my life.

None for me!

All this does rather put the 'inbred' tag to bed, doesn't it.  Plenty of gene pool mobility among our fans so far as I can see!

My fathers side, goes back to 1805, from South Wiltshire. Previously they were in Somerset.
Mothers side, goes back to 1830's in Guernsey, (She was evacuated in the war), formerly from Devon where they owned half the county & were disinherited by foul means (Allegedly).
I condider myself 100% Wiltshire though as I was born Salisbury, lived until 1966 near Trowbridge & from then Near Chippenham.

Great grandfather, grandfather, grandmother, father, me and my son all Wiltshire. The last three born in Swindon.
Grandfather, Grandmother and Mother born in the East End of London, so could be from anywhere.

Mixture of Scotland and Humberside through my mother's side, Ireland and Oxfordshire (well Berkshire at the time) through the old man's. No Wiltshire at all as far as I know.

How the hell did you end up supporting Swindon Nick?

Juddie is a glory hunter  ;D

Mums family is from Kent/Middlesex, my Dads side is all Gloucestershire but I was born at PMH and live in Highworth... So I guess the answer is "a bit".

Interesting reading,i was born in Southampton but brought up in Wilts.
I was brought up in care and wondered for years where my family was from.
I tracked down my dad...and all his family are Hampshire folk for generations,my mums side i have tracked back to the 16th century and were all Wiltshire Agricultural people living around Salisbury area....interesting Fovant where many worked was an important place in years gone by was a very important town and a big meeting place for Wiltshire farmers and traders...just a small place now.
I am still finding people from the past,so in short i feel a Wiltshire worthy...and proud of it.

Dads side are mainly Southwick and Chippenham born

Mums side are mainly Yatton Keynell and Castle Combe born

We've not done the official tracing but there's no links outside Wiltshire for 150+ years.


100%

My dads family are Swindon born & breed for 3 generations & my mum was born in London and moved to Swindon at the age of 3 and has lived here ever since, me & all of my brothers & sister are all pmh born, so i would call us Swindonians.

Both my parents are from the east-end, both familes are cockney's back to my great-grandparents.

I've lived in Hampshire all my life and as a result i'm pretty much the only bloke in my family who isn't either a Hammers or Orient fan.

My great grandfather moved here when he signed for Swindon town as their goalkeeper.  

My grandmother was born in The Castle Hotel in Prospect Place

My Mum was born in Kingshill house

I was born at RAF Wroughton

Have noticed that a lot of people only start to look into their family history when they become middle aged, not that many youngsters take much interest in this sort of thing. I suppose if your younger a lot of your older family members like grand dads are still around to ask so would make much more sense to find out as much as you can from as many family members whilst your still able too. I wish I had done that.

who was he ??

Bob Menham...

I didn't think I had any Wiltshire in me as I was born in Bath and my parents were born in Bath. Anyway, I found out last weekend that both my great grandparents (on my dad's side) came from Wiltshire. They moved to Wales to find work in the mines in 1905.

I was born in Oxford  :ohmy:

Dad is from Wantage, mum from North Oxfordshire.

Excellent - my grandad was transfered here as well.

who's he

Danny Bew - http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/Person.asp?PersonID=BEWDANNY

born in Worcester! Mums from Worcestershire dads from Somerset lived in Wiltshire since the age of four

The only person in my family born in Swindon is my little brother.

I was born in Wilts but none of my parents or grandparents were.

I had relos in Yatton Keynell.

Mother's side were all Wiltshire.....father's lot all Dorset,  around Dorchester and Cerne Abbas ( think we may have been a template for the giant  :) )

Then Dorset grandfather met grandmother who was one of the Hullavington lot....father born in Somerset,  but grandfather moved up to do union work in the railways.

One or two of these  branches if not getting killed in wars, made it as far away as Gloucestershire, or Hampshire.

Proper yokel me...

All of my Dad's side come from Devon, Mums side is from London, so no Wiltshire at all in me.

I was born in PMH,  the old man was born in Wroughton and the old dear was born in Old Town. Both Grandparents on me mum's side were born in Swindon, and the old mans mum was also born in Wroughton.

The only fly in the ointment was my old man's dad who was a Pakistani. ( Not really, he was scottish which is almost as bad!)

Pretty much 100% Wiltshire me.

Both my parents were Kerry born and bred - we go back hundreds of years around Castleisland. I was born in Swindon - the old hospital before PMH - Victoria?? My eldest daugher was born in Slave Trade Central but is Town and my two youngest were born at PMH. I think I may be starting a dynasty in Swindon. 

Born and bred in Oxfordshire. Mum from Gloucs, dad from Reading.

So although I've got no wiltshire in me to speak of, I do quite like roundabouts and not getting behind the team.

Is it true that Kerrymen are the butt of jokes for people living in Ireland Chalkies?

Yes. I was up in Donegal and there was a wake in the pub and the jokes about the Kerrymen were flying around. I told the guy my parents were from Kerry and he just said "you've proved my point", bought me a beer and told a few more jokes.
Half Kerry and half Swindon is not seen by many as a very good mix but I'm proud of it

 :D

The only wiltshire person in my family is my younger brother...the rest of us are from up't North (although granted I am 22 and I have lived here for 21+ years so I think I am vertually a Swindonian)

I wasn't born in Wiltshire and neither were any of my family. Haven't done any of the family history stuff yet but off the top of my head, my Dad's side of the family comes from the north-east, even though he was born in Blackpool, whilst my mum's side are mostly Yorkshire

You have to have three generations in the cemetary before you become local. Think on mongrels. :-) :soapy tit wank:

Mum's side of the family are Welsh, my Dad's from Kent/Yorkshire. I was born in Kent but moved to Swindon when I was a couple of years old.

Only family member born in Wiltshire is my brother.

So nope, not at all.

Never lived in Wiltshire - I and both my parents are Gloucestershire born.

However, have traced my dad's side (and my family name) back another 6 generations; all living around Highworth area so I can probably claim to have a good Wiltshire heritage, though supporting STFC is the only remnant

Have also found ancestors on my mum's side from Brinkworth and Colerne so a bit more Wiltshire there but more coincidental to supporting STFC

When I started this I thought there would be loads of replies with similar families to myself, but only a couple of others have had families as static as mine.

Makes me wonder why any of you support Swindon really. When we regularly bang on about supporting your home team, that must be a fairly wide choice for some of you, yet you choose STFC.

Any psychology/sociology students out there willing to offer an explanation?

 :bandwagon:

Wigster,  you'll probably find the fans that have more Wiltshire heritage come from the smaller market towns and villages.

Almost certainly.  You've only got to look at a map of Swindon and compare it with a map from 50 or 100 years ago to see why most on here are outsiders.  Growth has been practically exponential...and significantly faster than surrounding towns/cities.

It's an immigrant town.  (Ironside will love that.)  ;)

I'm not a qualified psycologist, however I'd say we are all fucking stupid!

Not very.

Dad Kidlington, Mum Plymouth, Born in PMH, grew up in Bassett, now live in the middle of the triangle formed by Bedford, Luton and Hitchin.

A couple of old threads (that keep getting resurrected every now & then) have the answers to your question:

Where & why? (http://thetownend.com/index.php/topic,27402.0.html)

Why do you support Swindon Town? (http://thetownend.com/index.php/topic,35492.0.html)

For most, it seems it's not a blood line thing.  It was more that people just happened to have some kind of connection to Swindon at the time they caught the football bug.

My dads sides are all massive Calneys!
My mum however grew up in Singapore & lived all over the world as her dad was in the RAF

Dont know my dads side as they split up when I was one and never had any contact.  Mums side back to great grandmother come from compton basset and calne.  I lived over the border in carterton and witney for maybe 4 years (clearly an error on my mothers part).  Then moved back to Nam.  My stepdads side of the family are chippenham through and through. 

Moved away as a growed up from 95 - 2005 to Leicester, Northampton and London.  Now Im back and the accent is returning.   

Tee hee your a Calney too!!!

Well, lived with My gran in a flat in stokes croft on and off.  Thats before I was even at school so I wasnt too damaged by it!

I was born in Devizes, grew up in Bromham (where my Dad still lives, ironically in the house in which my Gran was born), went to school in Calne.

Virtually all the family going back donkeys years are/were from Wiltshire.

So I guess the answer to the original question is......... Very Wiltshire, not very Swindon

My Mum moved over from Italy to the UK when she was three. First to Chesterfield then Wolverhampton, then Swindon when she was about nine.

Dad came over when he was in his twenties, met my Mum in Swindon, married, moved over to Germany for two years, had my sister and then came back to Swindon in 1985. I was born at PMH in 1987. Lived on County Road until I was nine, so as a kid grew up right next to the football club. My first game was in 1994.

So to answer the question, only me!

My dad grew up in Singapore for a bit as my grandad was in the marines out there.

How funny! I live in Bromham & GK Nash the delightful stokes croft area is where I grew up!

My gran (on my dad's side) was a Hawkstreet Amor - so I still have loads of 2nd cousins down there.

I went for a drive round Calne (weird I know,but when you have a child who wont sleep unless she's in a car, even Calne seems like a nice drive) and couldnt find stokes croft.  Has It been flattened?

Kind of - all the houses got concrete cancer so they knocked some of them down and built weird wooden style 2 storey flats
I grew up in Dixon Way!

Old maps of Wiltshire indicate that the Wokingham triangle used to be part of Wiltshire !

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London baby then grew up in stroud and fell in love with the Town when my dad took me as an 8 year old kid.
It was a luck escape as he we had no loyalty to any team in the area at the time (apart from wimbledon) and my old man thought it was too far to drive to Bristol

Quite a lot of Wiltshire in one branch... Dad, grandad and mutilple generations back to early 1700's (as far as I've got) are all Collingbourne.
Gran on my Dads side is London
Grandparents on Mums side are from oop north, Hull I think.
I feel more Wiltshire than anything else!

My mother in laws maiden name was Collingbourne.  Her family is pure wiltshire farming.

Chances are my old chaps lot worked for your Mother in laws lot then as they seem to be pure Wiltshire 'agricultural labourers'!  :)

Which part of Bromham do you live in?

My old man lives down St Ediths Marsh, I used to live in Highfield.

Ps.  I'm not a stalker honest

Born in West Oxfordshire and lived there for 24 years. My father was born in Co. Waterford then moved to West Oxfordshire where he's remained ever since. My mother was born in Norfolk but grew up in West Oxfordshire (are you noticing a pattern yet?) and has remained there ever since.

I support Town because my Dad started to watch Swindon many years ago when O*ford were still in their rightful place in non-league.

Indeed...there were 2 enclaves of Wiltshire near Reading, one around Spencer's Wood, and one around Twyford....I'm adamant about this.

what happened??? :hmmm:

I live in Horsepool but moving to Sandridge common soon

My Mum is from Bassett and my Dad's from Liverpool. Grandad from Preston and Nan from London. I was born in Swindon now living in Blackpool, coming down to Swindon to see my Dad every now and then, mainly for footy.

Would be nice if this is true. I'm in Woodley and have received a battering from Reading mates for many many years. With Twyford being about 2 miles from Woodley please tell me that it used to be in Wiltshire Reg. Don't suppose you have any maps/evidence of this do you?

These Wiltshire enclaves must be the reason we seem to have a fair few fans in & around Reading (!)  As it happens, my grandfather (who moved to Hurst when he was 4 from South Yorkshire and lived in the Reading area for much of the next 80+ years) learned to fly at Woodley Aerodrome before joining up in 1938.  He got called in to action in the Battle of Britain not long after.

Plenty of info about the Wiltshire enclaves on the web.  For example:

http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getconcise.php?id=199

Apart from Victorian and later tinkering, Wiltshire’s external border remains largely as it was in Saxon times, and in many places follows well-defined natural features. Where it adjoins Berkshire, however, the boundary is less clear-cut. Not only were territories such as Shalbourne and Hungerford divided by it, but there were also several places (including Hurst, Shinfield, Swallowfield and Wokingham), now wholly in Berkshire, which until 1844 had enclaves landlocked by Berkshire but regarded as parts of Wiltshire. These anomalies suggest that Berkshire and Wiltshire, or parts of them, were once regarded as a single unit of secular government (just as together they formed a diocese centred on Ramsbury), and that the line of the boundary when drawn between them in the later Saxon period was dictated by tenurial rather than political or military considerations.

Cheers Ardiles. Would be nice to think that for all these years i've been living in a part that used to be part of Wiltshire.

I was born and raised in Swindon, but my father is from Ballycastle, Northern Ireland and my mother is from Chobham in Surrey.

How Wiltshire does that make me? 100%? 0%?

Nouveau Wiltshire

Who knew? I wish I'd known this at school : - (

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_Pages/ENG_pages/wil.htm

The thing that stands out on the early maps is how places such as Cricklade,Calne,Marlborough and even Highworth and Bassett are bigger places than Swindon,and as Ardilles says Hungerford has always been right on the line as seen on all the maps.

Incidently it is believed the Wilts in Wiltshire is derived from Wilton(near Salisbury)which was the ancient county town of Wiltshire,in fact Wiltonia was a very old county area around Salisbury and Stonehenge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilton,_Wiltshire

Once known as Wiltunscire it is strange to think that this little place now was once the bedrock of todays Wiltshire.
Incidently my Aunty Betty lives on Wilton High Street and she comes from the branch of my family that have farmed around Wiltshire,mainly Salisbury,Fovant and Heytesbury since at least the 1690,s

Another enclave-dweller here! Grew up in Melksham, spent 25 years in Ealing then 10 years in Hurst, just down the road from the Winnersh Triangle.

I'm half Swindon, half Bristol.  The Swindon side I don't know beyond my old man as he never knew anything about his Dad.  The Bristol side are Bristol through and through.  So I'm very West Country.

Leefer - you are the font of all, cheers for this - made great reading.

Just a shame you can't get close up to some of the maps where even the zoom dosn't help.

I think alot of the old confusion was that Hurst and a few surrounding areas were owned so was part of the Amesbury Hundred which was in Wilts...even though it was in Berkshire,sort of shown in this link.

http://www.berksfhs.org.uk/genuki/BRK/Hurst/index.html

As you can see(in the Town lists)that Abingdon now in Oxfordshire was once part of Berkshire......they were all Royals fans then,not a hint of yellow :D

I appreciate that this will be of interest to approximately none of you, but I also have great grandparents buried in the churchyard at Hurst.  I googled my great grandmother (who I remember only very vaguely) some time ago to discover that they are still awarding a prize in her name at the annual village fete/fair 35 years after she died.

Lovely little village.

As for me just joined this Thread born in Newcastle moved to Swindon when i was 10, my kids born and raised in Swindon
However i have never felt part of Wiltshire and i am of the view that Wiltshire does not like Swindon apart from the football team which i think is a county thing not a swindon thing you only have to look of the number of people who travel to watch the team play, and maybe the magic roundabout

That is quite interesting. Why are they awarding a prize in her name though?

The only reason I support Swindon is for the pre-match Sir Dan's meets.

It was a cookery prize - so I would imagine she may have donated the cup back in the 1960s or 1970s and they've been awarding it ever since.

I went along this year - just looking at the programme Would she be Florence Parkin?

Indeed, she would.   :)

Never been to the Hurst show. Like the village though and its only about 2 miles from me. Cracking butchers, although the best pub IMO is slighly away from the "village", the Wheelwright Arms.

Very little Wiltshire in my DNA, if any

You still in Hurst now Reading Red?

loads from mums side....Dads dad came from Somerset.

Yep, Dunt Lane - a stone's throw from the Jolly Farmer .
Haven't been to the Wheelwright's for a while, I used to go when they had bands on. Do they still do 6X?

I'm not a Moonraker by recent decent. I'm a true Briton with With plenty of English, some Scottish and Welsh and the odd bit of Irish mixed in.

Suppose thats what having and Empire does.

EDIT: My family does have a history in Wiltshire though, through moving to and from the county from various parts of the BI but not having been born locally.

Do fuck off Ironside. Same old same old from you.

I think the idea of Wiltshire is long dead. Swindon has far more in common with Ciren (12% of whose population work in Swindon) and Faringdon than Salisbury or Trowbridge.

They had the cheek to put the museum of Swindon & Wiltshire in Chippenham - nice move.

Fair point. Salisbury and Trowbridge mean as much to me as Manchester or Doncaster.

What fuck does that mean you cunt?

Spell it out for me.

Where the fuck is Mladic when you need him eh?

The Hague?

But unlike ciren,  the chip is in Wiltshire (a bit like swindon)!  We're talking about Wiltshire not swindon!  Is dorcan in Oxfordshire?   :sherlock:

Swindon is a relative newcomer to the Wiltshire heavyweights, calne was mentioned in the Domesday book along with one or two others that  don't concern me  :)

Well out of order. Don't be a dick.

Swindon is in the Domesday Book....it was granted to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, half brother of the Bastard Guillaume.

OK Calne may have had a few more serfs and amusingly shaped turnips, but that's hardly a ringing endorsement.

Born in Pompey (Dad in Marines), moved to Aldbourne when I was 1yr old.  Mum still lives there, and I, having travelled far and wide including to the Highlands, have now returned to just outside Wootton Bassett...new TEF Identity definitely required...any ideas?  On second thoughts.....
I went to College in Salisbury.
Grandfather was Rector of Compton Bassett, and he and my grandmother (who was Giddings from Devizes) are buried there, other grandfather lived outside Marlborough from mid-sixties til he died.....

Do I qualify, at least as an honorary?

RWB Robin?

Quite right Reg.....i have checked the Domesday book and there is no mention of Harris' in there so thats a load of wank anyway!

Excellent..... ;D

It still has Reg, it still has  :)

Anyone for Lardy cake?

Where can you get decent lardy cake these days.  Id love a nice bit o lardy.

My wife's grandfather is a retired baker and makes the best lardy cake I've ever tasted.

Haven't had any for months though. Would kill for some now.

Just traced my great,great great grandfather born in Hockworthy in 1797 :eek:....his son and my great grandad both lived there plying there trade as Blacksmiths...i went to Hockworthy near Tiverton last year and it is one of the nicest places in Devon,miles from anywhere.
So my next step will be to go there or the Exeter archives for Devon to see if i can find his baptism record,because that will have his parents names and hopefully birthdates that will allow me to be heading towards the 1740's.

Marshall's Bakery in Pewsey.

Good work.....here's a 6 year old thread, which offers some suggestions for lardy purchase....

Wonder if Yeovil's had a bagel yet  :)

http://thetownend.com/index.php/topic,3620.0.html

Don't know much about bagels, but I had some lardy from Swindon a couple of weeks ago and it was a very sorry, dry affair.

Marshall's all the way.

All this Wiltshire talk has reminded me of one of my bugbears...the way politicians (and the Royal Mail, for that matter) keep buggering about with counties and ancient sub-divisions.  Because, of course, in a political sense Swindon hasn't even been in Wiltshire since 1997.

No other country seems to do this.  In France, the départements are sacrosanct.  In the US, it doesn't matter whether you're in a sprawling city or a rural heartland, you'll know exactly which state you're in - and you'll probably be proud of it too.

But here, you're sort of in Wiltshire if you're in Swindon (if there was a 'ducks for cover' smiley, I'd add it here) and sort of not; Bournemouth folk used to be Hampshire, but they're now Dorset; if you're in Kingston on Thames, you're Surrey (to the Royal Mail) or London (if you'd like to vote in a Mayoral election); and Berkshire no longer exists at all in the political sense...which just compounds the insult of the 1970s when half of it got nicked by Oxfordshire.

It's all wrong.  And it matters (I think, anyway) because if local boundaries get blurred, then so do local identities.  A sense of place is important.

End of rant.  I think I feel better.

You need to get out more, bruv

Last time I looked Swindon was in Wiltshire....the way that geography shapes these things can be shown by looking at Roman Swindon.....namely the Roman town. now mostly under Covingham, which is just in Britannia Prima, the Roman administrative unit for the South West and part of the Midlands, based in Corinium.  Swindon has always been border land, before the Romans it was the Atrebates and Dobunni.

Not overlooking the massive dwelling unearthed in Abbey Meads and North Swindon and quickly hushed up by the bigwigs in Cirencester not wanting to lose there claim to fame of Roman Capital of the South :D
There are about Twenty Strattons in England...all Roman including our one joined to Swindon.
Swindon in Medieval times was a few thatched cottages and dwellings in old Town surrounded by many farms including Groundwell,Nythe(still there)Walcott,Eastcott and dozens more ....Rodbourne Cheney was a much more bigger place and more important than Swindon up untill the railway was built.
In fact  Mannington you will find that it was an important part of the Lydiard Estate and would have been more than an equal in relation to Swindon also............that darned little man named Brunel and his idea of building an iron track from London to Bristol changed all that.

Brunel wanted to build the lines going through marlbrough didn't he originally?? But the big man there said no, so instead he went to swindon and then it all kicked off.

Funny how little things change history

You're not wrong.

How can you not mention Devizes wigster?  Had some good lardy from there. Centre of Wiltshire too!

Not since the old Pie Shop closed - the stuff from high street chains like Reeves and Greggs is pretty ordinary.

Ah, the pie shop! I remember their cheese twists. The place I got the Lardy from was in the narrow bit from the brittox to the market place, next to the butcher s.

That pie shop was an institution - everyone old enough to remember it wishes it hadn't closed.

Their lamb and mashed potato pasties were the mutts nuts. Everything was made right out in site of the customers.

When I was a teenager I did a milk round for a couple of years, and we used to stop in there about 3am to load up with bread for delivering. The doughnuts would just be coming out of the fryer, and we were allowed to jam and sugar a bagful to eat on our way round.

AKA  The Little Brittox.

Pie shop ruled - remember the queues for hot cross buns ?

I used to work opposite the pie shop, remember it well.

I remember the pie shop too.

As a kid I used to go to Town on a Saturday with my Gran & we always used to go in to buy stuff.

Agreed Ardiles.  I work in a borough that appeared out of thin air in 1974.  It spans two towns, one on either side of a river.  One firmly belongs in one historic county, one in another.  For nearly forty years the authorities (for whom I work) have tried to create a sense of identity for the "place" - and failed miserably.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/22/ratko-mladic-convicted-of-genocide-and-war-crimes-at-un-tribunal

Banged up for the long term in some Euro prison, Ironside.

Bastard - beat me to it!

How long can you hold a grudge Reg?  ;)

Ironside, there's another one who appears to have finally been brought to justice for his dodgy dealings on the Cote d'Azur. Or maybe just did a flounce after over-exposing himself on here. Who misses him?