Thetownend.com

I'm in Witney today, and it got me thinking about how many Town fans might be here. I'm always interested in the geographical spread of out fan base, which while it isn't unique is probably more out of town than most.

I was brought up in North-West Wiltshire, somewhere that was predominantly STFC(with a smattering of City and Rovers). I always found it strange that people from Wiltshire would support the Bristol clubs, but in the words of Sam Morshead, I would, wouldn't I. Now I live in a part of South Glos that is Rovers country, if anything, although I have seen one Swindon shirt out and about.

What is the split like where you grew up/live, and how has that changed over time?

Fairly easy one this, although I guess not quite what you were looking for.

Cirencester - Can't remember
Stonehouse - Can't remember
Stroud - Can't remember
East Lothian - 0 (But some of my old school friends now look out for Swindon results)
Edinburgh - 0 (But some of my friends now look out for Swindon results)
Luxembourg 0 (But some of my friends now look out for Swindon results)
London - Probably about 20/30 people I know.

North West Hampshire, there’s a few I’ve come across over the years but most locals support Saints or just glory hunt a big team from childhood

I was bought up just outside Witney and knew no Town fans growing up.

As I have traipsed round the country I remember there being 1 other STFC fan at Newcastle Uni when I was there and that's about it.

Chipping Norton.

Few of us about

Born in Swindon just over 50 years ago, went to school at Gorse Hill Infants, Juniors, Drove Secondary and Hreod Burna.

At school there was about 50% either had Swindon as a 1st team or 2nd team after Liverpool who were winning everything at the time in the late 70s, as the kids got older the amount of Town fans got more, but that could well be on the back of the League Cup run in 1980.

Worked mostly in Swindon but with short periods in London and Cirencester until 2001 where I met a good spread of fans and most in and around Swindon either went to games or again had Swindon as a team they all followed the results of and came out for big cup games etc.

In 2001 I move to Yeovil for 3 years where 75% of fans followed Yeovil who were on the up from non league at that time, the other 25% were split 60/40 in favour of Bristol City over Rovers. Shitty have a large following of fans in and around Yeovil as well as the usual glory hunters of the Premier teams.

In 2004 I moved further West to Chard, sitting almost half way between Yeovil and Exeter I find the split of fans here about 60% Yeovil and 40% Exeter, with the Yeovil fans being the much more gobby ones in that.

Interestingly there are at least 10 other Swindon fans here, several of which I know, one of whom is fellow TEFer Adje brother. 3 others went to Hreod at the same time as me, which considering the population of Chard is only about 10k and being about 100 mile drive is quite a decent ratio. I often see Swindon stikcers in cars when I drive to Taunton for shopping and met a fellow Town fan in Carpet Right who gave me a 10% discount as he was the manager, just because I was wearing a Swindon Town tee shirt at the time.

 Going back to my formative years and the world is a very different place.... no Headington, no Numb, no FGR and no plastic Prem.

 There are still vestiges of tradition.

 Back then the Glos tradition of Stroud/Stonehouse was strong, football specials would stop off and pick up when going north or midlands... there are still a few, some would even come from Numb.  Going west, Devizes/Chippenham/Calne/Melksham were hotbeds and tbf still are decent. Trowbidge sketchy at best. Football specials would pickup in Chippenham going down to Bristol or the South West.

 Going east out into Berkshire, was very fertile ground, with the strange and seemingly still extant links to the racing communities of places like Lambourn.  We still seem to get a few from as far east as Newbury, but Reading's relative success will have drained from that.

 Going south beyond Marlborough  is pretty empty country and down towards Sarum it's Soton terrain, and has always been that way.

Mike Channon nearly signed for us, but his Wilts hidey hole of Orcheston had easier access to the south coast

Grew up in Melksham and started regularly going to matches around 1967. Back then Melksham was pretty evenly split between Swindon and Bristol City, and Brownings ran coaches to both, with shopping dropoffs for the mums. It's only because my mother preferred shopping in Swindon rather than Bristol that I didn't become a Slave Trader... I still shudder at the thought!
I was in and around Ealing from 1972 to 2001, still went pretty regularly, then moved to Winnersh and I've been a season ticket holder since 1992.

Born and raised in Swindon, went to school in Purton and sixth form in Cirencester. Quite a lot of Swindon fans in Ciren.

Moved out to Reading about 5 years ago and have been here & Wokingham ever since. I know there's a few Town fans out this way (I've seen a guy walking around Tilehurst with an STFC shirt a few times - and saw a guy in last seasons away shirt in Earley a few weeks ago). There was a Swindon fan who lived a few streets down from me in Wokingham weirdly, who has heavily involved in the club for a number of years.

A lot of Reading shirts about though, obviously. I think there's a few Town fans round Thatcham / Newbury but think most of the non-glory hunters there are Reading as well.

I would say a lot of oxfordshire towns, with swindon postcodes, support Oxford. Not sure why.

Oxford have a lot of influence on local schools, ie. Shrivenham, where they run football after school incentives. With Swindon a lot closer, you have to ask yourself why. Do the club do enough out of town?

Grew up near Devizes, taking the (generally pretty full) Bodman’s coach up to games. Spent three years in Manchester where I was always the only Townie on the Friday night DMUs across the Pennines. Never been aware of another Town fan in Paris, but it’s not like there have been many games on the big screen to bring us together at le Frog & Rosbif.

Born/lived Corsham, school Chippenham, left home at 17. At the time there were a few Brizzle fans in Corsham although mainly STFC. Chippenham was almost entirely STFC - used to be loads on the train on matchdays.

Returned to live in Salisbury for a while at 25, then to Freshbrook, back to Chippenham, Westlea, Highworth, Blunsdon, Ireland, Rodbourne, Wroughton and now Greece. Always attended games when I could, now an iFollow season ticket holder!

Probably pop back for the end of season promotion celebrations!

East London and the London/Essex border is full of West Ham and Tottenham fans. Few Arsenal. Very rarely come across a FL fan.

Most of the West Ham fans are absolute prats.

I work in CW and a lot of the people live in Essex. Most of them appear to be Spurs or West Ham fans. I never talk to them about football as I have little interest in the Premier league.

I have a couple of folk I am friendly with who follow Fulham and Brentford who I would rather chat football with.

Born in Maidenhead. Live in Maidenhead. Started following Town however in my early teens after my Dad moved to old town.

Only ever seen a couple of Town fans this way. For the most part it's Spurs or QPR. Splattering of Reading/Oxford (Mallet)

Calne. Quite a few town fans I know, except Dosser. Don't live there now though.

I grew up in central Swindon in the 70's -80's,every cunt supported Liverpool at school and then Man U took over in the 90's.


And i'm sure their offspring support Man City now

Park Saaf born and bread. Now living in the land far, far away.

Calne - left as soon as I could. Now in Somerset. I have bumped into the odd STFC supporter down here (but not Peter Venkman). The last occasion was at the county ground at Taunton. Getting to Swindon can be a bit of a caper and I have toyed with the idea of taking the kids to Yeovil or Exeter when STFC are away at far flung places. However, it struck me as a bit weird to watch another team in the same division.

Born and raised in the Malmesbury area, there would often be two coach loads of people on Athelstan Coaches on a match day.  One would pick up in Malmesbury and the slightly more southern villages like Seagry and the Somerfords; the other would start in Crudwell before making its way around Oaksey, Hankerton (where we got on) and on through the Minety's.  On a good day we would cycle to Minety station and catch the train to Swindon.  Left the area two years after I married and spent 14 happy yewars in Suffolk, getting to watch the Town as and when.  Moved back to Swindon 20 years ago and been a season ticket holder for many years since then.

Derbyshire. Lived in Newbury and I probably saw/bumped into as many Town fans over the time periods.

Peak District is lovely. Most Derby fans - not so much.

Born in Harvey Grove, Rodbourne Cheney; lived in Bedford (or Surrounding towns) for most of my life though. Never met another Swindon fan around here, did bump into one in Cambridge once when i worked there.

Grew up in Oaksey and went to secondary school in Malmesbury. In the village there were a few generations of Town fans with some old boys who used to catch the train from Oaksey Halt (pre Beeching cuts) days, some lads who were probably a bit naughty in the 80s and then a few more of us a bit boring in late 80's/early 90s. Silver Night did the school bus and the early days of SAS Travel including a Malmesbury pick up.

In Malmesbury at school it was mostly Swindon especially with us doing well under Macari. There were a couple of City fans but they were bit further out to Sherston towards the Avon/South Glos Border. Couple of Rovers fans as well.

In those days it was always Bristol City for the rivalry especially watching HTV West and the 86/87 season climax. I would rate the 4-0 win at City in 1991 more memorable and special than wins at Oxford in the same era.

Now living in Stroud and there is still a regular group who get the train for home games despite the FGR presence. 

West Wilts born. Lived n Westbury between 10 and 20 after six or seven mostly army related moves.

West Wilts never felt like STFC territory. Prem and Bristol side dominated. I was one of two 100% Town fans in my year at school.

Since 2004 I've lived in Plymouth, Durham, Newcastle and Bristol and have never interacted with a Town fan although I saw a guy in a Swindon shirt once in Southville Aldi and thought that was brave!

Born and bred Calne? I probably know you or a relation :)

Dad's family were Corsham born and bread and my cousins' all followed Swindon. Dad's work meant we were all over the place, I was born in St. Andrews, then down to Essex and back to Ayrshire at the age of 6 where I followed Ayr United in the Ally McLeod glory days and saw Swindon first at a pre season game there in 1976. Moved back to Swindon in 1977 and then on to University in London and finally to Hitchin 18 years ago. I saw one younger Swindon fan on the bus to Luton when we played there and there was someone with Scottish connections who moved here some time ago. Hitchin is predominantly Arsenal with the 25 min train journey to Finsbury Park.

Good news for out of towners travelling by rail towards London, the revamped timetable no longer has a gap between 2141 and 2229 on a Tuesday evening.
 

Spent the first 3 years of my life in Croydon, then persuaded my parents to move to Swindon (actually Stratton St Margaret opposite Dockle Farm which became Weatherspoons). Dad was from Swindon, and his parents and virtually all his eight brothers and sisters lived in Swindon.
Dad took me to my first games in the mid-fifties, originally sitting "on the boards" near the Stratton Bank goal.
Stayed in Swindon until 1999, when BMW took me to Munich for three years. Those three years have now become 20 and last week I got my German citizenship (only to avoid post-Brexit issues but still keeping my British).

I try to get back to see at least one game a year. My nephew's son has just started working for the club and I'll be using one of his comp tickets for the Stevenage game. I hope to meet (for the first time) my cousin Alan in the CG hotel before the game, and no doubt bump into a few mates at half time. I have an ifollow season ticket so get to see most games on the PC.

You see mostly Bayern Munich shirts etc here, with a hard core of 1860 too. For the last few years I've bought a girlfriend's son  Swindon shirts for his birthdays, with his name and age on the back. A shirt with his name on isn't so cool at 14 so I'll get him a Town hoodie this year ;-)


I know one other Town fan here, Paul J, and we watched a couple of games together in an Irish pub when Sky streamed Town matches. Another fan Anson L was here too until a couple of years ago but now he's back in Swindon.


COYR

Born in Berlin. Doubt there were m(any) Town fans around, unless they were stationed there.
Then lived in Hong Kong (See above).
Holland  (See above).
Tidworth (Maybe some there, although I never knew any at the time).
 Andover (There's a few there, including my brother in law). Arborfield (None).
Borden (None).
Barnstaple (None).
Croyde (None).
Bristol (None, funny that..).
Aubagne, France (None).
Nimes, France (None).
Swindon. (Shitloads).
Bicester. (A few).
Brackley. (One that I knew of).
Chalfont st Peter. (None).
Hayes, Middx. (None).
South Petherton, Somerset. (Two! and one pox fan).
Alderholt, Fordingbridge. (Two!).
Now back in Swindon.

Alright Judith Chalmers

I now live in Swindon but i was bought up in Faringdon and there was plenty of Town fans there.
We used to have a coach on some away matches with Faringdon, Wantage and Hanney boys on. Some of the bigger games we had separate coaches.
Other away matches we would have 4 or 5 car loads. The good old days.

Sippo, i think you're wrong. Shrivenham a Swindon strong hold with Mr Forty and his boys. They hate Oxford. I was bought up in Faringdon, another Swindon strong hold for Swindon. No Oxford fans there when i lived there.

Nope. Definitely Oxford after school football clubs in shrivenham and Watchfield primary schools.

There were two in Alderholt  (80s/90s) when me and our brother played for the mighty Stockton and Codford there.

Grew up in Codford, South Wilts....6 of us and a few more in Warminster, including a fella,who I'm proud to say is still my mate. He took his mum home and away every week....Carlisle, Sunderland....the lot... Mum passed years ago but he still goes to the home games.

Border country so there were Shitheads, Gas and Saints but mostly 'followers of big clubs'.

Live in Calne now..... Route 55 and all that...

Born in Swindon ,lived next door to George Hudson . Moved to Rochester Kent in 1956 ,travelled to Most Saturday home and away games until 1973 . moved to Fareham Hants in 1982 when Chatham Naval Base closed  ,took early retirement in1996 and moved Ashford Kent  ,2003 moved to Caister-on- Norfolk. used to travel back to see about 8 games a season at the County ground but Greater now do most engineering work weekends which means getting on and off trains and buses, at eighty year old that's too much hassle now.. used to meet Medway red and his boys on the Paddington Swindon train don't think he goes anymore. Still listen to every game .

Born in Cheltenham
Moved to Swindon at aged 2, was a season ticket holder for a few years early to mid 90's
Moved to Bath at 22
Thailand for a couple of years
China 7 years
Warwickshire since 2013

Bradford last week was first game in a couple of years, just no time between family and work

Loads of town (and poxford) fans at work