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Author Topic: 1960 Swindon  (Read 19728 times)
Dozno9

« on: Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 22:31:38 »

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

« Last Edit: Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 22:38:46 by Azza » Logged
dave_bambers_right_sock

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« Reply #1 on: Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 23:41:37 »

A brilliant find, enjoyed watching that
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Peter Gibbons

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« Reply #2 on: Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 23:59:32 »

Enjoyed that, and great music  Dancing

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

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« Reply #3 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 09:29:04 »

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
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Pete

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« Reply #4 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 10:23:00 »

Thanks, great find
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #5 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 10:27:17 »

 What a find....utterly wonderful  Smiley

 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.
« Last Edit: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 10:54:17 by Reg Smeeton » Logged
Arriba

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« Reply #6 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 12:20:45 »

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.
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Bewster

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« Reply #7 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 12:39:28 »

have you got the link to the website so I can email it to my dad ?
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sheepshagger
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« Reply #8 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 12:41:03 »

I imagine the 60's was Thatchers fault as well Arriba Smiley
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jayohaitchenn
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« Reply #9 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 12:41:20 »

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

hxxp://vimeo.com/4140360

replace xx with tt in the above.
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Bewster

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« Reply #10 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 12:44:20 »

hxxp://vimeo.com/4140360

replace xx with tt in the above.

ta
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #11 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 12:49:48 »

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

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.
« Last Edit: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 12:56:28 by Reg Smeeton » Logged
BruceChatwin

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« Reply #12 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 13:20:24 »

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.
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sheepshagger
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« Reply #13 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 13:51:05 »

Flippin heck Reg I was only joking Smiley
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jonny72

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« Reply #14 on: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 14:04:24 »

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

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