Swindon, Wiltshire
Historical Description
Swindon, two towns and a parish in Wiltshire. The towns are Old Swindon and New Swindon, with post, money order, and telegraph offices. Old Swindon stands on an eminence, near the Wilts and Berks Canal, 1 mile SSE of Swindon Junction station, and 17 miles NE by E of Chippenham. It was known at Domesday as Svindune, commands extensive views into Berks and Gloucestershire; presents a picturesque appearance, with old houses of red brick and stone, is a seat of petty sessions, and has three banks. The parish church was erected in 1851, and is a stone building in the Early English style, with spire and eight bells. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £300 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. There are Wesleyan, Congregational, Baptist, and Primitive Methodist chapels. The Swindon Victoria Hospital was opened in 1888, with a special ward for accident cases. There are two newspapers published weekly, and one daily. A fine recreation ground was opened in 1895. New Swindon stands around Swindon Junction station on the G.W.R., at the forking of the lines toward the West of England and South Wales. It originated in the removal hither in 1841 of the entire locomotive department of the railway from Wootton Bassett, occupies ground which previously was all waste, and contains erections of the railway company, constructed at a cost of nearly £1,000,000. including a great railway station, refreshment rooms, and hotel. The locomotive and carriage works of the company are on a most extensive scale, covering an area of about 200 acres of land, and together with the iron foundry and boiler works employ about 10,000 hands. The town includes great ranges of neat dwelling-houses, a library and reading-room, and a public park. The two towns for all ordinary business purposes are practically one. A weekly market is held, and fairs are held on 21 March, 3 April, 23 May, 25 Sept., and 11 Dec. A spacious corn exchange, with a conventional classic front, was erected in 1866. A handsome block of public buildings, situated at the foot of the hill, contains the offices for the various public bodies. The town-hall was built in 1852. St Mark's Church, in New Swindon, was built at a cost of £8000, and is in the Decorated English style, with tower and spire 140 feet high. The living is a vicarage; gross value, £280 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. A church in connection with St Mark's has been erected entirely by the voluntary labour of workmen employed by the G.WR., and is intended chiefly for their use. St Paul's is an edifice of brick in the Early English style. The living is a vicarage; net value, £220 with residence. Patron, the Bishop. The church of St Barnabas was erected in 1885, and is a building of Swindon stone in the Transitional style. The living is a vicarage; gross value, a£160 with residence. There are Baptist, Congregational, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic chapels. The G.W.R. Mechanics' Institution is a handsome building of stone with a library of 16,000 volumes, and numbers 6000 members; it was erected in 1843, and has since been considerably enlarged. The parish comprises 4265 acres; population of the civil parish, 33,001; of the ecclesiastical, 31,178. The Lawn, situated near Old Swindon town, is the chief residence, and is the seat of the Goddard family.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Wiltshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Swindon Holy Rood | |
Hundred | Kingsbridge | |
Poor Law union | Highworth and Swindon |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Findmypast, in association with the Wiltshire Record Office, have the following parish records online for Swindon:
Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
---|---|---|---|
1579-1859 | 1838-1859 |
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Swindon from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Swindon (Holy Rood))
Maps
Online maps of Swindon are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Wiltshire papers online: