Images of Swindon - paperback

Swindon, a small hilltop town just over two centuries ago, now stands on the threshold of city status.

Its rapid growth is directly attributable to one man, Isambard Kingdom Brunel who decided that his Great Western Railway would skirt the fringes of the town and would be the ideal centre for the engineering works that would service the railway between London and Bristol. 

The 19th century therefore saw the town’s rapid expansion and much of what Brunel created, including parts of the original railway works, remains.

Brunel was a much a social as a railway engineer and created the Railway Village, built with the stone excavated from the Box Tunnel, to house his workers. 

Carefully preserved, it is a lasting reminder of the importance of the railways in the development of Swindon. 

The Great Western Railway Company also created the Mechanics’ Institute as an educational, social and arts centre for its staff. Now sadly fallen into disrepair, in its hayday it boasted on of the finest libraries in Britian. 

But for more than a century it was a proud symbol of the dominance of railways in the town’s way of life. 

Much of the Swindon that Brunel and his successors knew has disappeared, victim of the insatiable desire for change and development and of the need for a new impetus as railways went into decline as a mode of transport. 

The Old Town still remains, much of it unchanged but the new town centre that grew up around the railways disappeared in the 1960s under the bulldozer and, aside from the spendid Victorian Town Hall, can only be recalled through photographs. 

New developments reflect the change in the town since the closure of its railways and show that it is a centre for hi-tech industry, through the Rover and Honda car companies maintain its manufactoring base. 

This collection, drawn mainly from the Library of the Evening Advertiser, show the fascinating changes that have embraced Swindon in its rise from market town obscurity to one of the fastest growing centres in Europe. 

Images of Swindon will delight locals and, indeed, anyone connected with the town.