Swindon
Swindon is a large town in the
South West of
England. The town is situated between
Bristol and
London, and is accessible from junction 15 or 16 of the
M4 motorway, or by rail using
Swindon station. With a population of over 160,000, Swindon is often cited as a "boom town". It is in the
borough of Swindon, which has been a
unitary authority (UA) since
1998.
A resident of Swindon is known as a
Swindonian. Swindon's
motto is
"Salubritas et Industria" (Health and Industry).
The original
Saxon settlement of Swindon sat in a defensible position atop a limestone hill. It is referred to in the
Domesday Book as
Suindune, a name believed to be derived from the
Anglo-Saxon word
swine and the
Brythonic word
dun meaning literally
pig hill, or possibly
Sweyn's hill where Sweyn would be the local landlord. Swindon remained a small market town, mainly for
barter trade, until the mid-
1800s. This original market area of Swindon is located on top of the hill in central Swindon and is now known as Old Town.
 |
A section of the Wilts and Berks Canal near Rushey Platt, Swindon. |
The
industrial revolution was responsible for an acceleration of Swindon's growth. It started with the construction of the
Wiltshire and Berkshire canal in
1810, and then the North Wiltshire canal in
1819. These two major routes brought trade to the area, and Swindon's population started to rise.
Probably the most significant event in Swindon's history occurred in
1840, when it was selected to house the large
Swindon railway works for the
Great Western Railway by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Legend has it that Brunel and his assistant were surveying the route of the London to Bristol line, and had stopped on a hillside for lunch. The assistant asked Brunel where he thought the railway works should be built, and Brunel threw a sandwich in the air, declaring that it would be wherever the sandwich landed. Reality is more mundane - it was situated at a point where engines would need to be changed. Eastwards towards
London the line was gently graded, while westwards there was a steep descent towards
Bath. Swindon was also at the junction of a proposed line to
Gloucester.
 |
A Swindon-built locomotive (Hagley Hall) on display in the eating area of the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet, Swindon. |
Construction of the works was completed in
1842. Along with the railway works a small railway village was created to house some of the railway workers. This area became the present day area known as New Town (or the Town Centre). The original Railway Village houses are still standing and are occupied, and several of the original buildings which comprised the engineering works also remain (though many are vacant). The
Steam Railway Museum now occupies part of the old works.
In the second half of the
19th century the new area (Swindon New Town) created by the railway works and the original area from the market trading years (Swindon Old Town) were merged to become
Swindon.
During much of the
20th century the railway works was the largest employer in the town. In the late-
1970s a large part of the works closed.
The town itself has a total area of approximately 40
km² (25.33
mi²).
Swindon has a
temperate climate, with roughly equal length winters and summers. The surrounding landscape is dominated by the chalk hills of the Wiltshire Downs to the south and east.
* ()
* Nearby towns and cities:
Calne,
Chippenham,
Wootton Bassett,
Cirencester,
Cricklade,
Highworth,
Marlborough* Nearby villages:
Aldbourne,
Blunsdon,
Chiseldon,
Hook,
Lambourn,
Liddington,
Lydiard Millicent,
Purton,
Ramsbury,
Wanborough,
Wroughton* Nearby places of interest:
Avebury,
Barbury Castle,
Crofton Pumping Station,
Silbury Hill,
Stonehenge,
Uffington White HorseThe
unitary authority (created in 1996 as the Borough of Thamesdown, but renamed in 1997 as the Borough of Swindon) has a much larger area as it encompasses surrounding villages and land. The town is therefore no longer under the auspices of Wiltshire County Council.
The executive is a leader (Cllr Rod Bluh) and cabinet - which is made up from the Conservative Group.
The current makeup of the Council is Conservative 42 Councillors, Labour 12, Liberal Democrat 3 and Independents 2. Five councillors have left the Labour group in the last few years, the most recent transferring to the Conservatives on the 19th of June 2006. Two have left the Lib Dems.
As of the census of 2001 [
1], there were 180,051 people and 75,154 occupied houses in the Swindon Unitary Authority. The average household size was 2.38 people. The population density was 780/km² (2020.19/mi²). 20.96% of the population were 0 to 15 years old, 72.80% were 16 to 74 years old, and the remaining 6.24% were 75 years old or over. For every 100 females there were 98.97 males.
The ethnic makeup of the town was 95.2% white, 1.3% Indian, and 3.5% other. Of the population, 92.4% were born in the UK, 2.7% in the EU, and 4.9% elsewhere in the world.
Swindon is considered to be an almost exact microcosm of the whole
United Kingdom in its demographic makeup, to the extent that it has often been used for market research purposes and trials of new products and services. One example was the ill-fated
Mondex electronic money.
It has been forecasted that there will be a 70,000 (38.9%) increase in Swindon's population by 2026; from the current 180,000, to 250,000[
2].
Major employers include the
Honda car production plant at South Marston,
BMW in Stratton, mobile phone companies such as
Motorola and
Ubinetics and the retailer
W H Smith which has its distribution centre and headquarters in Swindon. The computer company
Intel also has its European head office on the south side of the town. Several insurance and financial services companies such as
Nationwide Building Society and
Zurich Financial Services, and pharmaceutical companies such as
Patheon and
Cardinal Health also have head offices in the town. Several of the UK's science
Research Councils have their head offices in Polaris House, adjacent to the rail station.
 |
McArthur Glen Designer Outlet, a shopping complex built within the disused Swindon railway engine works. |
*The Brunel Centre is a shopping mall in the town centre. There are also a number of High Street retailers in the Town Centre. The Parade is another shopping area in the town centre.
*Retail parks include Greenbridge, West Swindon Shopping Cenre, Stratton and the Orbital Shopping Park.
* McArthur Glen Designer Outlet is an undercover shopping mall for reduced price designer goods, using the structure of the disused railway engine works. The Outlet is adjacent to the Steam Museum.
* Swindon has a large
roundabout surrounded by several smaller roundabouts known as the "
Magic Roundabout" (which became the main subject of a song by the local band
XTC).
* The two leisure centres are the Link Centre and the Oasis.
* Broome Manor Golf Complex is a golf course set against the backdrop of the
Marlborough Downs.
* Public parks include
Lydiard Country Park, Stanton Park, Barbury Castle,
Queens Park and
Coate Water.
* Shaw Community Forest is being developed on the site of a former landfill site in West Swindon.
* The National Monuments Record Centre is in Swindon, the home of
English Heritage.
*
BBC Radio Swindon is a BBC radio station for the Borough of Swindon aimed at 55+.
*
Brunel FM 107.7FM; New radio station for the town.
*
GWR FM is a networked commercial radio station owned by GCAP.
Swindon Advertiser is the local daily newspaper for Swindon, the Borough of Swindon and settlements close to the Borough.
*
Swindon Link magazine http://www.swindonlink.com
*
New College and
Swindon College are both providers of higher education.
* The "
University of Bath in Swindon" was established in 2000, with its Oakfield Campus in Walcot, East Swindon.
*
Museum of Computing is based at Oakfield Campus, University of Bath in Swindon, Marlowe Avenue.
*
National Museum of Science & Industry,
Wroughton*
Railway Village Museum*
Richard Jefferies Museum is dedicated to the memory of one of England's most individual writers on nature and the countryside.
*
Steam Railway Museum*
Swindon Arts Centre is the home of the Swindon art scene.
*
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery* Swindon is officially the largest town in Europe.
* Approximately 300,000 people live within 20 minutes of Swindon town centre.
* The critically-acclaimed rock band
XTC are from Swindon and, since their inception in 1977, are widely regarded as one of the most quintessentially "English" rock-pop bands since The Kinks.
*
Noel Gallagher, the lead singer of the rock band
Oasis chose the name of his band after visiting the Oasis swimming pool in Swindon (whilst working as a roadie for the band
Inspiral Carpets, who themselves held a concert at the leisure centre in 1993).
* The British television
comedy series
The Office contains many references to Swindon.
* Swindon is referred to in singer-songwriter
Robyn Hitchcock's song
Ride.
* Swindon is
twinned with
Ocotal,
Nicaragua;
Salzgitter,
Germany and
Toruń,
Poland.
* Swindon also has close ties with
Chattanooga,
USA, with which it started a friendship and cooperation agreement in
2006.
* More people have joined the
Hare Krishna movement in Swindon than in any other English town.
* In Summer 2006, 51% of households in Swindon have
broadband Internet access, the highest in the UK, according to this
BBC report*
Swindon Town F.C., a football team who play in Football League Two (upon their relegation from League One in May 2006) at the County Ground.
*
Swindon Wildcats, an ice hockey team.
*
Swindon Robins, a speedway team who compete in the Elite League.
Books set in Swindon include
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by
Mark Haddon (in which the main character's father describes it as "the arsehole of the world") and the
Thursday Next novels by
Jasper Fforde.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective,
Sherlock Holmes, also ate lunch in the town in the novel
The Boscombe Valley Mystery.
Robert Goddard's
Into the Blue and
Out of the Sun both feature the central character of Harry Barnett from Swindon, and both novels start in the town. The TV detective series
A Touch of Frost starring
David Jason is often set in or around Swindon (called "Denton" in the series) and early episodes feature briefings of the detective team in front of recognisable maps of the Swindon area.
James Bond
* James Bond author
Ian Fleming is buried at
Sevenhampton.
* Two
James Bond films have used Swindon for scenes [
3].
**The
former Renault building in West Swindon was used in
A View to a Kill (released 1985).
**The futuristic
Motorola production plant in Abbey Meads was used for a setting in
The World Is Not Enough (released 1999).
*
List of places in Swindon*
Swindon, Mark Child, Breedon Books, 2002, hardcover, 159 pages, ISBN 1859833225
*
Francis Frith's Swindon Living Memories (Photographic Memories S.), Francis Frith and Brian Bridgeman, The Frith Book Company Ltd, 2003, Paperback, 96 pages, ISBN 1859376568
*
Swindon.gov.uk — official Borough Council website
*
Swindon Advertiser — local newspaper
*
BBC Wiltshire — BBC site for Wiltshire & Swindon
*
Swindon Link Magazine. Targeting North and West Swindon
*
SwindonWeb*
Visit Swindon — official tourism website
