Page 12 - link magazine

The Link Magazine • May 1996
12
West Swindon:
BRADON FOREST SCHOOL
Purton, Swindon, Wiltshire SN5 9AT A glimpse of the past
Telephone 01793 770570
Fax: 01793 771063 Brian Bridgeman of the Swindon Society looks back
A glance at the Ordnance Survey maps for this area in the 1960s shows
A Grant Maintained School, 11 - 16 practically no difference to those of the early 1800s. The names of farms
and isolated cottages and hamlets, such as White Hill, Shaw, Windmill
PROUD TO SERVE Leaze, Wick Farm, Toot Hill and Mannington appear. For many
centuries this area remained largely rural unaffected by the changes
THE WEST SWINDON COMMUNITY around it including the growth of Swindon.
SINCE 1983

Prospectus available from the school
Visits welcome from prospective parents

Congratulations West Swindon

from
The Ridgeway School
Inverary Road, Wroughton, Swindon SN4 9DJ 3,y

Tel: (01793) 812824. Fax: (01793) 815065

Educating for success Imported history: The Chiseldon
Windmill in its high tech location near
from Year 7 to the Sixth form Freshbrook. Inset: A picture from the
Swindon Society archives showing the
Visitors and enquiries Windmill in its original setting
always welcome
In Roman times the clay lands way station at Rushey Platt on
here had been colonised by potters 'Swindon's other railway', the
who produced cooking pots, jars Midland & South Western Junc-
and other coarse pottery for the tion Railway which ran from near
SPEND £100's settlements on the Roman roads Cheltenham to Andover. The sta-
nearby. Remains of their kilns were tion was opened in 1883 and for
NOT £1,000s discovered when excavations were many years was important for the
carried out in advance of the West transport of milk from local farms.
Swindon development of the 1970s Some traces of the station can still
New Doors and Worktops are all and 1980s. An open space near the be seen today.
Link Centre is named Kiln Park The Borough of Swindon bound-
you need to transform your kitchen after these potters. ary was enlarged in September
Various small rural communi- 1928 and a small part of the parish
ties grew up in the area in medi- of Lydiard Millicent and Lydiard
eval times including Mannington Tregoze were added. Shortly after
(the name possibly derived from the Second World War the Corpo-
'Mehha's hill'), Shaw ('tract of ration also purchased Lord
woodland') and Toothill ('the look- Bolingbroke's estate of Lydiard
out hill'). Over the years many of Park.
these communities largely disap- The M4 motorway was built
peared and only grassy mounds adjacent to the former GWR main
denoted the former position of the line in the early 1970s and this was
houses and corrugations of ridges the beginning of the large changes
in the fields showed where their to the area. A new dual carriage-
strips of arable land had been. way was soon built to replace the
Little changed over the centu- old A420 road together with the
ries until the beginning of the 19th first housing developments in
century when the building of the Toothill.
Wilts & Berks Canal to the south The modem story of West Swin-
heralded the start of the industrial don could be said to begin when
Visit us at Unit 72 New range of age. The routing of Brunel's Great the Minister of Housing & Con-
Western Railway through the struction Reginald Freeson offi-
Pembroke Centre solid wood countryside north of the canal and cially opened the first stage of
Cheney Manor and laminate the opening of the GWR Works in council housing in Toothill at
replacement doors. New Swindon in the 1840s would Markenfield on Thursday 8 April
Swindon
Choice of over 60 fascias. change the story of Swindon for 1976. The release of further land
(01793) 434440 (day) ever. Although largely unaffected for building in 1978 in the Whitehill
(01793) 420379 (eve.) Additional units available. by these changes for many years and Freshbrook area did but carry
Fax(01793)434440 the rural landscape of West Swin- on the story of development that
Finance available subject to status
don would later have its own rail- has continued to this day.