Page 11 - link magazine

swindonlink.com • February 2012 11
Helping hands needed at Hop, Skip and Jump

A new centre offering respite care for children with severe disabilities is desperate to recruit more volunteers in response to increasing de-
mand for its services.
Hop Skip and Jump only opened a ball pond and an adventure play will be enough volunteers available and healthy. For example we have
at Upper Shaw Farm community structure, and more and more to provide support. It’s a pity that about 5,000 plastic balls in the pond
centre at Ridge Green last July and parents from Swindon and further I can’t automatically tell them that which have to be regularly cleaned
has seen a tremendous uptake from afield are bringing their children for there is a place available.” with anti-bacterial spray. It all takes
parents seeking support according us to provide stimulating activities. Verity added that more volun- time and effort, so we’re appealing
to centre manager Verity Brooke- We’ve become very busy during teers are needed to assist keeping for more people to come forward to
Maple. “It seems as if we’ve been holidays and half term. the centre fit for use. “The increas- help us in a variety of tasks.”
here for a lot longer than eight “Parents have to book sessions ing use of the centre means that we If you can help contact Verity
months,” she said. “We have an but I’m finding I have to say I’ll get have to ensure that the building on 07557 435012 or mail: manager.
art and craft room, activity space, back to them so I can check there and the toys are in good shape, safe [email protected]
Link provides a history of Upper Shaw Farm for new users

West Swindon based local historian Fran Bevan looks at the background of the farmhouse
Farming had taken place in the area his nephew William Plummer bought it
for more than 600 years and there is in 1870. In 1920 William John Plummer
evidence of a Romano-British kiln and Kinchin sold it to George Henry Cowley,
pottery in the area. ending the 110 year occupancy of the
In the 17th Century the farm was owned Sadler and Plummer families.
by Henry Oatridge, a member of a wealthy In 1971 Swindon Corporation purchased
Gloucestershire family, although the pres- Upper Shaw Farm with Wick Farm for
ent, much altered farmhouse dates from £156,080 in advance of the 1980s western
the early 19th Century. expansion of the town.
In 1830 the property was bought by In 1983 the original building was con-
Thomas Packer Butt from Cheltenham verted to provide meeting rooms and a
and occupied by his tenant Thomas caretaker’s flat whilst a modern extension
Sadler for more than forty years. The was added to the rear for a community hall.
dairy farm at Upper Shaw never measured Later on the upper floor of the farm-
much more than 90 acres, considerably house was used by Ridge Green medical
smaller than its neighbours at Shaw, East practice for a number of years before the
Leaze and Lower Shaw. Hop Skip and Jump manager Verity Brooke-Maple, left, receiv- building was closed in 2009 after com-
The farm remained in the Sadler ing a framed history of Upper Shaw Farm with Link magazine munity facilities for local groups opened
family from Thomas’s occupancy at the archive images, from Fran Bevan and Link publisher Roger Ogle at the newly built Shaw Ridge Primary
beginning of the 19th Century to when Photo: Richard Wintle of www.calypix.com School next door.

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