History of Swindon
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- A Brief History of Swindon. From the swindon canal to its railway period, i take a walk round old town and talk about Swindon's past.
Between 1841 and 1842, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Swindon Works was built for the repair and maintenance of locomotives on the Great Western Railway (GWR). The GWR built a small railway village to house some of its workers. The Steam Railway Museum and English Heritage, including the National Monuments Record, now occupy part of the old works. In the village were the GWR Medical Fund Clinic at Park House and its hospital, both on Faringdon Road, and the 1892 health centre in Milton Road -- which housed clinics, a pharmacy, laundries, baths, Turkish baths and swimming pools -- was almost opposite.
From 1871, GWR workers had a small amount deducted from their weekly pay and put into a healthcare fund -- its doctors could prescribe them or their family members free medicines or send them for medical treatment.
In 1878 the fund began providing artificial limbs made by craftsmen from the carriage and wagon works, and nine years later opened its first dental surgery. In his first few months in post the dentist extracted more than 2000 teeth. From the opening in 1892 of the Health Centre, a doctor could also prescribe a haircut or even a bath. The cradle-to-grave extent of this service was later used as a blueprint for the NHS.
The Mechanics' Institute, formed in 1844, moved into a building looking rather like a church and included a covered market, on 1 May 1855. The New Swindon Improvement Company, a co-operative, raised the funds for this path self-improvement and paid the GWR £40 a year for its new home on a site at the heart of the railway village. It was a groundbreaking organisation that transformed the railway's workforce into some of the country's best-educated manual workers.[
Credits
Video footage
My own video footage and some with kind permission
Photos
My own
some under creative commons
A few with kind permission
Music
Royalty free and my own.
Interesting stuff. But I disagree with your conclusion. Swindon may have lost the railway works, but that was a long time ago. Today Swindon is one of the leading start-up locations in the South West outside Bristol and has seen significant growth in numerous sectors: in the life sciences, alternative energies, information and communication technologies and financial services to name a few. It also maintains a healthy 11% employment in manufacturing thanks to the likes of Honda, BMW and Westcode Semiconductors. I think it's fair to say that the small town on the hill is long dead and won't be returning anytime soon.
Thanks really glad you enjoyed it.
thanks for the feedback and the keen eye on stock footage i could have got some steam footage from swindon station but it would have taken me all year lol. glad it brought back memories.
I love the random shots of you just walking.
Cheers for the comment.
Well done Mark and thanks for sharing this. Was only in Swindon once and that was in 2011 driving en-rout to Avebury I think we encountered a round about called the Magic roundabout?? well lets just say we ended up in Tesco looking for directions as our head was still spinning :-) We love these types of video thanks again for taking the time to put it together :-) Hugs from Ireland :-)
Great video Mark, nice to learn some history I didn't know about my own home town :o)
Once again, really well put together. I appreciate this style of video not only takes absolutely ages to film, but also to put together on the editor, especially when it comes to tracking down appropriate stock footage and stills etc (really impressed with the old footage you managed to yet hold of by the way!). Great job!
Thank you this was interesting.
cheers
Thanks, hope to make more when time allows
There is an interesting pop video by the 80's pop band 'Tears for Fears' called 'The way you are' which was filmed in the last few days of the Railway works in Swindon, it shows some really interesting shots of workers manufacturing giant springs. Well worth a watch. czcams.com/video/lY3CBCyK49s/video.html
+bonnie43uk Thanks for that.
Cheers Rick. froze my ass off during this one. my face got more and more frozen until i had to get indoors lol
Brilliant video,very informative well filmed and edited,thanks for uploading,have subscribed to your channel.
I just love this thanks for posting, a home sick ex pat in Belgium x
Thank you. Very interesting. Bravo Bravo.
Nice bit of work!
Thanks
Spent some time in Swindon. The important is, the city is very close to Bath, OXford, London. Overall, I like the city.
Town !!
Its now a city, it is a town.
Wish it was a city
thanks for the comment
Used to throw some shapes at Brunel rooms back in the nineties 👐 😁
Me too, lol.
@@mbreak1 I can beat you both, I remember going to the BR from back in the mid seventies. Recall seeing a certain Suzi Quattro live there once!
I was born in Swindon, lived there until my family moved to America in 1974. I remember my mom and dad going to the Brunel Center to dance for a night out. I would be babysat at my grans house on Shaftsbury Ave. Dad drove a train and then worked at Press Steel after I came along. Mom would walk to work at Russel's from our home in Nyth Estate. My sister and I went to to Dorcan just down the road. My two brothers went to Nyth elementary. What great memories! Great video!
very professional and informative....well done...
When I watch this video just because I live in Swindon. Anyways nice facts!
Thanks Merilyn
Great video :)
cheers
Cheers
Global Entity music & Tekfusion studios are based in Swindon, England, Wiltshire. UK. My music project predominately electronic, Any way ask anyone in Great Britain what County is the most mystical , haunting, superstitious, magical, weird and unseen, the answer will most likely be Wiltshire. Avebury stone circle and the list goes on. A lot a people will say Ooh Aah the Wiltshire farmer and his accent, hence the name Pig or Swine (old French or Anglo Saxon) and so the name 'Swindon' or Swineland was founded. KJ : I was on a day out in Caln (not Genghis or Kublai) and visited the art history section and Caln was a massive Pig factory history called Harris. The Information attendant said 'Swindon No it was not' but name after a Viking - The secret hidden history of Britain. KJ how did the Vikings get to Normandy. In reality 1066 could also be known as the Norman/Viking invasion. Anyway the name 'Swindon' could that have been King Swen Forbeard or another Sven.
www.soundclick.com/bands3/default.cfm?bandid=1295807
By the way, when did you actually film this. Was it around the same time as the published date, January 2013.
Michael Rose yes early Jan,2013
Change the name back to Swinedun, we could sub title that, pig town welcomes you.
would you happen to have a email address that I could contact you? I am trying to do some research about my family that lived in Swindon.
Not really sure how I would be of any help to be honest, but thanks for the comment.
Mbreak1 - not sure if you still receive comments. I have only just watched this and wanted to make a few comments. The film was interesting, although you did refer to Swindon as a city when talking about the tram disaster, and Swindon has never been a city and still isn't. Also at the end of the film, you say that something needs to happen in Swindon or it will return to just being a town on a hill. This is blatantly untrue as we have such companies as Honda, Nationwide, Zurich, Rover and lots of other companies, and therefore we would have to have a serious recession for Swindon to ever go back to a small town on a hill again. If you want to reply to me my email is michaelalanrose2009@gmail.com
Very good comment, the city part was relating to the city of bath ( bath and west show )i kind of messed that part up a bit lol. I guess your spot on about the employment status of Swindon, I was sort of referring to the way a lot of smaller businesses seemed to be closing down in the town center around the time of filming, and the rise of cash for gold at the same time, but overall and definitely today Swindon has plenty going for it. I would like to remake this at some point with better info and better quality hd recording, again cheers for the comment.