Topic: Swindon 1900-1950/60

[Mellon]

Here is a video/montage i have put together consisting of over 100 photos showing everday life and scenery from that period, a gentle soothing soundtrack to ease your way through this 6 minute and 38 seconds video,

Enjoy and experience swindon in the olden days

http://www.mediafire.com/?dxnqb6ltmec

[Chav]

Excellent Mellon 

I could make out some of the places in the pictures that
were familiar to me.

(Makes me feel old hehehe)

Its great to look back and reflect upon how things used to be and how they have changed.

                                   Chav 

[Alligator]

Hi Mellon,

This is really good.  Do you know who the old man is in the last picture?  I think I should recognise him but I don't   

[Mellon]

i beleive it is lord stoddart, i dont know why he seemed to fit the end of the video

[Alligator]

of course. It was annoying me as I sort of knew I had seen him before, but couldn't place him.  The badge with the £ sign on it threw me slightly.

[Mellon]

as far as i know the pound symbol was for his 'business for sterling' campaign to keep the british pound instead of changing to the euro,

i forgot to mention in my first post, the photos in the montage are under the ownership of the BBC
www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/ and a couple of photos are under the ownership of Francis Frith, i do not claim to own these photo's, i should have asked the BBC and Francis Frith before-hand if i could use their photos to make a montage, for which i do apologise if i have upset anyone from the BBC.

Mellon

[Geoff Reid]

That was 6 and a half minutes enjoyably spent     

Proof positive that once upon a time Swindon did indeed possess a certain Je ne sais pas ce que.  No wait a minute, I do know what it was. It was a certain kind of elegance, and a strong one at that.

I was tottering my way up Regents Street recently looking at the roofs, I daresay some people thought I was a bit 'spesh, but I was trying to see which buildings were partly original.  There weren't many.

I do wonder if the town planners responsible for the 1st generation of concrete shite that replaced the original buildings ever regretted what they did to the town.....

...and whether the architects, movers and shakers of the next 'regeneration' of concrete shite, ( it will be visionary and vibrant concrete shite though), will ever do the same.

[Mellon]

theres no skill/community in concrete (if that makes sense?) back in ye olde tymes, the community worked together and helped each other, over the recent years society has grown apart , i shall give you an example, the 1900's someone breaks into someones house, the neighbours hear something they go next door and have a go at stopping him, nowadays someones house alarm goes off and everyone thinks "switch that  :censored:alarm off" its a general 'not my problem attitude' until someone breaks into your house,

so as i shall conclude we as a nation/society just dont care anymore, apart from a select few of course

[komadori]

I do wonder if the town planners responsible for the 1st generation of concrete shite that replaced the original buildings ever regretted what they did to the town.....

Before moving to Swindon I lived in Harlow. That was a New Town master planned by a visionary. Unfortunately, his vision didn't work. He never regretted what he created, only that the politicians didn't fully implement his vision (they dared to build some normal houses that people might like to live in). In fairness, Harlow wasn't a town of concrete shite (except the town centre): he didn't make that mistake (except in the town centre). However it was a town of wood-clad shite, which after forty years of woodworm and wet-rot looked decidedly tatty.

...and whether the architects, movers and shakers of the next 'regeneration' of concrete shite, ( it will be visionary and vibrant concrete shite though), will ever do the same.

Nope, they'll blame the credit crunch for ruining their vision and say that everything bad about the re-desecrated town centre is a result of their more indulgent fantasies being abandoned for commercial reasons.

[Mart]

Thier indulgent fantasies are entirely composed of commercial reasoning, it's why they lack any warmth in so many cases. Town centres are becoming the manifestation of accountants dreams bastardised with the formal application of marketing techniques and faux social engineering (that's where the flower tubs come in)

Dorking, where I come from, has a lovely High Street, there are a few arseholes who have wrecked the ground level frontage, but other than that it's lovely.

Boots used to be a candle factory and still has the old stonework above, Robert Dyas has a case with old panelling still in situ, it can be done if the will exists.

Trouble is with Swindon is, what's left to preserve in the Town Centre? I suppose Disney might be able to knock something up.

Traditional town centres evolve, you can't copy that.

[Alex]

Beautiful Mellon!

Swindon once had a real reason to be proud of itself. There are vestiges left- but only a few- the Mechanics, the Locarno, the Goddards- which has been derelict for months now and looks so sad from Wood Street. All of these are crumbling as we speak. Promises are made, hopes raised and then? Nothing.
 
I see the Planks is being developed- where my cousin used to live 50 years ago, he's horrifed.

 Lets hope they make a good job of it, building has encroaced on all vital green parts left in the town- so it's easy to see why people have become so downhearted with the whole  mercenary Swindon experience. It really seems totally soulless now.

[Chav]

I can remember my dad taking me to the planks when I was a kid.
And I remember the cattle market and visits to my nan who lived in Villet street (i think thats how you spell it),
Villet street was then turned into a car park.

                       Chav 

[Geoff Reid]

 
 
I was thinking about the Business Improvement District town centre whilst driving back from London this evening. It occurs to me that it is the human equivalent of a milking parlour....but with less charm than the bovine equivalent.

[Mellon]

 
I was thinking about the Business Improvement District town centre whilst driving back from London this evening. It occurs to me that it is the human equivalent of a milking parlour....but with less charm than the bovine equivalent.

so its pretty much like the Govt. then? being milked for everything

[kecl]

And I remember the cattle market and visits to my nan who lived in Villet street (i think thats how you spell it),
Villet street was then turned into a car park.

Vilett Street shortly before demolition in 1990.





For anyone who's interested, the Viletts were an old Swindon family, at least going back to the 1600's and owned much of the land that New Swindon was built upon.
More recent generations of the family - the Rollestons must have made a fortune when the estate was eventually sold with the coming of the railways, especially as much of it was marshland and not particularly productive.

[Mellon]

it really is a shame that you dont really see any of the old landmarks around nowadays, the mechanics institute for example its hidden away and decaying such a shame, shouldnt it be brought back to its former glory?