Inside’ Outside: The Great Wall of Swindon explored
Martha Parry of Swindon Civic Voice writes for The Ink about the fascinating and poignant history of the Railway Works
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The wall behind which Swindon people made their town one of the most important in the nation
An insight into what life was like ‘Inside’
Jack Hayward will present his story of Swindon’s ‘Great Wall’ on 6 February at 6pm, at Central Community Centre, Emlyn Square. Parking in Brunel North or Bristol St. car parks.
Book via dan@mechanics-trust.org.uk
by Martha Parry
A great many Swindon residents understand that the town’s railway works was referred to in local parlance as ‘Inside’ - a typical bit of railway humour – because it operated inside a high stone and brick wall, with only a few secure gates.
On Wednesday afternoons visitors might step inside and see the astounding goings-on with a guided tour. They queued for that privilege outside the main ‘Tunnel Entrance’ in Emlyn Square. I joined that tour with my husband Martin Parry in 1980, not long after we moved here for his post as Media Arts Officer with what was then Thamesdown Borough Council.
That tour changed our lives, and led to 44 years of commitment to sharing the story not only of ‘inside’, but also of the workers who streamed in and out daily until closure in 1986, and of the town they built as New Swindon from 1841 when the GWR Directors ordered 300 cottages from their 35-year-old civil engineer, IK Brunel.
This short modern story, however, fast forwards to 2023-24 when one of my life’s greatest pleasures was to walk along this wall in the company of Jack Hayward, the 90-year-old keeper of many Swindon stories, who had worked for 34 years as a Clerk across many of the Works shops, stores and offices.
I had asked Jack to explain the stories behind the length of wall which extends from Rodbourne Road at the corner of Church Place, along Bristol Street, Emlyn Square, London Street, Sheppard Street and Station Road to Corporation Street.
It was quite an eye-opening journey, including the Army Reserve garages site, St Mark’s Church with its spire on the ‘wrong’ (mainline) side, the Vicarage and graveyard, a Victorian school next to a modern one, a fire station, a water tower, a car park, a tunnel entrance, a beautiful range of industrial frontages, a few curiously empty sites used as car parks, an old canal route with a tunnel under the mainline, some stone walls with bricked up entrances, a mainline railway station, and a ‘Milk Bank’...all in a straight mile walk!