North West Swindon Link July 2023

Jamie@positive-media.co.uk

Refurbished Lydiard Park Hotel and Conference Centre officially launched

By Barrie Hudson barrie@positive-media.co.uk

It’s an exciting month here at The Link as we launch our innovative and exciting news subscription service called The Ink.

We have been running the new service in the background for the past month now and our official launch will be on Monday 3 July with the great and the good attending.

It’s a simple idea and will enable us to provide high quality news directly to people who sign up to the subscription service.

The Ink itself is a very different beast to The Link as we will be able to put out news and analysis three times a week with brand new content not found in the magazine or website. We hope you like it as it has a different feel to anything else we’ve done. You can find out all the details on page 8 and it costs £5.99 a month with your first month free (so you can always unsubscribe if you don’t like it)

The location often referred to as the jewel in Swindon’s heritage crown has begun the latest chapter in its long history.

Guests ranging from historians and heritage groups to local companies and charities, together with VIPs including new Swindon Borough Council leader Cllr Jim Robbins and council chief executive Susie Kemp, were present at the official opening of the refurbished Lydiard Park Hotel and Conference Centre.

The hotel, attached to the historic Grade I Listed Lydiard House owned by Swindon Borough Council for eight decades, has been completely transformed in a project lasting three years.

Previously offering some 35 rooms, the hotel has been remodelled to feature 32, including family rooms and a room specially designed for guests with disabilities.

The restaurant has been completely remodelled, conference capacity expanded from 80 to 120 covers and a new bar,

pictured, which is reminiscent of an Art Deco palm court and with an almost full length skylight, has been created where a swimming pool once was.

Cllr Robbins said: “What an amazing asset for Swindon.

“I think the team have done an absolutely brilliant job on this place.

“They have delivered it on time and on budget - and clearly I’m claiming that as the first Labour victory since we’ve been in power!

“It’s great to be here. I really hope that this is a venue that you can all use, that you can encourage people to use, and we can get people coming in,

enjoying the beautiful park that we’ve got here, get people into the venue and that they can just see what sort of thing we can actually do in Swindon.

“I encourage you all to have a look around, try out the drinks, try out the food, go and look at the rooms, do the tour and just see what a brilliant place this is.

“Hopefully we can use it as a springboard to try to get some more investment in the town, get things going and make Swindon the place we want it to be, and build the better Swindon we’ve been promising.”

(Picture: Richard Wintle, Calyx)

Group Editor and Owner: Jamie Hill

Deputy Editor: Barrie Hudson

Reporter: Jessica Durston

Sales: Dave Stewart and Rosy

Presley

Accounts Manager: Karen Randall

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Closing date for August adverts

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The Eco Briefing

Solar panel group-buying scheme again open for registrations

Swindon residents have the opportunity to come together to invest in renewable energy through a group-buying scheme for solar panels and battery storage.

Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council are working with iChoosr, independent experts in group-buying, to launch a second Solar Together scheme, following the success of the first in 2022.

Since the first round of the scheme launched in May 2022, over 1,500 home owners across Wiltshire and Swindon have so far installed over 8,500 solar panels and 720 storage batteries to benefit from generating their own renewable energy. This is

also estimated to shrink the carbon footprint of these households by more than 650,000 kilograms of Carbon Dioxide in total.

The scheme offers solar panels with optional battery storage and electric vehicle charge points, as well as retrofit battery storage for residents who have already invested in solar panels and are looking to get more from the renewable energy they generate as well as increase their independence from the grid.

There is also the chance to discuss options to divert solar energy to power the immersion heater in your hot water tank if you have one.

It is free to register, without any obligation to continue and the procedure is simple:

- Registration: you can register online at www. solartogether.co.uk/Swindon by providing details about your roof, such as its size and orientation (a roof’s position relative to the sun, for example south facing). The more people register, the better the deal should be for each household

- Auction: a list of prevetted solar installers will bid for the work and the most competitive offer wins the auction

- Personal recommendation: you will then be emailed a personal recommendation for your home

- You decide: you will have six weeks to decide if you want to accept the recommendation

- Installation: if you accept,

the winning installer will contact you to survey your roof and set an installation date

The Solar Together website has lots of information available to help residents consider whether solar panels are right for them. The independent Energy Savings Trust also provides a comprehensive guide to solar panels on its websitesearch ‘energy savings trust solar panels’ online.

Blaylocks

Kelmscott Manor

Charity Big Dog Art Trail set to delight people throughout summer

By Barrie Hudson barrie@positive-media.co.uk

The Big Dog Art Trail in aid of the Julia’s House children’s hospice charity will run from 15 July to 3 September.

A total of 30 Swindogs and 41 smaller Swinpups, decorated by companies, sports teams and individual artists, will be displayed across the borough, with details at www. bigdogarttrail.co.uk/ sculptures/ Artists represented include the internationally-acclaimed Kitty Shepherd, creator of colourful piece Puppy Love, main picture, which is said to be a nod to 1970s heartthrob Donny Osmond, and and mother-and-son team Judy and Morgan Guillery, inset, of Mouldon View in Swindon.

A new dawn for journalism in Swindon

An innovative and ambitious news subscription service called The Ink is being launched in Swindon in association with Swindon Link. The new publication will be sent directly to people’s inboxes three times a week and will only cost £5.99 a month with the first month free so you can cancel it if you don’t like it before paying a penny.

By Jamie Hill

We want Swindon to have better journalism – quality writing and investigative journalism that drives change.

Our mission at The Ink isn’t just about making the media better though, it’s about making Swindon better and more accountable. Swindon has a rich culture and heritage, and an extremely generous community.

We want it to be a place where we face our failures and spread good ideas. Where we understand and hear each other’s perspectives. We want Swindon to be better informed.

These might be lofty principles but over the past three decades we have seen the media industry eat itself with quality going by the wayside as we chase clicks instead of insight. The industry has swapped print advertising pounds for digital pennies and the quality has dipped because of this.

So we have had to find a way around this. A way of still providing the insight and quality of good journalism but still having the means to survive as with the best ideals in the world no-one can

survive on air.

From a tiny newsroom in Old Town, we will endeavour to put together stories that will make you better informed and more closely connected with this great town. We want to use our stories to create a better Swindon and build a better community.

The idea is to provide three paid for curated news bulletins a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) with a free one going out to our free members on a Friday summarising the week and giving people a taste of what they’re missing from not being a paid member.

We will still be just as passionate with Swindon Link, which we believe provides a thread joining the different communities of the town on a monthly basis.

But The Ink will be more analytical and give us the ability to really delve down into what really makes Swindon tick.

We do realise that this is a whole new concept for Swindon and for us as well. We have been creating The Ink for more than a month now just to ensure

that we can do it justice.

But for us journalists it’ll be a way that we can get the information of the day directly in front of people’s eyes. And it will also be completely advertising free as we want to provide completely unfiltered news and analysis to our readers.

The plan is to provide an Ink briefing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with people who sign up for the free version getting an update on a Friday. Another thing that we will ensure is that no-one is ever tied into anything. You can join and leave when you want without incurring any extra costs.

The first month that you sign up for is free so you also have the ability to taste what we’re doing and then unsubscribe if it’s not your cup of tea (although we assure you it will be!)

As an organisation we’re very excited and we have ideas aplenty to make this a good read for anyone who wants to stay in the know on local matters in Swindon.

You can subscribe by scanning the QR code on the advert opposite with your phone.

New EV for parish council fleet

Haydon Wick Parish Council has added another new electric vehicle to its Parks & Open Spaces.

The Transit-style van will be used in grounds maintenance work.

Parish council chair Cllr Vinay Manro said the organisation was proud to add another electric vehicle, and that by reducing the council’s carbon footprint it would make Haydon Wick a greener place to live.

Swindon Pride goes

Nationwide

Swindon & Wiltshire Pride have announced the return of Nationwide Building Society as main sponsor for the 2023 event.

This year Pride is heading back to Queens Park on Saturday, 12 August for what organisers are promising will be even bigger and better than last year’s popular Pride Picnic.

New Arkell’s brew to mark centenary of car maker MG

Arkell’s Brewery have created a limited-edition beer to mark 100 years of MG.

‘Petrol Head’ is described as a 4.5% ABV pale beer brewed using traditional Norwegian Kveik yeast which adds a unique orangy flavour.

In 1923 brewery family member ancestor Oliver Arkell was the first person documented to purchase an MG, choosing a Raworth-bodied Super Sports model, of which no examples survive.

New Prospect CEO pledges to tackle death taboos

By Barrie Hudson barrie@positive-media.co.uk

The new CEO of Prospect Hospice greeted community members at a reception and set out his vision for the future.

Jeremy Lune spoke at an informal reception attended by guests from the worlds of healthcare, business, the arts, local politics, the voluntary sector and people whose lives have been touched by the work of the Wroughtonbased organisation.

Announcing a new strategy, the CEO said: “That strategy is based around a vision, and the vision is a community where death is not a taboo and everyone has a right to live and die well.

“That’s quite a strange

thing to talk about in many ways; we’re a very sophisticated society, we’re at a very sophisticated time in history, yet in this part of the world at this time we still flinch at talking about death.”

The new CEO introduced Nancy, widow of BBC Radio Wiltshire journalist Ashley Heath, who died in 2021 at 55, having been diagnosed

some years earlier with a brain tumour. She and the Jeremy Lune are pictured above.

Nancy praised Prospect for caring so completely for her late husband that she was able to spend precious time with him simply holding his hand.

Prospect Hospice’s website can be found at www. prospect-hospice.net

Kelmscott Manor promises visitors a treasure trove

Kelmscott Manor was the iconic country home of William Morris; poet, designer, craftsman, socialist and founding father of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Visitors are welcome at the Manor house and adjoining farm buildings loved by Morris as a work of true craftmanship, totally unspoilt and unaltered, and in harmony with the surrounding countryside.

A spokesperson said: “Enjoy our new temporary exhibition where gems from our reserve collection are on display.

“Exhibits include works by Pre-Raphaelite artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones, and exquisite embroideries by Jane and May Morris.

“Kelmscott Manor also boasts enchanting riverside

gardens and the River Thames is located just a few hundred yards away.

“Beyond the walls of the formal garden stand the impressive farm barns – two of which house the Tearoom and beautiful Shop.

“A variety of activities are available in our Learning Barn for all ages to enjoy including trails, jigsaws, craft making and much more.

“Throughout the summer holidays we also have a series of drop in family

workshops on Saturdays where visitors of all ages can join in with various crafts. Follow us on social media for details on upcoming workshops.”

Opening hours are from 10.30am to 5pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and new for this year is the option of an annual pass.

Full details can be found at kelmscottmanor.org.uk, and Kelmscott Manor is also on Facebook and Instagram.

Interview: Artist Marilyn Trew’s unique maps can be seen in beauty spots throughout the Swindon area

By Barrie Hudson barrie@positive-media.co.uk

Marilyn Trew loves art and loves creating maps.

The results of that happy combination of loves are displayed in public places and private homes throughout the Swindon area and beyond.

She maps not just places but their history, their wildlife and the people - sometimes generations of peoplewhose stories are intertwined with that of the landscape.

Her work can be seen at Wichelstowe, at Shaftesbury Lake, at Jubilee Lake, at TWIGS Community Gardens and many other locations. There are also private commissions, ranging from watercolours of beloved family homes to maps not just of places but of lives.

“I do things for 60th wedding anniversaries, anniversaries or birthdays.

“I did a map recently for a headmaster. It was commissioned by his wife and it was the story of his life.

“It contained every house he lived in, every school he was a teacher or a headmaster at, their holidays all over the world, the phonebox where she made a phone call to make the first date - so I’m almost like a stalker into their lives, basically!”

Originally from Wimbledon, Marilyn worked for many years as an HR manager for Lucent Technologies in Malmesbury, a high-powered role involving recruiting specialist engineers. She volunteered as a

Samaritan and later spent many years as a professional counsellor and eventually a teacher of counselling.

Her love of art, like her love of maps, began in childhood.

Marilyn traces her fascination witn maps back to family holidays in the 1950s aboard the Lanchester car shared with an uncle and five cousins. Her father would challenge her to keep track of the journeys.

“Every 10 miles I had to say what the temperature of the car was, where we were on the map and approximate time to our next destination.

“I could tell on an Ordnance Survey Map the difference between a church with a spire and no spire.

“I could tell what was a

marshland or a bridge.

“So I got very heavily into maps and curiosity for travel, really. That’s manifested itself now in the maps.”

And art?

“I did go to art school. I passed the 13-plus in Art so I went to art school from when I was 13 to when I was 17.

“Then I started my life and art didn’t really play a part, apart from the odd poster for the scouts or stuff for the children.

“It wasn’t until I retired that I thought about art and then became an artist - with proper pictures, as it were!

“I painted pictures - I belonged to the artists’ forum in the Brunel Centre in Swindon. I ran three art groups with about 70 people each week for a number of years, maybe

four or five, until covid struck, and then that stopped that!

“The maps started about eight years ago.

“I went to Peatmoor Woodland, just for a walk on my own - get a bit of solitude and birdsong - and I got lost in there. I couldn’t find my way out for quite a while.

“Then, when I came out of it, I saw these lovely signposts ready for a map or a sign.

“There was nothing on the posts but they had lovely tiled roofs, just waiting for noticeboards.”

Marilyn called Roger Ogle, who she had got to know while living in West Swindon.

Roger, in addition to a career which includes being founder editor of Swindon Link, has looked after the woodland for many years.

“I said, ‘I think you need a map, Roger.’ That was the very first one that I did, and I’ll be forever grateful to Roger for letting me do that.

“He’s looked after the woodland for 30 years. There are many, many places like that in Swindon, where people have looked after them for 30 years, many small places.

“I’m currently mapping West Swindon for the green spaces, however small they are.

“I hope that the maps increases people’s curiosity about places.”

Further information about Marilyn and her work can be found on Facebook at Marilyn Trew-Artist and Marilyn’s Maps.

Health services release archive images in run up to NHS 75th anniversary

Construction underway on new sporting hub in Moredon

By Jamie Hill

Work is underway to build a brand new £6.3m multi-sports community hub in Moredon.

The new Moredon Sporting Hub, just off Akers Way, will offer sport and leisure for all ages and will be aimed at those new to the sports available at the site.

With one month to go until the UK celebrates the 75th anniversary of the NHS, the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are sharing some images that tell the story of healthcare in Swindon.

This collection available to view on GWH’s Facebook features royal visits and aerial views of both the Great Western Hospital and old Princess Margaret site, as well as glimpses at care which was funded by the Great Western Railway Medical Fund.

High Sheriff Concert raises £4,500 for Domestic Abuse Support Services

Organised by the Rotary Club of Swindon under the ‘Swindon Cares’ banner, the concert was hosted by High Sheriff Pradeep Bhardwaj. Through programme advertising and donations, the evening raised over £4,500 which will go to Swindon Domestic Abuse Support Services.

Better With Music Cafe heads to Old Town

The Better With Music Cafe, organised by Sounds Like Women, will take place at Christ Church Community Centre on Saturday 29 July from noon to 4pm. The free musical event will include workshops and singer Melissa James.

It will also be aimed at those who may have stopped playing, but are keen to return to sport and physical activity, as well as those wishing to continue their activity in a better environment.

Highlights of the scheme include:

- Full size floodlight 3G pitch, fully enclosed with metal fencing, suitable for multiteam training and senior and junior matches.

- A 1km regional standard cycling closed road circuit with a number of internal loops and cross over points – allows for three separate groups to use the track at one time

- Grass sports pitches including three football pitches and two cricket pitches.

- New pavilion with enhanced changing areas, café and reception area.

The project will be delivered by four main contractors who will build the pavilion, cycle track and sports pitches. TigerTurf UK and McArdle Sport Tec are constructing the artificial sports pitch, Snape Contracting Services Ltd and Talus Construction are bringing forward the pavilion and Spadeoak is creating the cycle track and

new car park.

While the project is being delivered by Swindon Borough Council, once open, the hub will be operated by North Central Swindon Parish Council.

Funding for the sporting hub has come from Swindon Borough Council, Central North Swindon Parish Council, the Premier League, The FA, Government’s Football Foundation and Sport England. The project is scheduled to be finished by next Spring. Visit footballfoundation.org. uk for more information on the Foundation and view the Plan for your local area.

Lawn Manor Academy gets crafty for charity

Lawn Manor Academy pupils have been busy creating a range of hand-made keyrings to raise money for the DEC Ukraine and TurkeySyria appeals.

The group of four Year Nine pupils, Hayden, Ellie, Melissa and Helena have raised almost £40 selling keyrings made using Hama beads to fellow pupils.

The four are part of the Connect9+ class, which provides a supportive and nurturing learning environment to pupils with additional needs in order to ensure they leave school achieving the highest academic qualifications that they’re capable of, as well as supporting the development of their social and life skills.

The group approached the project in a business-like way in order to make the most money possible for charity. They started by conducting market research across the school to measure the demand for keyrings, what sort of designs people wanted and what they would be willing to pay.

From this, they worked on their costings

and designs, finally making each keyring by hand and selling to fellow pupils for £1 per keyring.

Connect9+ Teacher, Kelda Sproston, said: “The class has worked really hard to raise money for the DEC appeals and we’re really proud of the money they’ve raised for charity.

“The most popular designs were football teams, Disney characters and animals. They were really well received by the other pupils in the school of the school outside of the usual Connect classes area.”

www.lawnmanor.org

Year Nine pupils, Hayden, Ellie, Melissa and Helena from Lawn Manor Academy

Welcome to Abbey Farm Educate Together

Our vision for Abbey Farm ET Primary is to create a school where every child is valued, nurtured, developed to the best of their ability.

An environment that is holistic in approach and enables the children to continue their education upon leaving and develop into the very best that they wish to be.

Our committed staff team strive to provide our children with the happiest and best education possible. We look forward to welcoming visitors to our school so that we can share our exciting learning environment and ethos whilst sharing our vision for Abbey Farm Educate Together.

Our community consists of more than just our children and staff: it extends to our parents and families, local residents within the Abbey Farm estate.

We believe all play an important part in partnership with us to enable the school to integrate and support both our children and the local community. Something that is growing by the day.

School Profile: Abbey Farm Educate Together Primary

Get to know the schools in your area

This issue: Abbey Farm Educate Together

Address: Diamond Crescent, Abbey Farm, Swindon, SN25 2SJ

Contact: 01793 251109

Website: abbeyfarmet.org.uk

We are a two form entry school with 60 children in each year group. In September 2022 we opened our pre-school and reception class. The school will grow by opening an additional year group each September until we are full in 2028.

Our pre-school and primary school offers:

- A unique ethical curriculum.

- A place where no child is an outsider.

- A well-resourced indoor and outdoor learning environment.

What we offer: Our Curriculum:

We actively question whether what we do is for the children’s learning and welfare. We believe that a commitment to high academic standards is possible alongside a creative and ethical curriculum. The ‘Learn Together Curriculum’ is embedded in everything we do and integrated with the National Curriculum.

Pearce Funeral Services unveils planned West Swindon location

Former bank premises in Westlea are to become the new West Swindon location of Pearce Funeral Services.

The company will be the only one in the area able to locally offer dedicated premises.

The firm is led by John Pearce DipFD MBIE, who has more than 33 years of experience in the profession. He and his team pride themselves on offering compassion and kindness as well as all the practical help and expertise clients need in their time of loss.

John Pearce said: “As a family owned and run, independent funeral directors, we are proud to serve the community of Swindon, and all the surrounding areas.

“We are very excited to be able to announce that

we are moving to a new premises in West Swindon.

“We are currently converting the former Barclays Bank, Rivenhall Road, Westlea, and will be moving our Groundwell Road branch to West Swindon once the

renovations have been completed.

“The new premises will also benefit from its own specified car parking spaces, ensuring that families never have to worry about parking arrangements when visiting.

“We will then be the only funeral director in West Swindon able to locally offer dedicated premises with large, comfortable, arrangement rooms for families to visit and discuss funeral arrangements for their loved ones.”

Business Profile - Pearce Funeral Services

Business Type - Arranging funerals of all kinds with an emphasis on client choice

Established - 2009

Telephone number - 01793 832072

Website - pearcefuneralservices.co.uk

By Barrie Hudson barrie@positive-media.co.uk

The philosophy behind Pearce Funeral Services is a simple one which has nevertheless helped countless clients through some of the saddest periods of their lives.

“We’re a family service and we base ourselves on family values,” said Managing Director John Pearce.

“When somebody’s loved one comes through our door, as far as we’re concerned that family’s loved one is a member of our family for as long as they are with us.

“We treat that loved one as if they were our father, our mother, husband, wife.”

The company’s main base is in Ermin Street, but it has another premises in Groundwell Road and is readying one, pictured middle, in Rivenhall Road, Westlea.

Pearce prides itself on being a help to all, from those who prefer a modest, inexpensive ceremony to those who want

something more elaborate.

The company has conducted, for example, funerals for motorcycle enthusiasts involving a sidecar hearse to carry the coffin.

It once arranged, at the behest of loved ones, a funeral procession led by a special type of cement mixer invented by the deceased.

Members of the Pearce team, each specially chosen for their compassion as well as their

professional abilities, have worn football shirts and band shirts specified by loved ones.

The company will adapt ceremonies to suit the wishes of the deceased and their loved ones, from hosting them in village halls and garden marquees to arranging ceremonies elsewhere in the country for deceased who had wanted to have their funerals in their original home communities.

History of Pearce Funeral Services

John Pearce, Managing Director of Pearce Funeral Services, regards being in the industry as a privilege.

It is a sentiment echoed by his wife, Liz, who is Company Administrator.

John began working the industry as a teenager in 1990, and was a professionally-accredited expert many years before establishing the firm in 2009. His sense of public service began in childhood.

“If you go right back to the very beginning,” he said, “I was brought up as a vicar’s son in a family that was very much serving the community. Although it was my father’s ministry, the whole family lived that lifestyle.”

He, alongside Liz and the other members of the tight-knit team take pride in compassionately guiding clients through the worst of times.

LINK POLITICS

Borough council leader and opposition leader set out aims and hopes

A

Swindon Borough Council Leader Jim Robbins

It has been a very busy month getting to grips with my new role leading the council and I have had a very full calendar of introductory meetings with a number of people and organisations around the town.

It has been positive to have received such a warm welcome from so many people, and it is staggering to see just how much positive and exciting work is going on in the town that we will be supporting as a council.

We are committed to placing our three missions - to reduce inequality, to build a better Swindon and to reach

our Net-Zero targets - right at the heart of the council and we will be bringing forward constitutional changes at the July council meeting to deliver three new policy committees to really drive forward on this agenda.

I hope that all of the town’s political parties will buy into the changes and help us deliver a Swindon that works for all and that we can all be proud of.

I was delighted to see spades in the ground on the £6.3m Moredon Sports Hub which will include a full-size floodlit 3G pitch suitable for training and senior and junior matches.

Also due to complete in July is the Southern Connector Road. We secured £5m of funding towards the Health Hydro which (with £1.5m from the council) will deliver enhancements to the leisure facilities housed within the much loved building, repairs and maintenance to the structure and additional works to highlight the building’s historical features.

This will enhance a unique leisure and heritage attraction to draw people into Swindon’s

town centre and aid in transforming the next steps in urban regeneration.

People have often asked what we could do with the Town Centre, and to be honest we can only affect the parts in public ownership, whilst creating an environment where businesses can thrive in a town with a reduced retail footprint and with more people calling the town centre their home.

I will always be positivealways promoting Swindon.

column by

A column by borough council Conservative Group Leader Gary Sumner

by Jamie Hill

Words

The 2023 Shuffle Announces Its Full LineUp

The Swindon Shuffle music festival is a main-stay of the Swindon music scene calendar. This year’s takes place between Thursday 14 September and Sunday 17 September.

All Ears Avow

The Swindon Shuffle has announced its full line-up for this years event, and it is packed full of the best talent the local music scene has to offer.

For those of you who like the rockier side of music there is plenty to keep you happy, from the alt-rock of All Ears Avow and Modern Evils to the sludgy doom of Phantom Droid. The likes of Stay Lunar, Moon, Viduals and Chasing Dolls keep the indie-kids dancing and there are first shuffle experiences for up and coming young bands Trippy Kicks, I See Orange and Mirrored Faces.

If something rootsier is more your thing you are also well catered for with the widescreen americana of Matt Owens & The Delusional

Vanity Project and Concrete Prairie headlining stages, along with folkier offerings from the likes of Fly Yeti Fly, Canute’s Plastic Army and Splat The Rat. Subject A bring a touch of Ska and Reggae to proceedings and there is creative and impossible to pigeonhole music from Will Lawton & The Alchemists, Richard Wileman & Amy Fry and new band The Wheel 2!, who feature many of the faces behind the amazing and much missed Diagonal People. THUD and Bone Chapel bring some blues to proceedings and Swindon Folk club again curate a stage.

With over 60 acts on the main bill there is something for everyone.

features local soul and R&B artists, electronica acts and vinyl DJ’s and much more.

www.swindonshuffle.org.uk

Chasing Dolls

New exhibiton takes us back to the Swindon of 1957

By Barrie Hudson barrie@positive-media.co.uk

Images of Swindon gathered 66 years ago are on display at the Central Library until the end of July.

Taken by architectural historian Andor Gomme during a visit in March of that year as part of his research into townscapes, the images are a small selection from the Historic England Archive’s Andor Gomme Collection.

Gomme’s photographs show historic buildings in Swindon town centre, the Railway Village and Old Town. They also record Walcot East, Park South, and Old Walcot - the new housing estates which were being constructed as Swindon grew east of the town centre.

Images include that of Regent Street on a busy shopping day (right)), the Railway Works and a view along Leighton Avenue in Park South, then yet to be completed, toward the distant spire of Christ Church.

The Regent Street image shows Victorian shopfronts which would be changed beyond recognition or vanish altogether during town centre redevelopment, although the McIlroys tower is clearly recognisable.

Austin Harvey (Andor) Gomme (1930-2008) was Emeritus Professor of English Language and Architectural History at the University of Keele.

He was chair of the Society for Architectural Historians

of Great Britain and editor of its journal, Architectural History.

During the 1950s Gomme travelled widely across the country, recording the built environment.

The photographs he took at that time, now held by the Historic England Archive, depict the towns and villages of England during a period of rapid change.

This change was driven by a combination of factors; the after effects of the war, the growing importance of the car and a drive to modernise.

The collection reflects

this, providing a record of traditional market towns and modern urban centres.

The Historic England Archive’s Andor Gomme Collection contains around 30,000 photographs of towns and villages in England and Wales, taken from the 1950s to the 1990s. Details of opening times can be found at www.swindon.gov.uk/ info/20026/libraries/302/ local_studies_local_history_ and_genealogy

Young Lionesses’ new club roaring for Swindon

It already has about 80 members and fields some eight teams but aims to field 10 or more.

The club has its origins in teams founded by chairman and head coach Gary Pearce some six years ago, following daughter Isla’s experiences in a footballing world which at that time was even more male dominated than it is now.

A Swindon girls’ football club described as the biggest in Wiltshire welcomes new members.

Nalgo Swindon Lionesses, based at the Nalgo Sports & Leisure Club in Cricklade Road, caters for team age ranges from under-eights to under-13s.

The club was part of Stratton Juniors, but about a month ago became Nalgo Swindon Lionesses.

It welcomes prospective members and sponsors, and full details can be obtained by searching for Nalgo Swindon Lionesses on Facebook.

AGONY GIRL

From the pages of Swindon Link's sister publication The Ocelot comes Agony Girl in the form of ten-year-old Amy. We read her the questions and she tells us the answers. To ask Agony Girl a question yourself email us at publisher@ swindonlink.com with 'Agony Girl' in the subject line.

Dear Agony Girl, Summer is here! What summer games would you recommend? And how do you play them?

Tyler, Haydon Wick

Kiss, Marry, Kill. You ask a person if they would rather kiss someone, marry someone or kill someone. Twister is also good. With Twister it says on the instructions but you have to put your elbow by your feet. Tag is also good. Someone is ‘it’ and they try and catch you. I’m good at tag.

Dear Agony Girl,

It has come to my attention that the fortnightly bin collections that were introduced around Swindon a few years back, do make the whole town smell especially in the warmer months. What do you suppose we should do about it? How do we make it not smell? Should we all protest outside of the Civic Offices?

Daniel, Middleleaze

Just say to the Council to get all of the smelly bins and then put them in a country where it’s cold. Then it’s their problem but it won’t smell as much. You shouldn’t protest to the council because if you upset them they might decide to not collect your bins at all seeing as it’s a favour in the first place.

Dear Agony Girl,

At times of stress I find myself picking at little patches of dry skin on one of my fingers and one of my thumbs. Although I try not to do it, especially when my partner notices and nudges me, the affected parts end up looking as though I’ve caught my hand in a mincer. Sometimes when I go to shake hands with somebody, they seem to be afraid of catching something nasty. Short of wearing mittens, what can I do?

Yours worriedly, Bloke with shredded digits

You just need to stop. I do that on my thumb but then I keep stopping. If you stop your thumbs won’t look like they’ve been in a zombie apocalypse. When stressed get a piece of paper instead and scribble as hard as you can.

Dear Agony Girl

I’m going on holiday soon but it’s down the coast in Weymouth and I’m dreading the non-stop traffic jams that I’m bound to face all the way down. How do you keep yourself from getting bored to death on long car journeys?

Karen, Ridgeway Farm

Pack an entertainment bag with paper and pencils. Download movies and pack fidget toys and books.