Born Again Swindonian

A personal celebration of Swindon

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Born Again Swindonian

Written by me, Angela Atkinson, Born Again Swindonian celebrates Swindon – the town that I call home and that I’ve come to love in the decades in which I’ve lived here.

Besides my blog activity here, I’ve written a number of Swindon-related books. Further, I sit on a couple of committees and am a devoted grandma to two grandchildren.

More about me

Latest Swindon Ramblings

I’m always looking for new and interesting angles to share when out and about in Swindon.

Swindon in 50 More Buildings

Arts/Culture/Heritage

Swindon in 50 More Buildings. It is at last launched! I held the launch at Fika Coffee and Wine on Havelock Square. We had a full house and a fun time. But I’m been ill pretty much since then thus I’ve not got round to posting anything about it until now.

5 Swindon Things to Visit

Arts/Culture/Heritage

5 Swindon Things to Do. #Obvs there’s much, much more than 5 things to do in Swindon. But in the interests of brevity I’ll limit this post to 5 historical and cultural things to do in Swindon.

6. The Planks and Market Square

Architecture in Swindon, Swindon in 25 Streets

The Planks and Market Square Old Town.

I’m planning on arranging the Old Town section of the forthcoming Swindon in 25 Streets book in something of the order one might walk them. Hence: Before we walk along High Street and round onto Wood Street we’ll take a wee detour to Market Square and The Planks. As you can see from the map below, the Planks leads off from Market Square – from 1866 part of the walkway from Market Place was beside the Corn Exchange.

5. Little London Old Town

Architecture in Swindon, Swindon in 25 Streets

Little London Old Town, Swindon.

Back in 2010, historian Frances Bevan wrote for the Swindon Advertiser, how Old Town once enjoyed a level of depravity and notoriety. Not the whole of Old Town you understand – but a notorious, nefarious, neighbourhood of Swindon’s Old Town.

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A word about our sponsors

When I’m not being Born again Swindonian and writing Swindon-related books I offer proofreading, editing and writing services as AA Editorial Services.

Food, drink and cafe culture

Swindon has a burgeoning independent eating and coffee scene. You’ll find write-ups on just some of them here.

Heritage, culture and the arts

Swindon is so much more than its rich and varied industrial history. It’s been described as a surprising creative hotspot. And it is. Read some of the posts in this section and you’ll see for yourself. I’ve lumped heritage together with arts and creativity because so often they are intertwined. The image shows the front cover of an issue of the very splendid Swindon Heritage magazine. Always worth a read

Swindon in business

A departure here from the rest of the site. Here are posts about Swindon businesses – many of them start ups like my own AA Editorial Services. Some, but not all, are paid advertorials. I have to earn a crust. That said, I know all of them personally, I’ve met them in some business capacity. I do business with many of them & trust in the rest.

AA Editorial Services

Things to celebrate in Swindon

Find out more about the starting point of this blog. My non-definitive list of ten things to celebrate about Swindon.

Swindon's sons & daughters

A whole host of writers, actors, musicians and other notable people have connections with, or roots in, Swindon. Read about some of them here. The sculpture in the photo is of the Swindon-born actress Diana Dors. It’s located outside the Shaw Ridge cinema complex in West Swindon.

Born Again Swindonian