The carriage works. The first thing to say about them is that, despite what you read on the Internet, they are NOT Brunel’s. They are in fact the work/initiative of chief mechanical engineer, Joseph Armstrong.* Brunel died in 1859. And the carriage works didn’t appear for another decade!

*Armstrong is buried in the south-west corner of St Mark’s church. See the listing information for his monument here. And his full title was: Locomotive, Carriage & Wagons Superintendent.

The Great Wall of Swindon

Swindonian and railway village resident, Jack Hayward, talks of the great wall of Swindon – of which the length of our building is a part. That’s an apt description separating as it does, the railway cottages from the main London to Bristol line and the factory itself – thus lending itself to the term ‘inside’.

Its western section is waist high and fronts the Vicarage and St Mark Church. It then reaches its full hight as the boundary wall of the Carriage Works and Sawmill built by Joseph Armstrong beginning in 1868.

But the complete wall, including the remaining listed workshops forming the eastern section, runs from the drill hall through the whole length of Church Place, Bristol Street and Emlyn Square. It includes the Workers’ tunnel entrance, then on to London Street, Sheppard Street before continuing to the station where it was completed in 1876.  

The listing information

Historic England have two listing entries related to the building. Dated 1870-80 and Grade II listed in 1986 there’s No 7 shop. Then also Grade II listed in 1986 is No 8 shop.

In 1869, the board of the New Swindon Company approved an initial sum of £26,000 for the carriage works. On Armstrong’s recommendation they appointed Thomas Clayton as carriage and wagon works’ superintendent.

Work progressed at speed on the building of the westernmost buildings which were to house the sawmills. By March 1869 they were in partial use. This is recorded by the report of a frightful incident involving a 16-year-old boy. Wandering round the shop while his sawing machine was stopped he went into the cellar where the drive shafts were being erected, got caught up on one of the shafts and was killed at once.

The carriage works comprised a significant development for New Swindon.

In February 1871, the Swindon Advertiser reported that despite being ‘as yet very incomplete … and only partially erected, they already employed some 1,100 men. 800 in coach building and 300 in manufacturing the ironwork for the carriages.

So the CW then is a series of warehouse unit structures built in phases from west to east but known collectively as the west shed.

The carriage works had extensive workshops at the upper level to allow for an easy transfer of completed carriages onto the track. The workshops to the east also featured a lower level. Over the years they housed a mess hall, bike sheds and a rehabilitation centre – in the 1950s. Not forgetting the nightclub during the 1990s.

Women at work

The carriage works gave work to a wide range of tradespeople – cabinet makers, French polishers, upholsterers and sign-writers. But it’s worth noting this building brought women into the GWR’s employ for the first time. In the main they worked in areas in need of dexterity and skill – the sewing shop for instance. They worked such things as upholstery, window blinds and netting for luggage racks. It was often the case that women did the same work as men. They did though have separate entrances and different start and finish times.

During WWI women came into the workshops in ever greater numbers to replace the men away at the war.

The heritage action zone

Since November 2022, heritage action one funding, approved by Historic England, enabled repairs to the frontages of units 7,9 and 11 – facing onto London Street. Units 3 and 5 underwent refurbishment in the summer of 2018. They’re now a thriving business incubator called Workshed for creative and digital start-up businesses and desk co-working space. You can take a virtual tour of the space here.

The RAU and more

Occupying unit 11 is the Royal Agricultural University’s new Cultural Heritage Institute. They’re delivering postgraduate courses to train the next generation of heritage managers and professionals.

CREATE studios now occupy unit 9 and iCast, a unique research and development centre established to drive change in the innovation strategies of companies working in green growth, is in unit 7.

NB: Most of the information in this post I’ve sourced and distilled from the excellent publication: ‘Swindon: The Legacy of a Railway Town’ from the Royal Commission of Historical Monuments. As was. The bit about the great wall of Swindon is from Jack Hayward.

A little anecdote

From a Facebook reader: Italian POW’s worked here during WW2. We children used to climb on to the window sills to talk to them. They were working on electrical wiring and would make bracelets for us. I lived in Bristol St.