Wroughton Spring. Who knew? Well not me that’s for sure. Not until I saw a photograph of this X-marks-the-spot-stone-plaque somewhere on social media.
So, Wroughton Spring has now come to my attention. And that means I’m bursting to know a bit more about it. #Obvs my first port of call is Local Studies in central library. They found a mention of it in Wiltshire Archeological Magazine Volume 40. It weaves a tale of the Swindon Advertiser and its proud boast ‘Printed by Steam Power’.
Students in the GWR Works made the boiler that provided the steam power. And the water for the boiler came from … drum roll please …. the eponymous spring. It seems there once was a trough in the wall from which the water was fetched in pails. Fancy that huh?
But there’s more – a bit anyway
A friend has loaned me a stack of Wroughton history group books. And, turning to the contents list in the issue below my eyes alighted on an entry entitled Wroughton Waterworks. That piqued my interest. Would it have any mention of the spring? Well yes .. it did/does.
NB: I imagine that Local Studies has copies of these Wroughton history books should you want to read the full Wroughton Waterworks article. Or indeed anything else about Wroughton’s history for that matter.
The pertinent extract tells us that the construction of Wroughton Waterworks began in 1866. The Swindon water company chose Overtown Dell as the best site for obtaining a water supply for the fast-expanding railway town, called Swindon. Up to that point water carts and wells had supplied the Swindon district.
The spring on Wroughton Road leading into Swindon comprised the main source of the water supply. And that of course is now marked by the stone plaque on Croft Road that we see in the images above.
Below is an extract from something and I can’t remember now what or where that gives good mention of the spring.
