Ferndale Road Swindon. Okay, I know, doesn’t sound too exciting a topic eh? But stay with me – it’s more interesting than it sounds. Honest!

Welcome to Swindon in 25 Streets.

The reason for my interest in this long, long street is this: I’ve got a contract with Amberley Publishing to produce Swindon in 25 Streets by the back end of next year. So yesterday myself and my chum Chris Eley, having been given the nod that this eponymous street could be a candidate for inclusion, went there for a bimble.

Much as I did with the Swindon in 50 More Buildings project, I’ll use the blog as a repository for research and then, later, pull it together into a book.

The long and not very winding road

Ferndale then, is a residential area of Swindon, about a mile from the town centre. It is home to one of (the???) Swindon’s oldest pubs, the Southbrook. The erstwhile Grade II listed Southbrook farmhouse-turned-public house lies tucked away in a corner of Ferndale on Southbrook Street. It once was the only building in the area but the 1908 expansion of Swindon brought it, and the land surrounding it.

The area took the name Ferndale post the building of Ferndale Road. Today this long and not very winding road, (there are a few little wiggles) connects Gorse Hill at one end with Cheney Manor at the other and it’s a very, very, very long (around 630 houses) comprised largely of terraced housing. And there’s some long terraces.

In Victorian times though, the road was far shorter than it is now. That changed in 1902 when one Edwin Bradley, a building contractor, began building houses along the road. Now I’m assuming that Bradley’s Corner – see image below – takes its name from this man who built so much of the street. I’m not sure though – need to seek confirmation on that. I suspect, given that the building you see here was clearly a shop, that’s the origin of the name.

School days

Ferndale Road boasts lovely and-still-in-use school buildings dating back to 1907. At first built as separate infant and junior schools, the expansion of Swindon north of the railway line, necessitated a large site on the road in 1905. The new infant school opened in 1907 and in 1946 the complex underwent reorganisation into separate junior and secondary schools.

In 1999 the school began to share its site with Oxford Brookes University who offer the chance to study for an adult nursing degree. 

Bailey’s Corner

Taking its name from the shop, this fronts onto Cheney Manor Road. The Local Studies photograph shows Alfred Bailey’s shop in 1934.

The location became synonymous with the Bailey’s name. So, although Alfred Bailey is long gone his name lives on.

Then came WWII

It’s a mystery to us all how the GWR Works managed to escape obliteration by Nazi bombs. Everyone expected it. As this piece on Swindon Web points out: ‘Even before the war began, Swindon was warned by its MP that it had been “placed in that category of towns which might be expected to have to withstand heavy air attack” from German bombers.’ The town presented a strategic target thanks to it massive railway works. Indeed, it was one of the biggest industrial complexes in the world. Further, it was not hard to spot it amidst the Wiltshire countryside.

But in the event, somehow or other, there was precious little of anything at all – well in comparison to the likes of Sheffield and Coventry – the latter of which the Nazis razed.

August 17th, 1942, brought the worst bombing that the town experienced. Two separate incidents killed between them, 10 people in Kembrey Street and 19 on Ferndale Road. Four people died at 475 Ferndale Road. And there were also deaths at numbers 257, 386, 465, 467, 469 and 471.

In total 25 people died on Ferndale Road at the hands of enemy bombs.

With this knowledge in mind, walk up and down Ferndale Road and it’s not hard to spot where the bombs hit. Because you’ll come across a set of houses that stand out like the proverbial sore thumb. They’re obviously more modern and built in a totally different style.

A Notable name associated with Ferndale

A Swindon Advertiser piece about the area tells of a Swindon Town football star by the name of George Hunt. He began his playing as an amateur for Ferndale Athletic before signing for STFC in 1947.

Hunt made his first senior appearance against Exeter in September 1948. He played for the town for over eleven years, making an impressive 328 appearances – including twenty-four cup matches. The player retired in 1958 and as a qualified coach assisted the club’s back room staff. He also returned to work at the GWR Locomotive Works. Sadly he contracted Mesotheliona – also known as ‘The Swindon Disease’ and that led to his death in 1987. 

The rather lovely-looking facade on the right-hand image once was a branch of the New Swindon Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd – and, although the lettering is gone you can still pick out that name.

It continued as the Oxford and Swindon Co-operative Society Ltd until c.1980. Then, c.1984, became the cycling centre. It’s likely that the launderette dates from around that time too.