Freshbrook Way West Swindon. Although I’m numbering these articles, I’m not writing them in the order that they’ll appear in the Swindon in 25 Streets book – when I get that far. Anyway, as the title suggests, in this one I’m looking at Freshbrook Way in West Swindon.
Today, Freshbrook Way is an average, run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-road … road. It sits in Toothill, as part of the suburban western expansion area.
Yet, it’s worthy of mention here in Swindon in 25 Streets because of what it once was. And what this road once was, was the main, indeed the only, route from Swindon to the west country. Traffic heading for Chippenham, Bath or Bristol had to use this road, then designated the A420.
And thus it remained until the 1970s. Then the *western expansion developed scantily populated farmland to the west of Swindon, into Freshbrook and Toothill (in the first instance), providing thousands of homes for the expanding population.
*Should you wish to learn more about the western expansion then go to Local Studies in the central library and ask to see The Silver Book. It will reveal all.
That development plan included the construction of a new relief road (though not called that) to the south, the A3102, that wears the mantle of the ubiquitous suburban thoroughfare servicing the residents of Toothill and Freshbrook. It roughly follows, and covers in places, the original Swindon to Bristol road.
The image below shows the before and after of the area. Look at reference 443 on the old map and you’ll see two dwellings indicated in pink surrounded by fields. On the aerial view you’ll see how they’re engulfed by the 1970s development.
Image shows a section of an old map side-by-side an aerial view of the same area today.
Farmworker’s cottages
No doubt the aforementioned dwellings once were farmworker’s cottages. Indeed, there are a couple of similar ones on the edge of Grange Park/Lydiard Park. I’m not sure when they were built – though these two are present on the 1841 census. Then, as Local Studies tell me, there’s a newspaper mention of them in 1866. Before that then they might have been known under a different name – or it could be that nothing newspaper-worthy happened to them before that.Â
Although unremarkable in and of themselves there’s a couple of remarkable things about them that are worth mentioning.
The first remarkable thing about them being that, by some small miracle, these little pieces of yesteryear somehow survived the development taking place all around them – in whose ownership is a mystery. And the second is that, when a developer bought them, said developer restored them rather than demolish them. And with some sympathy too. You’ll note from the photos that the original ogee soffits were retained. They’ve been painted white but otherwise are the same. Little short of a miracle I’d say.
In the first picture you see them before renovation. And in the second picture, after renovation – with another house built to their left – and right I think too.
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2866586
What’s in a name?
Why is this road called Freshbrook Way when it’s in Toothill? Well, as a long-term resident of West Swindon explains, calling road ‘xxxx Way’ is an ancient method of directing people. Hence in Swindon we have Wootton Bassett Road, London Street and so on.
Was this once a coaching route? Well, according to Local Studies, there’s an absence of definitive proof of that. But, what is definite is that Freshbrook Way once was a turnpike road. We know this because turnpike gates are marked along the route on earlier maps and it’s referenced as a turnpike road in a newspaper article of a court session from 1866. And that article (see image below) also mentions the Toothill Cottages.
An article from the Swindon Advertiser (5th February 1866) confirms that Lord Bolingbroke (of Lydiard House) took the road between Swindon and Lydiard. It formed part of the route to Wootton Bassett and Brinkworth and joined turnpike roads to Christian Malford and Malmesbury. And part of that was also a main droving route too. So, we can say that Freshbrook Way definitely comprised part of a main road in the area.
