I think it was during the first pandemic lockdown last March, that I came across Greendown Copse in Grange Park. Limited by lockdown to my neighbourhood I took to wandering around hitherto unexplored parts of my neighbourhood. And that’s how I came upon this delightful little treasure tucked away amidst 1980s suburbia.
I knew, from signs left in the copse, that a community group looked after it. But beyond that – nothing. Roger Ogle connected me with someone in the group so what follows came from that source.
Lot No 2
With the proximity of the copse to Lydiard Park, it’s no surprise to learn that the copse, like the housing that surrounds it, once formed part of the Lydiard estate. In 1943 this patch of land went to auction as Lot 2 (they think) as part of the sale of the Lydiard Park estates – including the park itself.
The group managing the copse tell me that they found native English bluebells in the copse, hidden in the undergrowth. This matters because our native bluebell is losing ground to the Spanish variety introduced by the Victorians as a garden plant. They’ve also removed some of the non-native, invasive garden plants that probably landed in the copse via garden waste. In particular the variegated archangel has got a hold and is proving a challenge.
The volunteer group – open to any interested residents – began working with the borough in 2014 and are now working with the Parish council.
The photos below are from the group that take such wonderful care of the copse. Big thanks to them for supplying the information for this blog and the photographs.
Red Campion
Greendown Copse Bird Observations
Greendown Copse, hedgerow and walk are part of the Community Asset designation linked with Lydiard Park. This ran out last September and the community is still awaiting confirmation of its renewal.
SWINDON YOUNG WRITERS AND ARTISTS ON A QUEST FOR LITERARY SUCCESS
Swindon’s Young on Literary Success Quest Young people from Swindon are part way through writing and illustrating their first book. It’s an interactive fantasy adventure, and they need your support to get it published.
Young aspiring writers and artists in Swindon have, throughout the pressures of lockdown and homeschooling, come together to write an illustrated, interactive fantasy novel.
Tomb Raider writer, Rhianna Pratchett has backed the project. But they need your help to get over the final hurdle.
Thus far the Arts Council England have funded the project. But the young people’s enthusiasm has led them to create a work of epic proportions. And that will need an four months and £3,000 to complete.
Keith P. Phillips, one of the authors on Puffin’s Fighting Fantasy series, is tutoring on the Digital Writes project. Said Keith: “We’ve been running workshops in storytelling, creative writing, and illustration over Zoom. And also sharing work through Discord. The students have produced some amazing work. As good as anything from the series. They so deserve to get published.”
Youthful ambition – Swindon’s Young on Literary Success Quest
Some of the young people have ambitions to become writers or artists and feel thrilled to be working with professionals. They’re also very excited at the prospect of seeing their work in print.
Lauren, a participant on the project, said: “We already write and draw things, but nothing comes out of it. It would be cool to see our book in the library and see other people enjoying what we’ve made. Without this we wouldn’t have had a chance to be part of producing a full sized book.”
The extra funding will allow Digital Writes to continue offering workshops. They’ll also be able to invite more young people to take part in creative collaboration.
They’ll then collate the work into a final product of a gamebook. First popular in the 1980s and 1990s, these have had something of a resurgence lately, with titles by Charlie Higson and Rhianna Pratchett.
Swindon visual artist, Keira Georgeson, is also tutoring on the project. Said Keira: “Our young writers and artists are proper authors writing a proper book. We want them to feel the excitement of going into a public library and seeing their book on the shelf. But we’re eager to invite everyone to join. All you need is your imagination and a love of fantasy.”
Lydiard Park Academy
One of the teachers supporting the project is Ms Urquhart from Lydiard Park Academy. She said: “Our students have had a brilliant experience. They’ve grown in creative confidence and developed their social and communication skills. They’ve also gained a wealth of cutting-edge technical expertise. Please support this latest fantastic creation!”
The final work is set for publication in print format. It will be available to buy through Amazon and borrowed from secondary school and public libraries. As a text-based interactive game in app form, it will be available for download from all the usual video game app stores.
Author and Creative writing tutor Keith Phillips
Jazzy with cover-painting
Workshop_leader and visual artist Keira Georgeson
Jazzy sketching book front cover
Get involved
To get involved and secure your place on this unique programme, type “immersive authorship” into your favourite search engine. Or look for Digital Writes on social media.
Erected in 1966-1967, this HQ turns out to be more important than one might imagine. HF Bailey (chief architect of WH Smith’s Estate Department) designed the buildings together with the consulting architects Johns, Slater & Haward. Johns, Slater & Haward, an important post-war architects’ practice.
Thus the Twentieth Century Society has joined Swindon’s Conservation Officer Liz Smith-Gibbons in objecting to plans to demolish the WH Smith warehouse, office block and carpark which it describes as of ‘outstanding national significance.’
The society have submitted the listing application in response to plans to redevelop the site into a large housing estate.
Two sites in one
The WHSmith site at Greenbridge is in fact two sites in one.
Firstly the Swindon Distribution Centre is one of three hubs in England, supplying their over 600 stores and online customers. So, if we’re going to get proper about it, it’s not a warehouse. That’s because it’s part of a wider supply chain. And their UK Support Centre – based in the tower block is home to the High Street trading teams and also forms the base for their Group head office.
Architectural Interest
It appears that the significant architectural interest lies the influence of the Silberkuhl system in the design. That being the brainchild of the German engineer Wilhelm J Silbkuhl (1912-1984). The arched roof comprises three 150 ft wide and 525 ft long curved spans of steel truss girders and reinforced concrete roofing supported on twelve columns. This provided 250,000 sq ft of unobstructed floor space.
The complex also included a six-storey office building.Its design intended to hold administration areas as well as restaurants, welfare and recreation rooms. Not forgetting service equipment areas and an air-conditioned, double-glazed computer and data processing rooms. Further: ‘The office is steel-framed and when built, the exterior was clad in exposed aggregate panels that matched those on the warehouse. Bands of cladding alternate with windows. An off-centre tower counterbalances their horizontal lines.
So now you know!
Greenbridge served also as the location of a number of other industrial buildings designed and constructed by leading architectural practices. These included a small Reliance factory by Team Four (1966-7) and the Torrington Factory by Marcel Breuer & Robert F Gtaje (1966-7).
Pevsner describes the WH Smith warehouse as the “most striking building” on the estate.
The ISBN story
Legend has it that, in 1966, WH Smith created a particular standard book number. This number consisted of a nine-digit code, adopted in 1970 as the international standard number. And that, at length, that become the International Standard Book Number – ISBN – in 1974.
The creation of the ISBN system is attributed to WH Smith’s relocation to Greenbridge. Thus adding historic significance to the site.
But …. the plot thickens … according to someone I know that once worked there, that story is a tad apocryphal. In that WH Smith were using an SBN system as early as 1964 – three years before this building opened. That system became the ISBN system in 1974.
But here’s a nice little factoid for you: the Greenbridge building saw the processing of the first ever UK Internet sale. The order may not have been placed there but certainly the servers in the building recorded it. It’s thought that the order in question was for a copy of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth!
WHSmith PLC (also known as WHS or colloquially as Smith’s, and formerly W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer headquartered, as we know, in Swindon.
Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna formed the company in 1792 as a London news vendor. The business remained under Smith family ownership for many years. It saw a large-scale expansion during the 1970s and can lay claim to being the world’s first retail chain.
A rather funky public art piece once stood outside the WH Smith offices called Kinetic Pencils, by Peter Logan – installed in 1991. Sadly they’re long gone but below, for your delectation and edification, are some wonderful archive photos of the kinetic pencils from Richard Wintle.
And now a small number showing construction of the part of this distribution centre that is gone already – referred to by some ex-employees as the peppermint palace:
Swindonians called upon to help lead the fight-back against social media stereotypes of ageing
Fighting social media stereotypes of ageing Members of the public from Swindon and Wiltshire are being asked to post their own photos of everyday life. Why? To help challenge negative stereotypes of ageing and biased social media algorithms. All as part of the town’s online Festival of Tomorrow.
The initiative marks the launch of an on-going research project between: The Centre for Digital Citizens * UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and … * … Swindon’s Festival of Tomorrow.
Aims of the project – Fighting social media stereotypes of ageing
The project aims to gather data to: *Help explore the concept of ‘Ageless Citizen’ and … * … the relationship between technology and bias/stereotypes around age.
Search engines and stock photo libraries often use positive or negative depictions of people in later life. And these images bear no resemblance to reality.
These images help to spread and perpetuate harmful stereotypes of ageing and older age. The reality is that digital technologies often replicate and magnify existing prejudices and biases within society. It’s called: ‘algorithmic bias’.
Image courtesy of Centre for Ageing Better, under CC0 licence to Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0
Brain child
The project is the brain-child of a group of researchers from the Centre for Digital Citizens based at Newcastle University and Northumbria University. Dan Lambton-Howard, researcher at Open Lab, Newcastle University said: ‘We want to challenge algorithmic biases to create a more diverse and authentic representation of ageing and later life. That way we can fight back against the algorithms!
We want people from Swindon and Wiltshire to help us fight back against search-engine bias and stereotypes of ageing. And we want them to do it by creating and sharing more realistic images of growing up and growing older on social media!”
Rod Hebden, Director of the Festival of Tomorrow said “No-one likes misrepresentation. So we want as many people as possible to take part in the project. They can do by sharing a photo of growing up or growing older that fits one of the following titles:
This is my everyday
Don’t underestimate me
A shared passion
Send us your photos by posting them on social media with #FestivalOfTomorrow.
To help search engines understand your image we also want you to tag your image with three words that best describe it.”
FOT Facebook image
The Festival of Tomorrow
Visitors to the free online Festival of Tomorrow on the 19 and 20 February will be able find out more about the project. They’ll also enjoy a varied programme of talks and shows. Further, a virtual planetarium and exploring an amazing range of exhibitors showcase the latest science and research. That ranges from the future of space travel to the UK’s leading role in the fight against coronavirus.
Indeed, as they go on to tell us, the Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor of Lydiard as having woodland of 1 league long and a half a league in breadth. Come the 13th century and Braydon had become the second largest forest providing timber trees in the whole of England. Further, it abounded with red and fallow deer. In 1254-56 King Henry III gave Lydiard’s owner, Robert Tregoze, forty-four deer from the Royal Forest of Braydon to restock the park at Lydiard.
Now follows a post from my occasional guest blogger, Rebecca Davies BSC. (Hons) about Braydon Forest – and about forestry in general.
I am a true Purtonian, and so have made a light study of the local history. Some of my knowledge, though, isn’t so much overtly learned as comes more from immersion.
Part of that is about the forested land below Pavenhill in Purton. This forest land is Braydon (or Bradon) Forest – a one-time royal hunting ground. This much I learned as a child. Yet no-one could tell me much about the place. There is a booklet published on the forest, by Thomson in 1953. It is 30 pages long and is about the only dedicated history of this area. Thus I am hoping this little article will make a difference.
Braydon pond
Forest Law
FOREST: Hunting preserve of the king or lord-marcher, subject to forest law but not necessarily woodland. Originally an area of land in which only the owner had the right to hunt deer and boar. Special laws were applied in this area as it lay outside the jurisdiction of common law. (Forests and Chases glossary)
Every schoolboy is taught that forests existed to provide deer and other game for the king’s hunting. And that all Plantagenet kings rode to hounds, like Jorrocks, four days a week, and the royal keepers roamed the land inflicting capital and surgical penalties on any peasant caught doing anything that might, however remotely, interfere with the deer. This idealistic picture has never been confirmed by critical research. (Rackham)
The animals preserved included Red deer, Fallow deer, Roe deer and Wild boar. Fallow Deer are not natives. The Normans introduced them from southern Europe.
Child with fallow deer – US postcard circa 1970
fallow deer antler
Organisation of The Forest
Political
· Warden/Chief Forester. Often an eminent magnate, a deputy often exercised his powers. · Foresters, under-foresters. They went about preserving the forest and game and apprehending offenders against the law. · Woodwards, Rangers. Woodwards is a common place name in the forest. · Agisters – supervised pannage and agistment · Surveyors – determined the boundaries of the forest.
Forest courts
Court of attachment, (Forty-Day Court or Woodmote). Presided over by verderers and the Warden, or his deputy. It did not possess the power to try or convict individuals, and such cases passed to the swainmote
Court of regard, held every third year to enforce the law requiring declawing of dogs within the forest.
Swainmote or Sweinmote – held three times a year and presided over by the Warden and verderers.
·Court of justice-seat or eyre was the highest of the forest courts. It was the only court that could pass sentence upon offenders of the forest laws.
In practice, these fine distinctions were not always observed.
Rights and privileges
Payment for access to certain rights provided a useful source of income to the King. The common inhabitants of the forest possessed many rights:
Turbary, the right to cut turf, rights of pasturage
Wood pasture (Agistment)- the practise of grazing livestock in mixed grassland and woods.
Swine forage (Pannage) – both beech and oak trees give nourishing seeds for pigs.
Warren – rabbit warrens, managed by the warrener …
… and harvesting the products of the forest.
Lastly, land might be disafforested entirely. That else permission could be given for assart (small clearance) and purpresture. (Building)
Environment
The geology is Oxford clay, a stiff clay – not easy to plough. Forests did not get established on useful land. The topography has a gentle roll with a few streams going through it, often forming borders. The main stream is the River Key.
Industrial and Social History
Industry
In modern day forestry reports there is little discussion of economic activity. Indeed, we might say that forests arewastelands, as per the medieval definition – in that they created no income for the Crown.
In times past the people, whether king or inhabitants, could not afford the luxury of unproductive land. In fact for many forest people their immediate environment supplied all their needs. Probably, apart from grain and metals, the only products imported were luxury goods.
*Fuel wood *Timber – building materials *Wood – coppiced wood & small crafts *Charcoal *Herbs *Wild honey/wax *Fungi and truffles *Nuts & fruits *Stone and clay
Wood management
In Coppicing, the trees get cut back to regrow into poles. Then, from time to time, recut. It’s possible to treat most deciduous trees this way. The practice produces small pieces of timber for a variety of uses. Such as:
Firewood
Pea and beansticks
Wattle fencing
Posts
Charcoal
Wood turning
Small woodwork
We see this practice in Ravenshurst Wood.
5-year-coppice
2-year-coppice
new cut coppice
Social History
Forests were places outside common law and the inhabitants were likewise unconventional, often described as non-confirmist or even atheists. Most royal forests were extra-parochial and had no church. The first built in Braydon forest came at the end of the nineteenth century.
The royal forests attracted the Romanies for their resource rich environments with little outside interference. There’s irony in the fact that land established for the elite had the side-effect of creating a desireable abode for the marginalised.
Perambulations
Thomson gives a lot of his book over to the perambulations. This is an official record of a boundary – all done without the use of a map. This is an official record of a boundary – all done without the use of a map. The perambulation is followed on the ground and marked by describing landmarks, such as distinctive trees, earthworks or natural features such as ridgelines or streams.
Thomson’s braydon forest map
In conclusion
As Rackham says, the royal forests, though of importance to the owners and inhabitants, have been little recorded or documented. We have no idea how many there were in total or for how long they were afforested. Nor where the borders were.
The Great Forest of Braydon – view from Pavenhill in Purton
Braydon is not a big forest with distinct laws and culture. It is not a small, famous forest. However, it is my forest.
** All photos by the author, except the fallow deer photo. And the map is from Thomson’s booklet.
