AUTISTIC TEENAGER GETS SHOUT OUT FROM TV PERSONALITY FOR COPING DURING LOCKDOWN
TV personality shout-out for autistic teenager.
Autistic teenager Leon Watts couldn’t have been more thrilled, when TV presenter Chris Tarrant gave him a mention. The nod came during a recent virtual charity quiz night.
Leon, who’s 16 and lives with his family in Oakhurst, Swindon, is autistic. He’s one of the young people who attend The Platform Project, a not-for-profit young development programme. The project supports young people interested in starting their own business. For some of those young people, mainstream education has not worked well for them – for a variety of reasons.
It was only in February that Leon started attending the Platform Project. He both fascinated and inspired his colleagues there with his determination to help others like him.
Leon had already established an online community under his own branding of ‘Autoism’. Mad about cars since he was three, Leon uses his love of all things on four wheels to raise awareness of autism. All with the aim of educating and inspiring others.
Leon Watts with Guy Berryman, who plays the acoustic guitar with Coldplay.
Automobile affection
“When I was three, I watched Top Gear. One time they did a piece on Britain’s Most Hated Car and it was the Austin Allegro which was jumping trucks. I loved it.
I’ve loved cars since then. I’m a member of Swindon Young Drivers and I’m already looking at my own car,” Leon said, with clear excitement about turning 17 in 2021.
Charity quiz night
Recently Leon and his mum Debbie, took part in a charity quiz night run by Cirencester-based wealth management company St Jame’s Place (SJP). Hosting the quiz was Chris Tarrant.
Debbie sent a message to the organisers to ask if Chris could mention Leon who, at that time, was struggling with lockdown.
Debbie said: “Leon has been strong during lockdown given that he’s not been able to see his friends. Nor has he been able to attend his usual ‘car’ events. His usual routine of life – like everyone’s – has suffered disruption. And for someone with autism that’s so difficult to cope with. He had one super one difficult week so I sent a message to Chris when we attended SJP’s charity quiz night. It was amazing that Chris responded to it.”
Leon’s love of cars means that he knows an amazing amount of detail about most super cars. This in-depth knowledge has made him very visible to many in the world of high-performance cars.
Coupled with his courage around sharing his journey with autism, he’s linked up with many well-known famous car lovers. They include Neil Clifford, CEO of Kurt Geiger, Paul Woodman & Tiff Needell from Lovecars. Also Guy Berryman from Coldplay – who’s also the creative director for The Road Rat magazine with editor Mikey Harvey. Then too the racing driver Marino Franchitti, and many more. Leon is now planning his next charity car event.
Sadie Sharp, founder of Swindon’s Platform Project said: “Leon is an inspiration to us all. We’re confident that he will have a career in that industry as his passion is so clear for all to see.
He, and many of the young people who come to us, often need a safe space to gain their confidence and access to opportunities which work for them. We are proud to have Leon as part of our ‘family’.”
Last year, when writing Swindon in 50 Buildings, I knew I simply had to include Thomas Turner’s villas on Drove Road. Since the book’s publication, I’ve had a mind to write a bit more on here about Thomas Turner Swindon brick-maker and his brick-making enterprise. But I never quite got round to it. Then not long back I saw a super blog by Swindon historian Frances Bevan so figured – why reinvent the wheel? I may as well feature that with my own photographs. Well, I say mine, actually they’re Chris Eley’s, whom I despatch on photographic missions. I’m super grateful for that.
Thomas Turner and the Drove Road tile and potter works – Pic sent to me by a friend – probs originated in Local Studies …
The Catalogue Houses
There’s several houses in Swindon that feature Mr Turner’s work. But it’s arguable that these two are the most notable. With the colloquial nickname ‘The Catalogue Houses’ – that’s exactly what these houses are. And there’s more than a touch of the whimsey about them.
Indeed, as Frances writes in her blog, Brickmaker Extraordinare, ‘When brick and tile manufacturer Thomas Turner wanted to advertise his wares he certainly thought of an eye-catching method. In 1889 he built two properties known as the ‘catalogue houses.’
The two cottages along with Jessamine Cottage, were 19th century show homes, built to display every brick and tile, every finial and moulding, made in Turner’s works.’
And do read the rest of Frances’ blog for more detail about Thomas Turner.She has some lovely detail in there about him. And there’s a picture too, of where he now lies in Christ Church in Old Town.
For the well-to-do
Imagine having the where-with-all back in the day to have your own home built? To rock up to Drove Road, look at these villas and pick out bricks and decorative elements for your own home? An early version of the Ikea catalogue – but for bricks instead of Besta storage units.
Thomas made the bricks on his manufacturing site on Drove Road – on what is now Queen’s Park. Wandering around that delightful oasis it’s hard to picture it as the clay pit, that once it was.
Turner’s family home, Grove House, sat a spit up the road from these villas and currently does duty as the Miller and Carter Steakhouse restaurant.
About Turner
According to Mark Child’s Swindon Book, Thomas Turner hailed from Cheltenham. Frances Bevan expands on that by explaining how, following his marriage to Mary Gosling, a farmer’s daughter from Coate, he came to live in Stratton St. Margaret. The newly-weds began their life together at the brick works at Cross Roads, Stratton St. Margaret. There they had their two children, Emma and William, baptised at the parish church. A second son, Jonathan, came along in 1875.
In the 1860s TT took over a small brickworks in the village and there set up a large tile and pottery works. In the 1870s he built up the aforementioned Drove Road works.
Frances further tells us that the Drove Road properties featured early in Turner’s output, being built for his workers in 1871. She further explains that records held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History/Heritage centre in Chippenham reveal a mere fraction of his work in Swindon during the 1880s and 1890s. His 3D catalogue included numerous houses and cottages built in Westcott Place, Drove Road and Belle Vue Road. And, in 1892, houses in the street that took his name.
The 1880s saw the family move into Grove House on Drove Road with their servant, Annie Lewis – also Cheltenham born.
Civic duty
In 1875, Turner comprised the solo Swindon representative on the nine-man board that took on the running of the Wilts & Berks canal when the original company sold out.
Come 1881, his bricks and pottery decoration were used to build and embellish St Paul’s church on Swindon’s Edgeware Road. Ditto the chancel added in 1883. Demolished in 1965, the church formed the building blocks of the 1884 Wilts & Dorset Bank on the corner of Wood Street and Cricklade Street. Some also were utilised in the extensions of the museum and chapel at Marlborough College.
Turner died in Brighton but is buried in Swindon at Christ Church.
1896 saw one Thomas Bazzard take over the Swindon Tile and Pottery Works.
Thomas Turner’s resting place
In the graveyard at Christ Church in Old Town, just inside the Cricklade Street gates, you’ll see this grave/memorial. Note though it states that Thomas Turner died in Brighton. Apparently on the 14th April 1911, an obituary appeared in the North Wilts Herald that said ‘the remains were laid to rest in the family vault in Swindon parish churchyard … the first part of the service was conducted the previous day at St Augustine’s Church, Brighton.
Speaking of the man’s grave …anecdotally from a friend … ‘Apparently a very bad employer, my friend’s Grandmother used to spit on his grave when they went to Church at Christchurch …’
Inscription on Turner grave at Christ Church
Now – get exploring! Whip your smart phone out and call up Google maps and go looking for other houses bearing Thomas Turner features.
You can find typical Turner decorative features in Belle Vue Terrace, Hunt Street and Turner Street (named after our man) off Westcott Place. These houses were built with his own bricks as were other streets linking New Swindon and Old Town.
On those houses, and on others he built in Lansdown Road, Kingshill and Westcott Place you’ll find a repeated pottery plaque or keystone in the form of a bearded man surrounded by shell motifs and running vines. It’s said that this face is the likeness of Daniel Lynch, a worker at Turner’s Stratton St Margaret brick, pottery and tile yard.
Jessamine CottageDetail Bellevue terraceFace above doorwayFace on Drove Rd villaTurner Street 1Turner Street 2
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery launches ‘Big Hitters’ virtual exhibition with ArtUK
Big Hitters: Swindon Museum & Art Gallery.
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery has announced the launch of a virtual exhibition. You can view it through ArtUK, the online home of the nation’s public art collections.
Entitled ‘Big Hitters’, the works in the exhibition are the choices of the committee of the Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. The Friends work to draw attention to some of the most important pieces in Swindon’s modern, British art collection.
During the Covid-19 enforced closure, the museum team have made great use digital resources with which to enable access to the Swindon collection. One that Swindon is fortunate to own. It’s credited as being one of the UK’s finest such collections.
The virtual activity includes the launch of ‘Art on Tour at Home’. From that several free online talks, activities and learning resources have sprung. ArtUK’s curation tool is also invaluable for sharing the collection with audiences during lockdown.
Big Hitters
Big Hitters includes around 30 artworks from the collection, spanning the 20th Century. Its showcases some of the most popular pieces in the collection.
These are works by the likes of David Bomberg, Howard Hodgkin and L.S. Lowry.
Linda Kasmaty, the Chair of the Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, explained importance of the initiative. She said:
When asked to mount a virtual exhibition we jumped at the chance. We thought, what a fantastic way of getting the collection shown to a wider, online audience.
Since the start of lockdown, many people have spent more time online and many museums and galleries have increased their online presence.
We hope this exhibition will complement the ‘Art on Tour initiative. That’s been a tremendous success. It’s connected with so many people. Both those familiar with the Swindon collection and those who had no idea of its existence.
(c) DACS; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation. Bomberg: the south-east corner of Jersusalam
A comment from the council
Councillor Dale Heenan, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for the Town Centre, Culture and Heritage, said: “Lockdown has inspired us to come up with new and creative ways of showcasing our fantastic art collection here in Swindon. And this latest exhibition is another fine example of that work.
“I would like to thank the Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery and ArtUK for their work in promoting these 30 wonderful artworks. I’m sure it will be a big hit in keeping with its title!”
The exhibition is available to view through ArtUK from Friday 3 July.
DACS; (c) DACS; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
(c) Maggi Hambling; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
In other news
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is thrilled at its inclusion in the Great British Art Quiz, compiled by ArtUK and The Guardian newspaper.
Why not visit The Guardian’s website and test your knowledge about Swindon’s art collection by taking this exciting quiz:
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery sits on Bath Road, in Swindon’s Old Town.
Besides the modern British art collection, the museum houses important collections of: a.local archaeology b. geology c. social history and … d. … Egyptology
Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is a charitable organisation. They’re committed to supporting Swindon Museum and Art Gallery via promotion and fundraising.
Poor website contact details hamper businesses when their website contact details are letting them down.
That’s the view of leading website developer Martin Jarvis. Martin heads up Swindon-based DMJ Computer Services, specialising in WordPress website design, hosting and aftercare.
Problem Areas
When Martin and his team visited dozens of websites as part of a marketing exercise, one thing in particular struck them. That was the high level of issues they found in making contact with the websites’ owners. And all down to contact details being either incorrect or not fit for purpose.
Problems identified included:
Contact forms that failed to submit
Captchas that were impossible to complete
Mistyped, bouncing email addresses
Demanding so much information from an initial enquiry that the process was off-putting
“It’s hard enough for website owners to encourage visitors to get in touch with them at the best of times. Let alone during periods of great economic disruption, as we are in now,” said Martin.
“A primary goal of most websites is to persuade potential clients to make contact. A typical way to achieve that is through a combination of the following:
a. Contact forms b. Comment forms c. Email addresses and telephone numbers.
If it’s not clear to a visitor how to make contact, or if the methods don’t work, then such websites are ineffective.
What does Martin advise?
Martin’s advice for improving contact details includes simple steps:
a. Check often that contact forms submit as they should and arrive at their destination and b. that email addresses are correct.
Other measures include:
a. Having clickable email addresses and telephone numbers so visitors don’t have to copy and paste them into their email client. b. Installing invisible Captcha – which does everything in the background to avoid inconveniencing website visitors c. Using other anti-spam measures for contact forms.
Martin added:
“We often install live chat on websites. They’re a good way to allow visitors to engage in conversation whilst browsing. The chat box sits quietly in the bottom corner of the web browser, and visitors can click it to start a conversation. Of course, it’s only a benefit to have a live chat feature if you:
a. Monitor it often and … B. …respond quickly to queries.
Having an unmonitored chat box may well annoy site visitors.”
DMJ is offering to carry out a short, free review of website contact details.
This year, 2020, has another marker on it other than that created by Covid-19. For it’s also the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Thus, the WHO (the World Health Organisation) has designated 2020 as the first ever year of the nurse and the midwife. Cause enough for celebration on its own then. And it makes a good excuse to talk again about healthcare history and Swindon – it being a story not that well told. Still. And when it is told it tends not to be accurate.
‘It was 60 years ago that the National Health Service came into the world and its birthplace was a small hospital in Swindon.’
They go on to state that, back in 1871, staff from the GWR aided by a donation of £1k from Daniel Gooch, set up the GWR Medical Fund Hospital on Milton Rd in Swindon.
This is not entirely correct. For a start the Medical Fund Hospital was on Emlyn Square/Faringdon Rd – the building that is now Central Community Centre. And the first seeds were sown as early as 1845. The Milton Road facilities came much later – as you’ll see as you read on.
1845 and the need for medical provision became paramount
I’ve written at length about this uber-important aspect of Swindon’s history in my first book, Secret Swindon. For obvious reasons I’m not sharing the whole thing!
But what follows are a few extracts to illustrate how Swindon and its Medical Fund Society became the crucible, the blueprint even, of the NHS.
‘Railway growth was now at its height. The uniform housing of the Railway Village was underway. But it couldn’t keep pace with the influx of workers arriving to the developing town.
With only basic sanitation, contagious diseases became rife. This then was no time to be poor. Not in an era with no NHS and in a town hit by TB. This medical help came from the Medical Fund Society set up by, and run with, extensive assistance from the Mechanics’ Institution.
Now here’s another important thing to note: the GWR Medical Fund Society was neither a GWR company initiative nor GWR company policy. The workforce started it, the workforce paid for it and the workforce ran it via elected officers. The GWR supported it of course. After all, why wouldn’t they? It cost them nothing and freed them of all responsibility for caring for their workforce.’
1847–1947: A Century of Medical Provision from the GWR Medical Fund Society
*It wouldn’t be true to say the Nye Bevan came to Swindon, saw the MFS and went: ‘Oh, that’s a good idea. I’d never have thought of that.’
For a start, his home town of Tredegar, in Wales, had a medical fund society. The Tredegar Medical Aid Society, though, was newer. It was founded in 1890 by the merger of several existing local benevolent societies. Thus Bevan was no stranger to the idea before he came to Swindon.
What made Swindon’s MFS so special was its length, its breadth and its scope. The Swindon model took a modern and holistic healthcare approach symbolised by the dispensary and baths at Milton Road. But that came later as we’ll see.
From cradle to grave
How familiar is that phrase now? It’s an expression indelibly associated with the NHS. Yet Swindon can lay claim to offering that level of care decades before Britain got its NHS.
The GWR Medical Fund Society gave an inclusive health service for 101 years before the NHS came into being.
There’s a thought to digest!
The Medical Fund Society gave healthcare ahead of its time. So much so that, when Nye Bevan visited Swindon to see the health provision the MFS provided, he famously commented:
‘There it was. A complete health service in Swindon. All we had to do was expand it to the whole country.’
Milton Road Baths – aka The Health Hydro
The notion of the NHS
Even before WWII was won, the notion of a national health service had been mooted. In 1945, a parliamentary white paper had sketched out the plan. Yet, as Graham Carter wrote in the now-sadly-defunct Swindon Heritage magazine, records unearthed at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre reveal involvement by the committee of the GWR Medical Fund.
February 1946 saw the convening of an English and Welsh Medical Alliances conference with Swindon chosen to host in the building we now call the Health Hydro.
It appears that representatives from that famous medical journal The Lancet were in attendance, if the mention of the Swindon’s health service in the May 1946 edition is anything to go by.
Outlining the town’s services and facilities, it focused on the dispensary and the baths, rather than the cottage hospital, because they better fitted new ideas about the importance of wellbeing and prevention.
In Swindon it found something special, something unique:
‘it will be seen that the society provides for its members’ needs from cradle to grave’; in the words of a distinguished medical visitor, ‘The Medical Fund Society is the only current example in this country of an attempt to provide a comprehensive health service for its beneficiaries.’
A timeline of the Medical Fund Society
This is a whole section in Secret Swindon detailing the MFS timeline. For reasons of brevity – a few key points:
Autumn 1847: Gooch writes a beseeching letter to the directors of the GWR expressing the need for medical assistance. In December 1847 men of the GWR form a medical society. In Secret Swindon there’s an image of an extract from that letter.
Late 1850s: The society first subscribed to hospitals in order to get letters allowing patients to be sent to them from Swindon. St George’s, St Mary’s and the Bath hospital were the first three.
1872: The hospital, now Central Community Centre, on Faringdon Road, opened. The medical staff increased to two surgeons, Messrs Swinhoe and Howse, and two assistants.
The rules stated the hospital was for accidents only – not general diseases – and was to be free to all society members. Other servants of the GWR ‘shall be charged a fair and reasonable sum for their maintenance as may be decided by the committee’.
1892: A significant year:
It saw the opening of new consulting room, waiting halls, and a dispensary, along with two new swimming baths – one small and one large.
1899 saw the addition of new washing, Turkish and Russian baths.
The Turkish baths are still going strong and are the oldest extant of their kind in the world. This building, the HQ of the GWR Medical Fund Society, is on Milton Road. It’s now mostly known as the Health Hydro, though interchangeably as The Baths, Milton Road Baths or the Old Health Centre.
How it was paid for
Payment for this medical marvel came from subscription.
Much as we now pay our National Insurance from our wages, these servants of the GWR Co. had their subscriptions to the MFS deducted at source.
Swindon’s GWR Medical Fund Society then was a pioneering venture well ahead of its time. One that played a significant role on both local and national stages.
Thus, in the year that the NHS is 72 years old, Swindon’s precursor to it deserves as much celebration as is the NHS itself.
