I could go on almost ad infinitum with this as there are many Swindon books! But I’ll keep it to these two posts. But with a ‘See Also’ at the bottom of this one.
So, as with the first post, in no particular order here we go with 5 More Swindon Books worthy of your attention. Both during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
5 More Swindon Books
1. A picture is only the start of the story – Richard Wintle
This one is, I believe, the newest addition to Swindon’s very own literary canon. It’s super.
As you’d expect for a press photographer, Richard has a VAST archive of photographs. And he’s put some of them into a book: A Picture Is Only the Start of The Story.
Following the incorporation of Old and New Swindon in 1900 innovative women stepped up to the plate; women like Swindon born suffragette Edith New who challenged political conventions and Emma Noble, Swindon’s first female councillor, who campaigned to improve living conditions in the town.
During two world wars Swindon women worked in the railway factory in jobs once considered beyond their strength and endurance …
… The story of Swindon women includes artists and actresses, political activists and social reformers and the ordinary women who worked in the factories, raised their children and made a difference.
Fear not if you lack wall space to display all your favourite Swindon views. For they’re all here in this delightful little book.
4. Legacy of a Rag and Bone Man – Eastcott Community – wrote, designed and co-researched by Kate Parsons.
For too many years James ‘Raggy’ Powell was an unsung Swindon hero. But then the amazing people at Eastcott Community Hall on Savernake Street set about celebrating him.
Previously published as The Woman in the Lake, the novel’s plot is set in the dual timelines of present day Swindon and Georgian London. It revolves around three women and an evil gorgeous golden gown. Lady Isabella Gerard has a love-hate relationship with a stunning new gown, an unexpected gift by her unloving, abusive husband.
And the ‘See Alsos’ – but not also rans!
Like I said at the top of this post, there’s an awful lot of wonderful output BY Swindonians about so many aspects of Swindon and Swindon life.
So what follows is a very few more not covered in this and the previous post. Not because they’re not worthy – they absolutely are.
And their web form: http://www.swindonnightshelter.uk/contact-us
Now, with the COVID 19 pandemic they’ve seen a dramatic change to the way they operate. More people are coming forward as homeless and needing support.
The vast rise in the need for their services has meant stepping out of the normal model to assist with:
Accommodation
Home moving and sourcing vital household goods.
Meanwhile the Night Shelter’s normal work goes on. Offering telephone support to their 150+ guests, giving emotional support. And arranging food deliveries and washing clothes for those without amenities.
They say …
More people than ever need our help and The Swindon Night Shelter will continue to do everything we can to support them.
The closure of our cafes and shops. And the cancellation or postponement of all their community and fundraising events (including a Charity Ball and the Duck race (set to happen in May) will hit the charity hard.
Becky Davison, Chair of the charity said: “We have never seen anything like the situation we are facing now. We have an urgent need donations of white goods, food and financial blessings. The situation we have right now is ever increasing the demand for our services. As soon as the government lift the lockdown restrictions we can reopen our day and night shelter.
We’re praying and trusting God that we’ll survive as a Charity. We’ve had the huge blessing of a grant from Wiltshire Community Foundation. This will help no-end with this situation.
Other gifts are coming in but everyone is under pressure. Thus we need to plan with care and find other funding streams to help us.
Five Key Components to the charity
a walk-up Night Shelter
A day centre
Community cafes
Social enterprise shop and warehouse
The Hive – where we run our back to work programme and deliver to all the other areas of the ministry.
Then there’s The Hub shop and Cafe and Pop up shops across Wiltshire. In those we work with local schools and churches providing work experience, training and much needed price-reduced goods.
Due to social distancing we’ve had to close all these services – though our team are offering remote support where possible.
Working across Wiltshire
“Having had to close our social enterprise activities we are now giving away what goods and services we do have that will help those referred to us in financial need across Wiltshire. “Becky explained.
We work across Wiltshire supporting over 1,000 people who are homeless, vulnerably housed, isolated or in long term poverty and need.”
Dan Read, Swindon Night Shelter’s Operations Manager said “We’ve needed to react fast to the changes and adapt everything we do to continue to support those in need”
Additionally, we’re providing vital practical and emotional support to growing numbers of rough sleepers housed in temporary accommodation, to limit the virus’ spread.
“There is an unprecedented demand on our services, and this will likely increase in the weeks and months to come.”
Furlough
Thanking everyone for their help, Dan said ‘Many of our night-time volunteers are on furlough from their jobs and so have come to serve with us rather than staying home with their families.
Our courageous volunteers are designated keyworkers under huge pressure. They’re putting their own health on the line to support some of the most vulnerable people in our community.”
He continued to say, “It’s estimated there are 320,000 homeless people in the UK and 8,000 rough sleepers. There is a higher risk that these individuals will have a health condition which puts them at risk of contracting COVID-19. These are men, women (and in some cases children) with health damaged by trauma, rough sleeping and poverty”.
Even without the threat of a virus, homeless people die on average 30 years sooner than the general population.
Everyone In
Three weeks ago, the government set in motion an ‘Everyone In’ initiative to slow the spread of the virus through this particularly vulnerable group. It aims to offer every homeless person temporary accommodation during the crisis.
The government did acknowledge the challenges faced by charities when the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £750 million fund to support charities through the Covid-19 crisis.
We’ve worked tirelessly with colleagues across the sector and in the local council, to find homeless people and bring them in to empty hotels and other temporary accommodation.
Dan explained the current situation for many they support: “Now most have temporary shelter in local hotels and B&Bs. Yet many known to us remain in unstable housing and are very much alone, frightened, in poor health and more unsure than ever about what the future holds.“
“They are often staying in one room with no cooking facilities or e fridge to store food and no support networks or family to lean on. These men and women are reliant on our frontline staff, and they’re stretched to the limit, providing emergency support.
Dan explained “For every rough sleeper we help, approximately 20 others are sleeping on sofas, in vehicles, or are insecurely housed.
“Now, as the virus spreads, these arrangements are breaking down. Covid-19 is accelerating financial hardship, relationship breakdown and mental health issues.
And all these factors contribute to homelessness.
A threat of worse to come – but some government help
Reported figures showed another 4% rise in homelessness in the UK at the turn of the year. Our own experience here in Swindon during this pandemic suggests there could be further threat of worse still to come in 2021”.
The government did acknowledge the challenges faced by charities when the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £750 million fund to support charities through the Covid-19 crisis.
“The fund is of course a welcome announcement, but we also know from experience that it may not go far enough, in reaching all those in need.
The charity sector is reportedly set to lose a staggering £4 billion in 12 weeks.
More people than ever need our help and The Swindon Night Shelter will continue to do everything we can to support them.
Swindon-Based 3D Printing Business, SED Developments gets involved in printing faceshields for the NHS.
SED Developments Shielding NHS Staff: Responding to a nationwide call for help from people with 3D printers, Swindon-based small business, SED Developments is using some of its printing capacity to make face shields.
They’re part of the 3D Crowd UK group who are delivering 39,000+ Face Shields to 90 NHS Trusts this Easter weekend from their Sheffield distribution centre.
The 3D crowd need 500,000 face shields – they’ve already despatched 39,000.
Says Jo: ‘I’m not the only one in Swindon, there are at least 4 others in my regional Slack group.’
This whole thing is a huge joint effort between many people in the 3D printing community to support the NHS during this Covid19 crisis.
We’re thankful we can help, in our own small way, this amazing initiative.
Jo goes on to say: ‘We print in PETG because it’s stronger.
It takes around 5 hours for one shield to print. We’re printing 12 hour days – but I know others are going around the clock. Sadly we can’t do that as we sleep next door to one of our printers. We did that one New Year’s Eve to finish a remote control snowmobile and it was blooming painful!
We’re instructed to print in a clean area, wear gloves and a face shield to move the parts around. We then bag them, label them with the date packaged. Now they’ve learnt that the virus lives for 3 days they need the date so as to know not to open it for 3 days.
Once we’ve printed over 20, we’ll post them to either Frome or Sheffield – depending on where they’re needed.
Spring clean your online shop, website expert urges businesses
Now is the time to do an online shop spring clean, says Martin Jarvis, MD of DMJ computer Services.
NB: DMJ computer Services is a Swindon-based web design and hosting company.
With premises closing due to Corona virus and organisations relying more than ever on having an effective online presence now is the time to brush the virtual cobwebs away.
As Martin says, now is the moment for businesses to carry out simple maintenance on their websites to make them more visible. And to enhance their effectiveness.
“With the best will in the world, it’s rare we have the thought, time, or inclination to make little tweaks, tidy-ups and other incremental updates to our websites,” said Martin. And he should know – he specialises in creating and hosting WordPress websites.
Simple Changes
Martin said simple changes, such as adding content, expanding service pages and posting regular blogs, would all help to increase traffic to a site.
He added: “Regular maintenance and housekeeping keeps a site looking good, as well as helping with search engine optimisation. It can also prevent bigger and more costly problems further down the line.”
Martin’s Top Tips
Refreshing old blog posts (which can be quicker and as effective as creating new ones)
Fixing any broken internal or outbound hyperlinks
Making sure any contact forms work, so enquiries get through
Ensuring plugins are up-to-date, deleting any that are no longer needed and ensuring fast loading of the site
For more help and advice on spring cleaning a website. In particular for businesses with WordPress sites, email martinj@dmjcomputerservices.com
Martin said: “Regular, reliable, and available backups of a website are an absolute must. With no physical presence (due to lockdown), having a website offline for any period of time could have disastrous consequences.”
Beat the bug! GP, Dr William Bird is working on the frontline against Covid-19 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. He’s also the founder of the well-known Beat the Street game and advises the UK government and WHO (World Health Organisation) on physical activity.
Now, the team is turning from Beat the Street to Beat the Bug. They’ve a new campaign aimed at encouraging people to stay active and well at this difficult time.
Dr Bird has recorded the video you see below. n it he urges you to stay as fit and active as possible, to strengthen your immune system, thus reducing pressure on the NHS.
Says Dr Bird: ‘My team and I are asking you to do one thing to help yourselves, help Britain and to protect the NHS. And that is to ensure you and your family get up and get active at least twice a day.
Moving in short bursts is enough to boost your body’s production of Natural Killer Cells. These wonderful little cells work as your body’s natural defence system, killing viruses as they try to enter your body.
To be effective at their job they need you to wake them up on a regular basis with a burst of exercise. That’s why we recommend at least two activity sessions per day to beat the bug.
NB: There’s certainly every opportunity for walking and exploring Swindon as you go. Check out the West Swindon sculpture trail for a start. And have a root through the walks and cycle paths category on the blog.
