Yes! The Magic Roundabout traffic system. As featured heavily in Secret Swindon.
It’s a bit like Marmite. But whether you love it, hate it or are indifferent to it you certainly can’t ignore this counterflow roundabout.
On a counterflow roundabout, traffic in the inner circle circulates counter-clockwise while the outer circle goes conventionally clockwise.
Where the name came from
A quick rootle round Google will bring up all manner of information about this traffic system but our very own Swindon Web has a niece piece about it: ‘Until September 1972, there was only one Magic Roundabout and it was a children’s television programme featuring Dougal the dog, a hippy rabbit called Dylan and the spring-loaded Zebedee….’ That was certainly my knowledge and understanding of that term until I moved to Swindon.
When this roundabout first appeared on Swindon’s urban landscape it bore the moniker: The County Island’s Roundabout. But the locals were quick to dub it the magic roundabout. The nickname stuck and the authority bowed to the inevitabe.
Opened in 1972, the roundabout is now rather famous/notorious/ – delete as applicable. It’s definitely iconic in either event.
It’s celebrated here in Swindon – in the central library all manner of Magic Roundabout souvenirs are available from T-Shirts to tea towels.
Located near the County Ground football stadium – hence its original name – its unusual design consists of five mini-roundabouts arranged around a sixth central, anti-clockwise roundabout.
Magic roundabout mosaic by Swindon mosaic artist Lynette Thomas
It even inspired – allegedly – the song ‘English Roundabout’ by Swindon band XTC. So who needs Thorpe Park and Alton Towers when here’s our very own white-knuckle ride! 🙂
10 things to celebrate about Swindon. No 7: The leisure facilities
Swindon Leisure facilities represented the land of milk and honey to me and my then 12-year-old daughter when we pitched up here in the early 1990s.
We left a small village in Derbyshire, a part of the country left ravaged and war-torn (and that’s not too strong a term) by the miners’ strike and the Tory government. Not only were there no jobs and no prospects there was nothing to do and nowhere to go unless you had a car which I didn’t. Once Meadowhall and Cystal Peaks opened in the Sheffield areas, our local town of Worksop, simply died.
Swindon: The Land of Milk and Honey
So imagine then, how it felt to pitch up in a town that offered, within a ten-minute walk of my home: a cinema, and a swimming pool. Even more exotic than that though, a bowling alley, an ice -rink and a Pizza Hut! All in one place. Wow.
You can’t begin to imagine the excitement. Add to that a decent shopping centre – a Debenhams, a C&A and an M&S and many more besides, a mere 15 minute bus ride away instead of the two buses and very lengthy trek to Sheffield for a similar shopping experience. Chesterfield and Mansfield were more accessible. But it was Sheffield you needed for C&A and Cole Brothers and the like. So this was a metropolis indeed!
Moreover almost zero unemployment that time. I simply could not believe the ease with which I found work! Not only a metropolis then, but, as far as I was concerned, the land of milk and honey. And all of this contributes enormously to the affection I feel for this town.
Other Swindon Leisure Facilities
Furthermore of course there’s the Oasis and Dorcan and Croft and Milton Road. And there’s all the parks and green spaces and a theatre and an arts centre. Of course since my arrival here there’s been the Greenbridge and Orbital developments and soon we’ll have the new set-up at Regent’s Circus. A veritable cornucopia indeed.
So yeah, I know the town is not without its problems and faults but I’ll never forget how it felt to arrive here and find so many wonders right on my doorstep. I thought it was wonderful then and, even though the town centre is perhaps not what it once was, I still do.
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a busy university student needs guest bloggers to keep the blogging ball rolling. So I’m super grateful to Frances Bevan for sending me these words about some of Swindon’s old farmhouses.
Whilst my knowledge of Swindon, is at best, superficial – though my enthusiasm for the town is anything but – the same cannot be said of Frances.
As she explains herself, she is the chief writer of the splendid Swindon Heritage magazine. (2020 – the magazine is with us no more)
I was dead impressed when I read the summer issue I can tell you.
Frances also pens a number of blogs that give detailed accounts of various aspects of Swindon’s rich history – just one of which is ‘Good Gentlewoman’. In that you can read about the St John ladies ofLydiard House.
Anyway, I think you’ll agree that Frances’ article gives a lovely insight into some of the buildings we do still have round and about us.
“As chief writer and co-founder of Swindon Heritage, it’s a pleasure to be invited to write a guest post for Angela’s Born Again Swindonian blog, because like her, I love living in Swindon.
Yes, I know previous generations of councillors and town planners have a lot to answer for, but although some beautiful properties have sadly gone, there are still a number of interesting and historic ones around and I’m going to raise a glass to one or two of them in this post.
With a wealth of engineering expertise to celebrate, in the latest edition of Swindon Heritage we turn our attention to a much older period of the town’s history when agriculture reigned.
Clive Carter of the Wiltshire Buildings Record Farmsteads Project, identified no fewer than 81 farms. And many of the farmhouses survive today, as private homes, community centres and yes, you’ve guessed it – pubs.
In my neck of the West Swindon woods we have several such properties. Today Lower Shaw Farm offers weekend breaks, events and courses and is home to the prestigious Swindon Festival of Literature. But it was once farmed by several generations of the wealthy Tuckey family and records exist dating back to the 17th century.
Brook House Farm
Now known as Brookhouse Farm and part of the Hungry Horse chain of pubs and restaurants, Brook Farm was once part of the Lydiard Park estate.
Margaret Beauchamp (portrayed by Frances Tomelty in the BBC series The White Queen) brought the estate to the St John family by her marriage to Oliver St John in about 1425. The present Victorian farmhouse is much altered, but the link with Swindon’s heritage remains.
Wick Farm in West Swindon
Privately owned Wick Farmhouse, another former St John property, nestles at the centre of a housing estate, believed to be close to the site of a lost medieval village.
Wick farm, Swindon
NB – When doing the West Swindon sculpture walk I came across a lovely stained glass window in the side of what was clearly a barn conversion. And what do you know? It belongs to Wick Farm – but of course I had no idea of that then.
You can read about a Victorian murder mystery related to Wick Farm on the wonderful ‘Swindon in the Past Lane’ blog.
Here’s an appetizer: “During the 19th century Wick Farm was home to Jonas Clarke senior for over 26 years. The Clarke family were pretty unconventional by Victorian social conventions. Although married in his late twenties, Jonas soon began an alliance with a servant girl called Alice Pinnell. Thirty years and seven children later they eventually married at St. Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze in 1853, after the death of Jonas’ first wife.”
In 1881 the 74 acre Upper Shaw Farm with fields named Martin’s Hill and Griffins, was farmed by William Plummer aged 76 and his three sisters, Amelia 78 and Emma and Hannah who were both in their 60s.
Manor Farm, Swindon – one more of Swindon’s Old Farmhouses
10 things to celebrate about Swindon, No 6: The Museum of Computing
Thursday 19th August 2013
Swindon Museum of Computing
This post, as you can tell, is a very early post on this blog, featuring the Swindon Museum of Computing. I really need to have a word with my chum Simon Webb, get a guided tour, and redo it. But this will give you the idea.
Hmm. Not quite eh?
Small it is – but it’s perfectly formed. A real little gem tucked away in Theatre Square is The Museum of Computing Swindon.
I had a lovely little wander around wallowing in nostalgia as I went. Oh – the Commodore 64 – how I remember thee! My favourite game on that was wonderfully animated Trivial Pursuit. The TP character got super cross and he stamped his foot with impatience if you took too long to answer the question. There were all manner of other animations on it too. The pain in loading the cassette was worth it I reckon.
Then there was the BBC Micro – oh how I coveted one of those. And all the different Macs. Or Macintoshes as they were then. Remember the translucent coloured ones? How achingly cool were they? Well they’ve got one of those. Amongst a whole host of splendid things.
It’s a bug’s life
There’s a lovely display and explanation of how the term ‘bug’ came into being which I’ve looked up on the internet – how fitting …
‘The term “bug” was used in an account by computer pioneer Grace Hopper,who publicized the cause of a malfunction in an early electromechanical computer. A typical version of the story is given by this quote:
In 1946, when Hopper left active duty, she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation Laboratory. There she continued her work on the Mark II and Mark III.
Operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log book. Stemming from the first bug, today we call errors or glitch’s [sic] in a program a bug.’ Which is really rather wonderful is it not?
There is though evidence to suggest that use of the term “bug” to describe inexplicable defects has been a part of engineering jargon for many decades and predates computers and computer software. Hardware engineers might even have used the term to describe mechanical malfunctions. For instance,Thomas Edison wrote the following words in a letter to an associate in 1878:
‘It has been just so in all of my inventions. The first step is an intuition, and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise — this thing gives out and [it is] then that “Bugs” — as such little faults and difficulties are called — show themselves and months of intense watching, study and labour are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly reached.
Osborne Personal PC
But hey – I reckon I prefer the explanation that the museum gives don’t you? It’s a much more interesting and poetic explanation!
A rather large personal computer
As I wandered round I saw a somewhat amusing poster advertising a ‘Personal PC’ that was the size of a small suitcase. Hmmm. Well it all had to start somewhere eh?
The museum puts on all sorts of special events, exhibitions and activities that lets the kids get really hands on so it’s a great place to keep them entertained and stimulated for a couple of hours or more at very little expense.
At last! I’ve managed to get my copy of The Swindon Book by Mark Child, from the tourist information desk at the central library. As the back cover says, the book is:
‘The story of Swindon, from the earliest times to the present day, is here encapsulated in an alphabetical compendium of people who have influenced its development, places that have given character to its landscape and important events that have punctuated its history. The SWINDON BOOK, written by an eminent local historian, and writer on history, topography and architecture, is a unique and readable distillation of the centuries’.
Hmmm, well, I won’t lie – a bit of plain English wouldn’t have come amiss on that back cover. In other words, the book comprises a collection of bite-sized titbits arranged in alphabetical order. So don’t let the somewhat purple prose on the back put you off . Because it is – as it says – readable.
Here you’ll find a labour of love stuffed full of all sorts of wonderful nuggets of information that the author has been squirreling away for years.
I haven’t had time to have a thorough browse yet. Reading that David Putnam unveiled the statue of Diana Dors outside the Shaw Ridge cinema complex piqued my interest. That’s a pretty cool thing I think. As is the book as a whole.
It’s really very informative and a ‘must have’ for anyone with any interest in Swindon’s history.
The Swindon Book and the Swindon Book Companion
Of course, other people’s writings are a useful source/resource for one’s own. I used these books and others for reference when writing Secret Swindon.And again for Swindon in 50 Buildings.
