Hundreds of children have spent their summer singing, dancing, making friends and trying new activities at holiday clubs run by Swindon-based Revolution Performing Arts (RPA).
RPA welcomed around 450 children across 12 days of summer holiday activities in Swindon. All supported by a team of 27 leaders and assistants working across its Swindon and Wiltshire programmes.
What they did
The children enjoyed singing, dancing and acting alongside fashion shows, arts and crafts and nutrition workshops. And plenty of outdoor play during some of the hottest weeks of the year.
For Founder Fi Da Silva-Adams, some of the biggest highlights came from watching children who arrived feeling nervous find their feet, make friends and get involved.
We want the children to have loads of fun, but it’s also lovely to see what happens as they become more comfortable,’ said Fi.
‘We had children who were very unsure when they first arrived. But, by the end, they were joining in, performing in front of other people and making new friends.
‘Those might seem like little things. But for some children they’re huge achievements, and seeing how proud they are of themselves is so special.’
Swindon Children Enjoy Summer Fun with RPA – summer 2026
Programme design
The design of the summer programme gave children plenty of choices. They had opportunities to perform as well as quieter creative activities including painting mugs and water bottles, making keyrings and designing fans.
The team also adapted activities throughout the summer to cope with the hot weather. And make sure children could continue enjoying their days in safety.
Fi said one of her favourite parts of the summer was seeing communities develop around the individual clubs, including through WhatsApp groups set up for parents.
‘If a child couldn’t attend, parents would pop a message into the group and other families would ask if they could take the space,’ she said.
‘I didn’t need to manage it. The parents were talking to each other and making sure places weren’t going to waste. That sense of community was lovely to see.
Team work
‘I’m also super proud of our team. They worked so hard throughout the summer, particularly in the heat, to make sure the children were safe, happy and having a brilliant time.’
Feedback from families has already shown how keen many of the children are to return.
One parent said her daughter had struggled in the past to find somewhere she felt comfortable attending on a regular basis. But after trying RPA she was already ‘counting down’ to her next session.
Another dad, whose four children attended the Croft holiday club, said: ‘All four of my children have so loved their time at Croft this summer.
‘As a dad, it means so much to know that they are happy, safe and so well cared for. We’re so grateful for all the love, kindness and fun you’ve given our children.’
RPA is now looking ahead to its winter holiday clubs, with both funded and privately booked places expected to be available.
Revolution Performing Arts delivers more than 1,200 performing arts sessions every year across Swindon, North Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. Alongside its weekly classes, RPA runs holiday clubs with both funded and privately booked places. All helping children and young people enjoy singing, dancing, drama and creative activities during the school holidays. To find out more visit www.revolutionpa.co.uk
Wiltshire Wellness Retreat Returning. A sold-out Wiltshire wellbeing retreat which brought people together to mark the peak of the Lion’s gate portal will return for a third year in 2027.
Louise Muir-Sage, Reiki practitioner and founder of Something Kind of Woo in Royal Wootton Bassett, welcomed 28 people to The Barn at Great Moorleaze Farm in Wanborough on Saturday 8 August for her second annual Lion’s gate retreat.
The day gave people the chance to step away from everyday life. We had a guided meditation from Sam SoulSong, Yin Flow and a sound bath with MindBodySoul with Jazz. Guests could also have henna tattoos and tarot card readings. And Louise brought Something Kind of Woo to the event with a pop-up shop.
‘I was so thrilled to sell out for the second year,’ said Louise. ‘When you plan something like this, you have an idea in your head of how you want people to feel. But seeing everyone there, taking part and giving themselves permission to switch off was super special.’
Retreat Returning – Jazz, Lou & Sam
The Lion’s gate portal
The Lion’s gate Portal is recognised within spiritual practices each year. It reaches its peak around 8 August. Louise created the retreat to give people a welcoming space to explore the occasion through meditation, movement, reflection and spending time with others.
This was the second year Louise has run the retreat, following the success of the first event in 2025.
‘There was such a lovely atmosphere throughout the day,’ she said. ‘Some people came with friends, others came on their own and there were completely different levels of experience. You don’t have to know anything about spirituality to come along. You can be completely new to it and enjoy having some time for yourself.’
Attendee Ami Thompson said ‘It was a beautiful day where I could switch off and relax. I loved learning about the Sunstone crystal and have carried it with me since. The meditation and sound bath felt amazing, and the day inspired me to take action with my own business too.’
The success of this year’s event means plans are already underway for its return on 7 August 2027. 10 people who attended this year have already secured their place.
‘For people to finish the day and tell me they want to come back next year is about the biggest compliment I could receive,’ said Louise. ‘This was only our second Lion’s gate retreat. So to know we’ll be coming back for a third year and already have people booked feels amazing.
‘I’ve got plenty of ideas for next year. I want to keep the parts people have enjoyed, but also make sure there’s something different to experience each time.’
Places for the 2027 Lion’s gate retreat are on sale now. To secure your place, or to find out more about other upcoming Something Kind of Woo events, visit https://somethingkindofwoo.co.uk/events/.
Following two previous sell-out evenings, a host of well-known comedy names will come together again at Swindon’s Wyvern Theatre. It’s happening this Tuesday for a special evening of live comedy raising support for local charity The Harbour Project.
Local comedian Ivo Graham will host MaybeYou’re The Same As Me: A Night of Comedy in Support of The Harbour Project at the Wyvern Theatre on Tuesday 15 September. Joining him are:
The special event brings together an exciting mix of comedy talent for an evening of stand-up. All whilst supporting the work of The Harbour Project and its support for refugees and asylum seekers in Swindon.
The Harbour Project works with refugees and asylum seekers across the local community. It provides practical support, advice, advocacy, friendship and opportunities to help people settle and build new lives in the area.
MaybeYou’re The Same As Me is at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon, on Tuesday 15 September 2026.
Fleet Street and Fleet Square in Swindon town centre.
Way back in Swindon’s pre-history, before the completion of Brunel’s railway village, speculative builders began erecting houses just outside it. At first, these houses for the GWR workers stood in close comfort to the railway village along and just off a track known as Fleetway or Fletway – a term derived from Old and Middle English. Fleet/Flet meaning, amongst other things, a slow-moving watercourse and way, from Old English, is what you’d suppose – a road, path or track.
But this street, like so many, had an earlier name: Bleat/Bleet Lane. Local Studies inform me that Bleat/Bleet Lane may only have applied to part of the street because there’s records that show it as both Fleet Street and Fleetway all around the same time – the early 1800s. Thus, their best guess is that Bleat Lane and Fleetway were early names for parts of pre-existing streets before the bridge went across and extended/connected all the streets. Fleet Street then became all one run but the sections continued being referred to by those names until, at length, it all became Fleet Street.
The 1851 census showing Fleet Street as Bleat Lane
Not only were street names variable, spellings were too. Thus this 1858 Swindon Advertiser article has it as Bleet Lane.
Today we know this ancient track as Westcott Place, Faringdon Road and Fleet Street. Small settlements became established on them as early as 1845.
Thus, as a green field site gave way to these new homes the area soon became a bustling part of New Swindon. When the railway village outgrew its shopping facilities (see Emlyn Square) this area had further retail offerings shoehorned into it – the potential for trade in Regent Street hadn’t yet been fully explored.
Fleet Street and Fleet Square – a view down a wet Fleet Street towards the railway station and Fleming Way. The white building on the right is the Burton building.
Tramlines
A distinguishing feature of the Fleet Street/Bridge Street junction was its function as the heart of Swindon’s tramways. The tramway opened on September 22, 1904 and had a depot in Corporation Street. A mere twenty-five years later they were phased out and it’s as if they never existed at all, so completely were they swept away by the new fangled omnibus.
Known variously as the tram centre, the centre or *Clappen’s Corner, from here one could take a tramcar to one of three destinations.
… the far end of Rodbourne Road near the Bruce Street railway bridge.
The name Clappen’s Corner came from one William Clappen who ran a prominent clothing and millinery store on the right-hand corner of Fleet Street/Bridge Street. From 1905 to the early nineties the site became a Stead & Simpson shoe shop. This structure later had a date with the wrecking ball and Wilkinson’s (Wilko) built a purpose-built store there – it’s now vacated.
Referencing that ancient Fletway track, this modern building bears the name, Fleetway House.
Below is the same view of Fleet Street. The left hand image from Local Studies is dated 1912 approx. The one on the right early 2000s.
Fleet Street in 1912. Looking eastwards towards the tram centre it shows the Oxford Hotel on the right-hand corner of the image. Before becoming the Oxford it had spent four decades as the Volunteer. Image courtesy of Local Studies.The same view as the 1912 image. The Burton building (in somewhat better days) stands on the same spot as the erstwhile Oxford Hotel.
Fleet Street today
Over the years the area has housed a busy outdoor market and numerous drinking establishments. There’s no pretending though that it hasn’t, let’s say, lost its shine, in recent years. Indeed, Fleet Street and Bridge Street are two bits of Swindon that make me sad. Though that’s not to say they’re not worth visiting. Indeed, in Swindon in 50 More Buildings I highlighted three buildings on Fleet Street that I felt worthy of mention. In the first instance because they’re interesting and in the second because the state of them concerned me. They are:
No 24 Fleet Street Swindon also known as The Public Benefit Boot Company. Scan of a 1908 postcard from Local Studies image collection.: 30th April 1908, East
Murals
Brightening the area we now have some large-scale mural action. This rather gorgeous creation brings life and colour to Fleet Square – a small area between the Sir Daniel (Wetherspoons) on one side and the Drink Valley, an independent micro brewery on the other.
The Fleet Square mural by Ed Poster covers a prominent wall between the Ibis Hotel and the Holiday Inn.
The vibrant striking British wildlife corridor design features native wildflowers and a dragonfly, symbolising biodiversity. It also references the historic Wilts & Berks canal, part of which once ran through Swindon town centre.’Also, lower down Fleet Street, closer to Fleming Way, an entire building has been given an artistic, geometric design overhaul by Ed Poster.
Having visited Fleet Street we now make our way to:
Church Art in Swindon – a little look at some of what you can enjoy in Swindon’s churches.
Church art, or Sacred Artwork is, by its definition, art that is set apart from the mundane. We find it in uses and places that command deep respect. From a Christian perspective, the term sacred artwork, is best applied to works that are either:
Intended for liturgical settings or are …
… appropriate for liturgical settings
Common types of church art
There are four common varieties of church art – most of us will have encountered some if not all of them at some time in our lives – either at home or abroad.
Stained glass – letting glowing, colourful light into a church interior, stained glass windows tell stories – often of the Bible and saints. But they’re not restricted to that. They can be geometric patterns, they can tell an allegorical story or they can be a tribute to a significant person. Or to local industry – see below.
Frescoes and wall paintings: these are large paintings on church walls and ceilings often using bright colours. I’ll argue that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome is the go big or go home version.
Altarpieces: carved or painted wooden and stone panels placed behind the main altar.
Icons – Sacred wooden panel paintings used, in the main, in Eastern traditions, these pieces are rich with deep symbols.
Church Art in Swindon – GWR stained glass in Christ Church. Often unnoticed, tucked away in the south porch of Christ Church is this gorgeous stained-glass window featuring a GWR locomotive.
Local bell ringer Nancy Davis donated the window in 1975.
Christ Church has deep ties to the GWR. The company’s chief engineer, George Jackson Churchward has his resting place there.
So, what’s Swindon got in the way of sacred art?
Well quite rather a lot actually. And some of it is quite astonishing. I obvs can do more than give an overview here of some it I know. And that I miss I beg your pardon – to paraphrase a V old song about an English country garden!
I do hope though that this will whet your appetite and encourage you to visit the churches mentioned here and others in the town, to see what they might have in the way of church art. And then tell me about it – because what I talk about here is about the extent of my knowledge.
St Mary’s church in Lydiard Park
Right then! To kick off our whistle stop tour of some of Swindon’s church art we’re visiting St Mary’s at Lydiard. In 1999, writer and historian Simon Jenkins featured this church in his book England’s Thousand Best Churches. In it he stated that, were the chancel to be moved to the Victoria and Albert Museum, lock, stock and barrel, it would cause a national sensation. And not a lot of people know that. Thus, I included that rather fabulous fact inSecret Swindon. But, we’re not concerned here with the Golden Cavalier nor the tremendous polyptych. No. Instead we’ll concentrate on the wall paintings at St Mary’s. These remarkable survivals offer a rare insight into how much different the church would have looked to the mediaeval worshiper. For they would have offered their prayers to God surrounded by walls covered in brilliantly coloured patterns, foliage and action figures.
The 16th century saw all St Mary’s wall paintings defaced and covered up when the new Protestant doctrine forbade the use of sacred images and the worship of saints. Some enjoyed a brief moment in the sun when the Victorians temporarily exposed them, 300 years later. They uncovered them from layers of lime-wash during 1901 renovations.Now though, they’re in better shape than ever. And it’s all thanks to extensive conservation work undertaken in a £1million conservation project (2018-2021). The programme involved twenty-four trainee conservators from different countries under the professional guidance of Jane Rutherford & Associates.
You can explore the wall paintings (and more) by browsing the Lydiard archives here: https://thelydiardarchives.org.uk/collection/wallpaintings but as a teaser there’s one below. What you see here is an unusual depiction of Christ with long blonde, wavy hair surrounded by a pomegranate design.
Dating from the 15th century it’s part of a set of once brightly-coloured wall paintings introduced by Margaret Beauchamp (c1410-1482) and her husband Oliver St. John – pronounced Sinjun or Sinjin. The couple are credited with enlargements and improvements to the church that took place in the 1400s. Their work included the addition of the south porch – where you’ll find this painting.
ST MARY’S Renaissance Christ – Image courtesy of the Friends of Lydiard website. As indeed are many of the words.
Inglesham church, St John the Baptist – 13th century
Keeping with ancient wall paintings and bouncing out into the wider borough we’re now paying a visit to Inglesham, described as ‘an ancient painted wonder saved by William Morris.’ That’s he of Kelmscott Manor not the Swindon Advertiser. I mention it because confusion does arise.
‘An amazing series of paintings, from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century, cover the walls often with one painted over another, in places seven layers thick. While it is not always easy to puzzle out the subjects, you can see fifteenth-century angels above the chancel arch, an early fourteenth-century doom on the east wall of the north aisle, and several nineteenth-century texts, as well as a thirteenth-century masonry pattern throughout the chancel.’
The church art tour bus now comes back into Swindon, to Rodbourne. Here we’ll pay a visit to St Augustine’s, one of the four so-called railway churches, built to meet the spiritual needs of the ever-growing GWR workforce. The other’s being, in no particular order) St Mark’s (by the railway village), St Barnabas (Gorse Hill) and St Luke’s at Broadgreen.
Anyway, as you go through the doorway of this modest, red-brick, railway church prepare yourself for shock and awe as you’re greeted with the simply stunning apse ceiling you see in this image.
Back in 1987, discussions began about a new work of art for the apse at St Augustine’s. Funding it were several members of the Done family, in memory of Winifred Done. A much-loved member of the congregation, Winifred had died in March of that year.
Now a young artist seeking work, Fleur Channer, had approached the clergy. They commissioned her to prepare sketches for a painting in the early Christian style. They wanted something resembling that which St Augustine himself might well have seen in Rome. Adaption’s to the sketches followed. By the time the final drawings received approval the figures were of a later period than at first intended. They now showed the influence of Italian, Greek and Venetian artwork.
But better still, visit it. It’s a lovely church, one of which I am rather fond.
The apse in St Augustine’s church in Rodbourne. The Byzantine-style apse ceiling in St Augustine’s painted in the 1980s by a young artist called Fleur Channer.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Revelation 22:13
St Barnabas’ Gorse Hill
Continuing with the theme of tales of the unexpected, our next and final stop on this trip takes us to another railway church, St Barnabas in Gorse Hill. Now, I’ve written about St Barnabas and its marvellous mural paintings before on this forum so I’ll not go on too much them. But in case you missed that one or need a reminder here’s an overview.
The mural paintings are the work of the Rev. John (Jean) Perret, sometime Rector of Stanton Fitzwarren, near Swindon. The Rev. Basil Minchin encouraged their execution and they comprised a thank you offering on the part of the artist for recovery to health. Painted in the years 1946, 1947 and 1948, the artist prepared the walls with lead and canvas.
Section from St Barnabas’ Church Murals – the young men offering the locomotive and the mothers offering their children.
So, there you have it – an overview of a small sample of Swindon’s sacred art. I trust it’s tickled your metaphorical taste buds and that you’re now energised and enthused enough to visit them for yourself.
