Swindon Hub Seeks New Trustees o Support its Growing Community Effect.
Swindon Hub, a beloved community space developed by and for the local community, is seeking new trustees. To both join its board and help guide its expanding range of activities and services.
Nestled in the heart of Swindon’s Town Centre, the Hub has become a vital gathering place. It offers facilities such as:
An affordable café
a bookshop
local crafts
and surplus stock sales benefiting the Swindon Night Shelter.
To foster creativity, connection and a sense of belonging the Hub boasts a busy calendar of events. They range from:
Weekly free yoga sessions
Arts and crafts
Retro gaming groups
Writers’ clubs and …
… storytime sessions for children.
Swindon Hub on the Parade in Swindon town centre – Swindon Hub Seeks New Trustees
Building on their achievements so far
To maintain and build on this success, Swindon Hub needs trustees with the passion and expertise to help steer its future.
The Hub is particularly looking for individuals with experience in event management, communications/PR or fundraising.
Trustees play a crucial role in setting the strategic direction of the Hub. Thus ensuring it remains sustainable and responsive to the needs of the Swindon community. Whether you have expertise in these areas or a desire to support the Hub in other ways, joining the board is a rewarding opportunity to make a lasting impact.
The Hub AGM
Swindon Hub will host its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 15th October at 6pm, at The Hub on The Parade, Swindon.
This event is open to all community members, volunteers, and prospective trustees. Attendees will have the chance to learn more about the Hub’s future plans, meet the current team and discuss how new trustees can contribute to its mission.
Rhian Brick, one of Swindon Hub’s full-time Coordinators, commented: ‘Swindon Hub has flourished due to the dedication of our volunteers and trustees. As we continue to grow, we need more committed individuals to help shape our next chapter. Whether you’re interested in helping out in the Hub itself or wish to become a trustee, we would love to hear from you.’
To express interest in becoming a trustee, please contact Swindon Hub by emailing trustees@swindonhub.org.uk.
About Swindon Hub
Swindon Hub is a community-led space designed to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for all residents. With a variety of events, affordable services, and support for local charitable causes, the Hub is at the heart of Swindon’s thriving community life.
The Baptist School/Albion Club on Bridge Street represents a classic example of me not following my own advice of ‘looking up’. Because, when someone posted a picture on Bookface of what you see below and asked if anyone knew its location, I had to plead ignorance. Despite it being a building I’ve walked past countless times.
Side view of Baptist school on Bridge Street
Detail of the inscription on the wall.
The front of the Baptist school on Bridge Street – photo from Strolling in Swindon
Designed by Thomas S . Lansdown of Brunswick Terrace (Bath Rd) this Baptist school building is all that remains of the Fleet Street Baptist church. It was built adjacent to the church, in Bridge in 1868. Or so Mark Child states in his Swindon Book. He goes on to say that the congregation moved to the Baptist Tabernacle in Regent Circusin 1886. It appears that, the following year, the Fleet Street premises underwent partial demolition and the site converted into four shops. It’s also had a period serving as part of the Albion Sports & Social Club.
The building as you see it above is now undergoing conversion into residential accommodation – one reason for giving it a mention here – see below. And see this article from the Swindon Advertiser too.
The Albion Sports & Social Club
The building that you see the gable of on the above photo used to look like this:
The Albion club poured its last pint and closed its doors for the last time in 2017. Since then it’s sat empty and decaying. The club consists of three buildings:
the former Baptist Sunday school – see above
An adjacent two-storey building on Bridge Street and …
I’ve got to wondering how old the Albion Club (as an entity) is. From what I can work out, it was in the schoolroom by 1923. So when was it founded? Somewhere in the 1910s?
From what I can gather the club began life in No 2 Bridge Street – the old chapel school. But then, in 1978, moved to No 62 Bridge Street. But if anyone out there has other/different information do let me know.
Another thing I spotted only recently, so failing yet again in my ‘look up, look down, look around’ exhortation are these gorgeous tiles. They’re on the left of the building you see above – partially obscured by a big advertising poster thing for a Turkish barber. I do hope no-one destroys them.
Son of Swindon’s Swimming Challenge. A Swindon-born Royal Navy officer’s 200-day challenge puts swimming in the spotlight.
What do you do if you love swimming, hate litter and want to fundraise for charities that prevent drowning, all at the same time? Well, if you’re Cdr Mark ‘Scotty’ Scott Rtd, then the answer is obvious. What you do is set yourself a 200-day challenge to swim to or from as many of the UK’s Royal National Lifeboat Institution stations as you can. Then, at the same time, you fundraise for the RNLI. And also for drowning prevention charity SwimTayka, which runs free learn-to-swim programmes for children.
And when you get out of the sea and onto the beach, you litter-pick accompanied by a toy womble. Remember the Wombles? The fictional creatures famed for tidying up on Wimbledon Common.
For Scotty, a Royal Navy helicopter pilot instructor based at RAF Valley, in Anglesey, this seemed doable.
Son of Swindon’s Swimming Challenge- Mark ‘Scotty’ Scott – swimming for SwimTayka and RNLI
The swim so far
To date, Scotty has completed about 500km of swimming and visited almost 40 of the RNLI’s RNLI’s 238 stations. In the process he’s raised £4,000 for the RNLI. And he’s now fundraising for SwimTayka. SwimTayka runs free swimming programmes for children in coastal locations in countries such as Peru and Brazil, where children don’t learn to swim and are at risk of drowning.
So, what inspired Scotty, who hails from near Swindon, in Wiltshire, to take on this challenge?
When I first came up to Anglesey, I couldn’t always swim because the sea is rough here. And the amount of plastic on the beaches is horrendous. This is where the wombling started, so I swim when I can and also pick up litter when I’m at the beach.
I’m RAF Valley’s liaison officer with the RNLI. It’s celebrating its 200th anniversary and I wanted to do something to support them.’
SwimTayka
Scotty is also a trustee for SwimTayka, having had involvement with the charity since he joined one of its English Channel relay teams in 2022. Every summer, SwimTayka organises relay teams to swim the Channel. They help swimmers achieve a lifetime ambition and raise funds at the same time. Scotty has since completed a solo Channel crossing.
‘I love helping raise money for SwimTayka and awareness of what they do. I’ve even taken part in swims with SwimTayka tattooed on my arm. This year, I became a trustee of the charity and hope to go out and visit one of their swimming programmes in the future.’
So far, Scotty’s challenge is going well. One stretch involved swimming from Dover to Portsmouth, covering 200km and passing 15 RNLI stations. Another was in the North Sea – a chilly 12C – swimming from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Blyth. That swim covered 52km and passed 8 RNLI stations. The challenge will finish on October 31, with a swim into Poole Harbour.
Scotty doesn’t wear a wetsuit and swims unsupported. He takes all his gear with him, including a tracking device, radio and inflatable life raft on his tow float. When he gets out, he does his ‘wombling’, by picking up and disposing of rubbish.
‘At length, I’ll swim around all the 238 lifeboat stations. But this 200-day challenge is to reach as many as I can and raise the profile of the RNLI, as well as SwimTayka.’
For more information about SwimTayka, joining a Channel relay team, and its swim programmes, visit https://swimtayka.org/.
Bryan Avery, founder of SwimTayka, said Scotty was a great advocate for the charity. ‘Scotty is a fantastic supporter of SwimTayka and we’re so impressed with this challenge he has taken on. It’ll not only help fund the vital swimming programmes we run but support the RNLI and the incredible lifesaving work they do.’
Wroughton Spring. Who knew? Well not me that’s for sure. Not until I saw a photograph of this X-marks-the-spot-stone-plaque somewhere on social media.
Wroughton Spring stone plaque set into the wall on Croft Road in SwindonDetail of the inscription on the Wroughton Spring plaque
So, Wroughton Spring has now come to my attention. And that means I’m bursting to know a bit more about it. #Obvs my first port of call is Local Studies in central library. They found a mention of it in Wiltshire Archeological Magazine Volume 40. It weaves a tale of the Swindon Advertiser and its proud boast ‘Printed by Steam Power’.
Students in the GWR Works made the boiler that provided the steam power. And the water for the boiler came from … drum roll please …. the eponymous spring. It seems there once was a trough in the wall from which the water was fetched in pails. Fancy that huh?
The plaque in situ in the wall on Croft Road
But there’s more – a bit anyway
A friend has loaned me a stack of Wroughton history group books. And, turning to the contents list in the issue below my eyes alighted on an entry entitled Wroughton Waterworks. That piqued my interest. Would it have any mention of the spring? Well yes .. it did/does.
NB: I imagine that Local Studies has copies of these Wroughton history books should you want to read the full Wroughton Waterworks article. Or indeed anything else about Wroughton’s history for that matter.
The pertinent extract tells us that the construction of Wroughton Waterworks began in 1866. The Swindon water company chose Overtown Dell as the best site for obtaining a water supply for the fast-expanding railway town, called Swindon. Up to that point water carts and wells had supplied the Swindon district.
The spring on Wroughton Road leading into Swindon comprised the main source of the water supply. And that of course is now marked by the stone plaque on Croft Road that we see in the images above.
Below is an extract from something and I can’t remember now what or where that gives good mention of the spring.
The Bothy at Burderop. Or the Bothy at Burderop estate to be more precise. The bothy and the walled garden once comprised part of the Burderop Manor estate – but were sold as a separate entity some years ago.
Now, if you’ve been paying any attention at all to my literary output of the last few years, you’ll know that the publisher’s brief with Swindon in 50 Buildings didn’t allow me to write any words about anything in the wider borough. So I’ve used this Swindon in 50 More Buildings series to make some small redress to that position. Thus, on the Oxford side of Swindon, in Highworth, I’ve done St Michael’s and All the Angels (greedy!!). And the Old Post Office. And on the Wroughton/Wilts side of town we’ve got Pavey’s Mill in Wroughton and now this bothy. Having never come across a bothy and with the work that Jules and Mark are doing in the walled garden being so fantastic, I felt it deserved a place in this series.
In the walled garden that once belonged to Burderop Manor, the bothy is going to make an unusual and terrific home. A simply delightful couple, Jules Gilleland and Mark Wheeler, are converting it into a dwelling for themselves and their family. Within this wonderful walled garden it will from part of a wonderful enterprise. See more about the bothy gardens and the couple’s plans for it here: https://swindonian.me/2024/08/30/introducing-bothy-gardens/
2024 – The bothy at burderop walled garden undergoing restoration
What is a bothy?
You may well ask. It’s a good question to which there’s more than one answer – but both relate to a place of shelter.
So, in the first instance a bothy comprises a basic shelter often found in remote mountainous areas. They’re there to provide shelter to anyone out roaming caught short by the unpredictable and dangerous weather of such areas. Then in the second, and this relates to our building, a bothy describes basic accommodation often used for gardeners or other workers without the status of the head gardener. He’d have a home of his own elsewhere on the estate.
The Burderop bothy
Grade II listed, and derelict for well over two decades, this stone bothy dates back to the 1730s. It’s now undergoing sympathetic restoration by Jules and Mark.
Jules outside the bothyWell-worn bothy stepsAn ancient stone wallBothy interior
The main focus of this post is of course the bothy. But the walled garden is so incredible I can’t leave without showing a few photos of it. Bear in mind that it’s all a work in progress.
View of garden with Burderop House in backgroundWrought iron gate – isn’t it splendid?
Thomas Calley
Plaque in one of the walls in the walled garden bearing the initials TC – Thomas Calley
For a time, the Burderop estate bore the name, Okebourne Chace. Here the Calley family lived for over two centuries. In 1649, William Calley served as High Sheriff of Wiltshire. Then, in 1807, Thomas Calley held the title.
Thomas marred Elizabeth Keck, daughter of Anthony James Keck of Stoughton Grange. The pair had a son, James Calley. He sold the estate to John Parkinson, who held it as trustee for the Duke of Wellington.
Also owned by Thomas Calley and his wife, were the estates of Broad Hinton and Salthrop House. 1860, saw the second Duke of Wellington sell them to Anthony MS Maskelyne of Bassett Down.
Given the official title Burderop Manor in the 1300s, the house came to Hyde Abbey as a religious building. But it returned to the king in the 1500s who then gave it to Sir John Bridges.
It’s believed that Elizabeth I visited the manor house in 1592. Now, she visited Lydiard House so this may well be true. Anyway, in 1619 a wealthy silk and cloth merchant by the name of William Calley bought it.
The manor house then stayed within the family until 1977 when engineering company Halcrow bought it. They left the site in 2018 when developers City and Country obtained planning permission to erect 57 executive homes.
