Twelfth Night first hit a stage in 1602. Four hundred and twenty one years ago! But this year, 2023, you can find Twelfth Night at the Bowl. Not the Hollywood Bowl but one rather similar – the bowl in Town Gardens.
Beware – spoilers!
Viola, separated from her twin Sebastian, dresses as a boy and works for the Duke Orsino, whom she falls in love with. Orsino is in love with the Countess Olivia, and sends Viola to court her for him, but Olivia falls for Viola instead. Sebastian arrives, causing a flood of mistaken identity, and marries Olivia. Viola then reveals she is a girl and marries Orsino.
But it all turns out alright in the end in true Shakespearian style.
The Duke’s Theatre Company
From their website: ‘What can you expect from a Duke’s Theatre Company performance?’
‘The full text in all its glory; innovative production design to support the unparalleled energy of our wonderful cast; original music so that Shakespeare’s songs are heard in a whole new way – and all we ask is that you come prepared for a wonderful time.’
You know you want to don’t you? 🙂 Pack up a picnic and get yourself a drink at the venue bar and sit back and relax and let the joy of outdoor theatre wash over you. We’re so fortunate in Swindon to have such a fantastic venue as we do in the art deco bowl in our splendid town gardens. We’re fortunate too to have South Swindon Parish Council bringing us these wonderful theatrical events.
Swindon’s Sanford Street school for boys opened in 1881 with capacity for 794 boys. The building cost of £5 per child was in-line with the standard cost of infant schools at that time – but this one boasted a superior design. It’s reasonable to assume that the school’s designer, Brightwen Binyon, felt proud of his design for this school being as he published it in Building News in 1881. That decision had a far-reaching consequence – literally. For an Australian architect, HR Bastow, saw the publication and used the design as the basis for his Richmond North Primary School in Victoria, Australia. Thus, in Australia there is (or was??) a school if not identical then very, very like Swindon’s Sanford Street School.
The school board’s ambition gave Binyon the chance to be innovative. Their aspiration allowed him to introduce a non-denominational architectural style to an otherwise conservative (with a small c) client.
Popularising this aesthetic approach was the Chief Architect of the London School Board: Edward Robson.
Sanford Street School – architect drawing
The design arranged the school into three separate areas of open classrooms. Thus it went: juniors, middle, and seniors each with an individual external entrance, with through classroom circulation.
Binyon arranged the classroom blocks around the corner site to form a picturesque composition of gables and hipped roofs. Meanwhile the elevations combined different symmetries of large windows, entrances and dormers over-laid with classical motifs, decorative brickwork and terracotta monograms. Duncan & Mandy’s website has some great images of this detail on the building. Here are just a couple.
Harold Fleming. Footballer Harold Fleming (1887-1955) made his Swindon Town debut in 1907 at the age of 20, and played his first international two years later.
Edward William Beard – he entered the world in 1878 and lived until the age of 104, having never stopped working at the building firm he led and which still thrives and bears his name.
Frederick Hawksworth (1884-1976). Frederick joined the Great Western Railway as an apprentice at the age of 14. It was the start of a career which saw rise to the position of chief mechanical engineer.
Frederick Herbert Spencer (1872-1946) – this Frederick was a prize-winning pupil who went on to become a teacher and obtain a doctorate.
Sanford Street School/Sanford House today
As for the present day – Sanford House finds itself put to good use. Run by Voluntary Action Swindon, the building houses eleven charities including MIND,Swindon Carers and Citizen’s Advice. You’ll also find here Swindon Borough Council’s Live Well hub tackling health inequalities by promoting and improving health and well-being and referring to other services.
In the car park you can hire scooters from Shopmobility to help you get around the town. There’s a cafe too with fair-weather seating that’s open to all and serving drinks and light snacks.
Sanford House also has room’s available to rent through Voluntary Action Swindon’s website.
Revolution Performing Arts (RPA) has announced a new partnership with Hunt Scholars. Its purpose is to support young people for children with varied needs.
The two Swindon organisations are working together to create an empowering alternative provision for young people with non-traditional educational needs. Or for those who may have found that school is not for them. The service will run, in the first instance, from North Swindon. It’s accepting referrals from local schools and offering support to home-educating families.
RPA
Fi Da Silva-Adams founded RPA in 2007. The organisation specialises in encouraging young people to celebrate their individuality through the power of performing arts.
Fi says: ‘We plan to offer a bespoke package to children who, for many reasons, have failed to flourish in the school system. Academic education works best when a person feels part of a community of shared values. Further that they feel their skills and contributions are important and have their experiences validated. We wanted to create a safe space with the right environment for resilience to develop and self esteem to grow.’
Ellie Hunt is a qualified teacher who runs the specialist tuition service Hunt Scholars from Swindon.
Later in life, Ellie received a diagnosis of autism and ADHD. With that she’s well-placed to communicate with and understand her neurodiverse clients. Ellie has three neurodivergent children who’ve all enjoyed exploring performing arts with RPA.
RPA Collaborates with Specialist Tutors – Fiona Da Silva Adams and Ellie Hunt.
Exuberance and joy in abundance
There’s something naturally exuberant and joyful about everything that spills out of Revolution Performing Arts. It’s a place where children feel accepted, not ‘othered’ so that they can have the confidence to be themselves,’ Ellie said.
Revolution@HuntScholars will be an inclusive education provision. One that’s rooted in performing arts and skills for education and life. Sessions are bespoke and are ready for immediate commissioning. Sessions are bespoke and are ready for immediate commissioning. Young people who might find this service of value may come through:
A referral through their school
Another support organisation
or their parents may make direct contact.
Ellie says: ‘Other providers in the locality tend to use sport to support young people with differing needs. So the time is right for an art-based package. We’ll use drama to develop emotional literacy such as understanding what body language may look like. Dance can help children who need movement breaks because they can’t sit still for long. By trying circus skills a child might master balancing a peacock feather on their finger. They’ll then take that confidence forward into a maths lesson.’
Fi Da Silva-Adams from RPA said: ‘We’re ready to support young people on that initial pathway of becoming ready to learn. And then to integrate into the wider community. But also to have a gentle reintroduction of skills across the curriculum, linking them back to education. All in a way that feels relevant and attainable for them.’
While it isn’t true to describe Swindon as the birthplace of the NHS – other places contributed to this idea of a subscription health service – the medical fund society was influential for sure. That’s because Swindon was one of the first places to offer hospital care run by the workers themselves. Contributions from the workers via payroll deduction paid for it. These funds ran the hospital and other health services.
The only influence on the NHS, Swindon may not have been. But what we can say is this:
‘”From cradle to grave” is an expression synonymous 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.
It was 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. All we had to do was expand it to the whole country”.’
What’s occurring then?
Well, there’s detailed information on the Eventbrite link above. And check out these images below.
Be proud!
Swindon’s story is one that isn’t, I don’t think, one that’s told enough. I don’t think it’s possible to tell it enough. It’s one of which we should all be proud. It makes me so sad, when I see people comment on social media that they’re not proud to come from Swindon. Worse that they’re embarrassed to come from Swindon.
How can anyone not be proud that their town was built on men who walked here from all parts of the country knowing only that there was opportunity? And from that they built a community. They built the great GWR Works and those locomotives. Further they built arts and culture and a lending library and ….. drum roll please … the medical fund society and all that, that brought with it.
There’s so much more of which Swindonians should be proud of course – and you’ll find a lot of it here on this blog if you take a bit of time to root through the arts/culture/heritage posts: https://swindonian.me/category/artscultureheritage/
But for now – be sure to get to at least one of these events (I’m out of town sadly) to help Swindon celebrate the 75th anniversary of the NHS – and Swindon’s role in its creation.
Dave Gregory Guitar Supremo – Health warning: this blog does not go into huge detail on Dave’s involvement with XTC. With thanks to Chris Eley for research and writing assistance. And to Graham Carter for the images.
It would have been fab to have some up-to-date photos of Dave Gregory on this post. There’s lots of super ones on the internet but I’m always wary of copyright. So if anyone has one in their personal collection that they’d be happy for me to use that would be wonderful.
Early Life
David Charles Gregory entered this world on 21 September 1952 at the Cheriton Nursing Home on Westlecot Rd in Swindon. His dad worked in the railway works. He grew up in Purton and attended Commonweal School from 1964 to 1969.
Dave started learning the piano at the age of nine and started out on an acoustic guitar in 1966. He bought his first guitar at Christmas of that year. In time-honoured style he used money earned from his paper round from Kempster’s Music Shop on Commercial Rd. He played his first gig at Purton Youth Club in March 1967. First though he’d suffered the ignominy of his piano teacher sacking him for not practising. Even so – he went on to become Dave Gregory Guitar Supremo.
A set back and a home of his own
While at school Dave played in youth clubs and church halls around Swindon. This experience he described as ‘learning by the seat of our pants.’ . Summer 1969, found him diagnosed with diabetes, and he left school and started work in a factory in Malmesbury. The band split in 1970.
Over the next few years, Dave played in several bands (including country and western) ending up in Alehouse who made their debut at the Brunel Rooms in 1974. They had some interest from EMI but that fizzled out. Made redundant in 1976, he spent a year with a progressive rock band from the Forest of Dean, Gogmagog. This didn’t work out and he returned to Purton broke, taking a job with a mail order delivery company. Dave bought his first house, 16 Stanier St, in January 1979.
Dave Gregory’s first home at 16 Stanier Street Swindon
The road to XTC
Dave had met Andy Partridge for the first time at the Penhill Youth Club in 1968. It was a call from Andy around the same time as he was moving house, that saw Dave audition for XTC and get the gig. In March, he quit his job and, at the age of twenty-six, realised his dream of becoming a professional musician.
He was a member of the group between the single ‘Life Begins at the Hop’ (1979) and early sessions for the album Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999). There are millions of words written about XTC, Swindon’s greatest band, and their struggles but there isn’t time to go into that here. Many words exist about Dave’s departure.
I asked Swindon musician Steve Cox (aka Mr Love and Justice) what he thought Dave Gregory had brought to the band. He said: ‘His most telling contributions were his twelve-string Rickenbacker playing on English Settlement – one of their best albums. And then his string arrangements on the Skylarking album.
He did a lot to help XTC develop and change from their earlier new wave keyboard led sound in the Barry Andrews days into one of the great and original English bands. One where more records followed where, although they had their very own sound and style, classic Beatles/Beach Boys influences became more evident.’
Dave Gregory Guitar Supremo – XTC Black Seas album cover. The background to this was designed by Swindon artist Ken White.
Life after XTC
Dave was a member of Swindon-based Tin Spirits from 2008 until they decided to call it a day in autumn 2018. Their debut album Wired to Earthreceived much critical acclaim. He has also worked with a range of other musicians. A diverse list that includes Peter Gabriel, Lulu, Mark Owen, Porcupine Tree and Steve Hogarth’s H-band.
On the Big Big Train
Progressive rock band, Big Big Train asked Dave to join them in August 2009. He appeared on their album The Underfall Yard. Dave performed as a full member of the band from 2012’s English Electric Part 1 until early 2020 when he decided to step down. Well for international performances at least. Said Dave in a piece on the BBT website: ‘I’m proud of the role I’ve payed within Big Big Train and have enjoyed the last decade with the band immensely. I look forward to remaining associated with Big Big Train in the future
