The Motorola Building Swindon opened in November 1998 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Striking and futuristic, the High-tech building did duty as a James Bond location for The World Is Not Enough.
The Motorola Building Swindon doubling as a Turkish oil refinery in The World is Not Enough. Photo courtesy of Calyx Media
Completed in a mere fifty-two weeks, Motorola designed the building as a manufacturing facility for the company’s GSM radio transmission equipment. It cost an estimated £40million to build.
This Swindon Web article tells us that the aluminium and glass clad complex covers an area equal to three football pitches end-to-end. And further that it accommodated 1300 staff (before redundancies in 2001) in 28,000 sq.m of manufacturing space. And 4500 sq.m of offices. At 5.5m diameter the tube is big enough to drive a car through.
Designed by Shepherd Robson, the building won the best industrial building in the 1999 structural steel design awards. It also got highly commended in the British Construction Industry Awards.
The Swindon Web article goes on to tell us that the manufacture of mobile phones at the site ended in 2001. 2009 saw Motorola use the factory to install the first UK test-bed for the new 4G mobile broadband system.
The tube
Key building facts
Building size, 23,100 sq.m Length, 300m Architect, Shepherd Robson Year of construction, 1998
Its later life
2009 saw the building purchased by the French-owned drugs company Vygon to use as a distribution centre. And that rendered the central tube structure redundant. Thus it was partially demolished.
Vygon spent £15m to buy the forty-six acre Groundwell site and transform it into its UK headquarters.
Month-long speaker programme marking King Athelstan’s 1100th anniversary launches
King Athelstan’s 1100th anniversary launches with a talk posing the question of why the first King of England choose Malmesbury for his burial place.
Historian Tony McAleavy will try to answer the question ‘Why is the first King of England buried in Malmesbury?’ in the first of what promises to be a fascinating speakers’ programme. The programme marks 1100 years since Athelstan became king.
King Athelstan’s 1100th anniversary launches – Historian Tony McAleavy
Malmesbury celebrates
The town of Malmesbury will be celebrating the Athelstan 1100 throughout 2024 with a large number of events. They’ll begin in earnest on Saturday June 29 when the speaker line up begins with Tony asking that key question.
In his talk, Tony will explore the links between Athelstan and Malmesbury. And the reasons why Athelstan chose Malmesbury Abbey, rather than Winchester Cathedral, as his last resting place.
It was in 924 AD that Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred the Great, became King of Mercia and Wessex. That formed the first steps on his journey to becoming the first King of England.
A 1100 anniversary
This year marks the 1100th anniversary. A team of community organisations have been working together to create a series of events to celebrate. These include:
The Athelstan Museum
Malmesbury Town Council
Malmesbury Town Team
The Warden and Freemen of Malmesbury – who trace their origins to Athelstan)
Malmesbury History Society
Wessex Week
Malmesbury Abbey
The Athelstan Players, local schools, businesses and individuals.
‘With 2024 marking 1100 years since Athelstan became king, it’s a great opportunity to look at the life and history of the man regarded as the first King of England,’ said Tony.
‘It’s a pleasure and a privilege to play a part in the speaker programme. And also the many events that are being planned in Malmesbury to mark this important date in our nation’s history.’
Drawing on decades of intensive research, Tony will consider the religious, military and political significance of Malmesbury to Athelstan. Also the way the monks and townsfolk remembered the king throughout the Middle Ages.
And for the first time ever, people in Malmesbury will be able to see digitised images of the earliest copy of Athelstan’s charter to the burgesses of the town.
A well-known historian
Tony is well known as an historian of Malmesbury. He studied history at Oxford and was for many years the schools’ history adviser for Gloucestershire County Council. He is the author of Malmesbury Abbey: 670-1539(2023), the first ever full-length history of the Abbey.
Tony’s talk will be on Saturday June 29, at 7.30pm in Malmesbury Town Hall. Rickets are £10 each and go on sale next week (March 28) . It will be among a weekend of events organised by the Athelstan 1100 team to launch the celebrations.
Going from one historian to another, another highlight in the speaker programme will be a talk on Friday July 5 at Malmesbury Abbey, from world-famous historian Michael Wood. He’ll speak on how Athelstan influenced the development of English law, culture and governance. An acclaimed filmmaker and broadcaster, Michael has written and presented 120 documentaries, including the BBC series ‘The Story of England’.
Athelstan – the first king of Britain?
On Friday July 12, in the town hall, esteemed historian Sarah Foot will deliver a talk entitled ‘Athelstan, First King of Britain?’
The Very Rev Prof Foot is the Dean of Christ Church, University of Oxford. She writes on women in religion, medieval monasticism, and the early history of the Church in England. She’s currently working on a study of the life and work of the Venerable Bede.
The speaker programme concludes on Friday July 19, with a talk in the Town Hall from Paul Hill. He’ll examine the conducting of warfare in England during the age of King Athelstan.
Tickets for all the talks go on sale on Thursday March 28. There’s a 10 per cent early bird discount available until Sunday May 19. For details and to buy tickets visit https://www.athelstan1100.co.uk/events-ticketing.
Campbell Ritchie, who is leading the Athelstan 1100 project, said the speaker programme comprised one highlight of the many events planned in the town to mark the anniversary.
‘Having a king buried at the Abbey puts Malmesbury on the map in terms of historical importance. We’re looking forward to welcoming people to join our celebrations at Tony’s opening talk. And at the other great Athelstan 1100 talks, events and experiences taking place this year.’
The full speaker programme for Athelstan 1100 comprises:
Tony McAleavy – Athelstan and Malmesbury 29th June 7.30pm – Town Hall
Miranda Shirnia – A Walk on the Wild Side: Malmesbury 924 2nd July 2.30pm – Town Hall
Jim Storr – Athelstan 1100, the essential backstory 3rd July 7.30pm – United Reform Church
Michael Wood – The Lost Life of Athelstan: Further Reflections – 5th July 7.30pm – Malmesbury Abbey
Oliver Ross – Athelstan and the Battle of Belief 11th July 7.30pm – United Reform Church
Sarah Foot – Athelstan, First King of Britain? 12th July 7.30pm – Town Hall
Stephe Harrop – Delight and Dread: Unladylike Tales from the Age of Aethelflaed
15th July 7.30pm – The Kings Arms
Sam Entwistle – Staying Well in Anglo Saxon Malmesbury, Herbal Medicine, Cures and Remedies –
17th July 7.30pm – The Old Bell Hotel
Paul Hill – What was Warfare like in Athelstan’s Age? 19th July 7.30pm – Town Hall
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap play is on its 70th anniversary tour. And it’s playing at the Wyvern Theatre this week. I do urge you to get tickets and go. Book them here: https://booking.trafalgartickets.com/en/wyvern-theatre-swindon/buyingflow/tickets/15532/ After all – who doesn’t love a big of Agatha? Whether it’s a TV adaptation, one of her novels or, as here, a play. It’s hugely enjoyable and engrossing and I’m happy to recommend it to you.
Earworm
Should you go, prepare yourself to leave the theatre with an ear worm:
Three blind mice, three blind mice, See how they run, see how they run, They all ran after the farmer’s wife, Who cut off their tails with a carving knife, Did you ever see such a thing in your life, As three blind mice?
The tune of the nursery rhyme is deployed to sinister effect throughout the play. The play’s setting heightens the tension – a snowbound English manor now a guest house run by a newly(ish) married couple who, as it turns out, don’t know much about each other. Then there’s a disparate group of guests and a policeman – one of them is a murderer and the rest potential victims.
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap
I’m not going to say any more than that about the plot as that would be spoilers. But I think I’m okay to say that, as with Christie’s novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd this play plays with the genre.
The cast
There’s a couple of famous faces in the cast – always pleasing. And one of them gets bumped off – but that’s all I’m saying there!
Myth busting
In conversation before the play began someone said it has three different endings. This is a myth – it doesn’t. From London Theatres Direct:
‘Unlike the board game Clue and its subsequent film adaptation, Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap does not have multiple endings. But in fact, one twist ending that goes against all clichés of the whodunnit formula where a detective solves a crime and exposes the remaining plot points.‘
When Queen Mary was asked what she would like for her 80th birthday, she requested a new story from one of her favourite writers, Agatha Christie. The BBC got in touch with Christie and asked if she would like to write a short radio play for the Queen, which she happily obliged to and created Three Blind Mice. She donated her fee of one hundred Guineas to the Southport Infirmary Children’s Toy Fund. Unfortunately no recording of the original performance exists.
The idea for the radio play came, as was often the case with Christie, from a real-life news story in 1945 about two brothers abused in foster care, one of whom died as a result. It was a case that shocked the nation and resulted in the changing of the laws surrounding foster care a couple of years later.
The radio play was first broadcast on the BBC in 1947. Agatha Christie then adapted the 30-minute radio play in 1948 to a short story, published in May in Cosmopolitan magazine, and later in the 1950 US collection Three Blind Mice and Other Stories.
The short story version was never published in the UK on Christie’s insistence that it should not clash with the 1952 stage adaptation, famously renamed The Mousetrap. As long as the adaptation ran in London’s West End (as it has for over 60 years) the short story wasn’t to be published.
And here we are – seventy years and still going strong. As is the public’s thirst for Agatha Christie’s work in general. She IS the Queen of Crime – no doubt about it.
The GW Hotel Swindon, across from the railway station and on the opposite corner to the Queen’s tap, is a pub that’s undergone a number of incarnations. As this history of the pub on the Arkell’s website tells us. More of that in a bit.
The Grade II listed, Great Western Hotel was first built as a pub back in 1869. Legend has it that the arrival of this pub thrilled the station porters as the Queen’s Tap pub(across the road to this day) were over pricing their beer at 2d a pint. And local competition was born!
From the Arkell’s website
Arkell’s originally purchased the land in 1869. On it they erected their first purpose-built pub called The Great Western Hotel. The hotel proved an instant success and they altered the taproom in the following year. And another year on saw the addition of stables. A large wing of bedrooms was added in 1904 and the Great Western remained a hotel until 1973.
Rechristened The Noah’s Ark, it underwent conversion to a steakhouse and restaurant – a life it inhabited for the next decade. It then went back to being the Great Western. But a 1991 refit called for yet another identity and the pub re-emerged as the Flag and Whistle.
The turn of the millennium saw another major refit – then again in 2015 to coincide with the Swindon 175 celebrations. Thus the once famous name synonymous with Swindon returned. And the hotel re-opened as the Great Western, or GW as it‘s more commonly known as.
A 1948 advert for the GW Hotel
A note on the architecture
According to Mark Child (he of the Swindon Book ) Thomas Smith Landsown of Bath Road built The Great Western Hotel in the Gothic (in this case Early English) style.
1872 saw the addition of stabling with the original hotel building undergoing remodelling in 1876 and extending to the east in 1896.
The Queen’s Tap Swindon, New Swindon’s first pub (allegedly), is one of two public houses situated across the road from Swindon railway station. Once known as the Queen’s Hotel, the Queen’s Tap was the first of the two to have thirsty Swindonians leaning on the bar. The other one being the GW (Great Western) Hotel.
Built by JD&C Rigby to a design by the office of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Rigbys were also responsible for the construction of the cottages in Swindon’s railway village. They also got the deal to build Swindon railway station.
A listed building
Listed by Historic England as Grade IIin 1981, Mark Child, in The Swindon Book, describes it as an heroic survivor of a public house – flanked and dominated as it is by office buildings. He further describes it as a two-storey, three-bayed gem built of coarse rubble limestone with ashlar dressings beneath a hipped bay roof with dentil mouldings. Not that any of that means anything to me! But it might to to you – thus I’ve included that detail here.
Between 1841 and 1850 the original square building had single-storey extensions on either side. Further, considerable stabling was erected at the rear for the use of the Queen’s Royal Hotel.
The 19th century saw sales of cattle and horses in the stable yard at the back of the premises. What remained of those stables in 1991 were then demolished. In, I daresay, the name of progress.
Some of the past landlords
JD Rigby, the builder of the Queen’s Tap, held the first licence. It was granted to him in August 1841. Thus the QT is, probably, New Swindon’s oldest, fully licensed house.
The pub’s later ownership has something of an air of mystery about it. It seems that the only mention anywhere is in the minutes of the New Swindon Board when, in 1886, they issued a closure notice on a foul urinal.
Groves of Weymouth bought it in 1931 following a long lease period. From them it went to Devenish in 1960.
And that makes me wonder if the QT features in this book? It mentions the Goddard’s Arms and the Glue Pot so I rather suspect it does – but I can’t remember. I’ll have to re-read it.
