Shortly before Christmas 2014 I paid a visit to the studios of Swindon 105.5 community radio for a couple of reasons. One was to talk to Shirley Ludford, the station manager, about the money-raising initiative the station was running in December whereby local businesses could, for a very small fee, have a song of their choice played and talk about their business.
Yesterday I paid my first visit to Christ Church Christ Church Old Town Swindon – known also as the Lady on the hill for the occasion of the Autumn fair. It was a really smashing event and, I have to admit, a notch or two up from the autumn/summer/Christmas fairs I used to attend back in little old Whitwell when my daughter was small.
Hello listeners. Here we have the second instalment of posts featuring a few of Swindon’s roundabouts. And the reasoning behind their names.
Swindon, as we know, is famous – even infamous – for its roundabouts. Of course there’s the grand-daddy of them all, the Magic Roundabout. Such a rich vein of material is that particular jewel in Swindon’s roundabout crown that it has its own category on the blog.
Ralph Bates Civil War Chronicler
Some time ago, in the tourist information centre in Bristol, I saw an information sheet on a literary trail round the city. And that got me thinking that Swindon could surely have such a thing here what with Richard Jefferies and Alfred Williams – neither of whom I knew much about until recently. No sooner had I had this thought than, in one of those curious coincidences that punctuate our lives, what should appear on my social media stream than a piece from the Swindon Link magazine publicizing a forthcoming talk at the Museum and Art Gallery about Ralph Bates. No – I’d not heard of him either. And in his day he was rated as better than Hemingway. Who knew?
I’m lost for words. Well okay, that’s never going to actually happen but the expression gives an indication of my surprise at finding out about this delight tucked away behind a busy main road, an industrial estate and the Holiday Inn Express. Well, I’ve only lived here the twenty years so how could I possibly be expected to know eh? Even worse, Hagbourne Copse West Swindon is only 15 minutes walk from my home in Grange Park.
I just love social media! One of my Twitter and blog followers sent me this photo,which is great, as being a non-driver and bogged down in studies I don’t get to all four corners of our town.
What you are looking at is piece of public art that is also a handy bench: a perfect marriage of form and function indeed! But not just any old bench.
This here is a Portrait Bench. So now, not only do I know about this lovely bench, I also know about the concept of portrait benches and a little bit more about Swindon’s history. And it started with a Tweet!
A Mini Adventure in Public Art – Alexander House Minis public art
Swindon Town FC: Come on you reds! “My name is Lee (@Leefer3 on twitter)…and I have been watching Swindon Town since 1975, so it’s close to forty years now.
A largely pictorial post featuring various Retro Swindon roadsigns. Some are in Swindon and some are somewhat further afield.
I’ve featured them here for not much other reason than that they have lasted this long and it feels like a nice thing to have some pictures of them here. Seems like a good enough excuse to me.
The Magic Roundabout: a guide book entryI wrote this guide book entry in the final year of my English/Eng Lang studies at UWE. The piece formed part of a travel writing module.For my coursework portfolio I wrote, amongst other things, some stuff about Swindon:* a...
A weekend visit to the Swindon designer outlet centre or whatever it is we are calling it, has prompted me to write a view lines about it. Cos I think it’s really rather cool – and I don’t only mean for the shopping.
