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Swindon

For other places with the same name, see Swindon (disambiguation).
Swindon:Swindon skyline, featuring the David Murray John tower.
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Swindon skyline, featuring the David Murray John tower.

Swindon is a town in Wiltshire in the South West of England. The town is situated approximately halfway between Bristol and London, and is accessible from junction 15 or 16 of the M4 motorway, or by rail using Swindon station. It was a designated 'Expanded' Town under the Town Development Act 1952, which led to a vast increase in the population of the town.[1] It is in the borough of Swindon, which has been a unitary authority independent of Wiltshire since 1998. According to the 2001 census the population of the Swindon urban area was 155,432, whilst around 180,000 lived in the borough.

A resident of Swindon is known as a Swindonian. Swindon's motto is "Salubritas et Industria" (Health and Industry).

Swindon
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Swindon:Uk outline map
Swindon:Locator Dot.svg

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Statistics
Population: 155,432
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:SU152842
Administration
Borough: Swindon
Region: South West England
Constituent country:England
Sovereign state:United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county: Wiltshire
Services
Police force: Wiltshire Constabulary
Fire and rescue: {{{Fire}}}
Ambulance:Great Western
Post office and telephone
Post town: SWINDON
Postal district: SN1, SN2, SN3, SN4, SN5, SN6, SN25, SN26
Dialling code: 01793
Politics
UK Parliament: North Swindon
Swindon South
European Parliament: South West England
Swindon:

Contents

History

The original Saxon settlement of Swindon sat in a defensible position atop a limestone hill. It is referred to in the Domesday Book as Suindune, a name believed to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon words swine and dun meaning pig hill, or possibly Sweyn's hill where Sweyn would be the local landlord. Swindon remained a small market town, mainly for barter trade, until the mid-1800s. This original market area of Swindon is located on top of the hill in central Swindon and is now known as Old Town..

The industrial revolution was responsible for an acceleration of Swindon's growth. It started with the construction of the Wiltshire and Berkshire canal in 1810, and then the North Wiltshire canal in 1819. These two major routes brought trade to the area, and Swindon's population started to rise.

Probably the most significant event in Swindon's history was in 1840, when it was selected to house the large Swindon railway works for the Great Western Railway by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The works was situated at a point where engines would need to be changed. Eastwards towards London the line was gently graded, while westwards there was a steep descent towards Bath. Swindon was also at the junction of a proposed line to Gloucester.

Swindon:A Swindon-built locomotive (Hagley Hall) on display in the eating area of the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet, Swindon.
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A Swindon-built locomotive (Hagley Hall) on display in the eating area of the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet, Swindon.

Construction of the works was completed in 1842. Along with the railway works a small railway village was created to house some of the railway workers. This area became the present day area known as New Town (or the Town Centre). The original Railway Village houses are still standing and are occupied, and several of the original buildings which comprised the engineering works also remain (though many are vacant). The Steam Railway Museum now occupies part of the old works.

In the second half of the 19th century the new area (Swindon New Town) created by the railway works and the original area from the market trading years (Swindon Old Town) were merged to become Swindon.

During much of the 20th century the railway works was the largest employer in the town. In the late-1970s a large part of the works closed, and the remainder followed in 1986.

Geography and climate

Swindon:A section of the Wilts and Berks Canal near Rushey Platt, Swindon.
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A section of the Wilts and Berks Canal near Rushey Platt, Swindon.

The town itself has a total area of approximately 40 km² (25.33 mi²).

Swindon has a temperate climate, with roughly equal length winters and summers. The surrounding landscape is dominated by the chalk hills of the Wiltshire Downs to the south and east.

Government

The local council (created in 1974 as the Borough of Thamesdown out of Swindon Borough and Highworth Rural Councils, but renamed in 1997 as the Borough of Swindon) has a much larger area as it encompasses surrounding villages and land. The borough became a unitary authority on 1 April 1998, following a review by Local Government Commission for England. The town is therefore no longer under the auspices of Wiltshire County Council.

The executive is a leader (Cllr Rod Bluh) and cabinet - which is made up from the Conservative Group.The makeup of the council is Conservative 42 councillors, Labour 12, Liberal Democrat 3 and Independents 2. Five councillors transferred from the Labour group to the Conservatives on 19 June 2006. Two have left the Lib Dems.

Swindon is represented in the national parliament by two MPs. Anne Snelgrove (Labour) was elected for the South Swindon seat in 2005, and Michael Wills, also Labour, has represented North Swindon since 1997. Prior to 1997, there was a single seat for Swindon, although a lot of what is now in Swindon was then in the Devizes seat.

Demographics

At the census of 2001 [1], there were 180,051 people and 75,154 occupied houses in the Swindon Unitary Authority. The average household size was 2.38 people. The population density was 780/km² (2020.19/mi²). 20.96% of the population were 0 to 15 years old, 72.80% were 16 to 74 years old, and the remaining 6.24% were 75 years old or over. For every 100 females there were 98.97 males.

The ethnic makeup of the town was 95.2% white, 1.3% Indian, and 3.5% other. Of the population, 92.4% were born in the UK, 2.7% in the EU, and 4.9% elsewhere in the world.

Swindon is considered to be an almost exact microcosm of the whole United Kingdom in its demographic makeup, to the extent that it has often been used for market research purposes and trials of new products and services. One example was the ill-fated Mondex electronic money.

It has been forecast that there will be a 70,000 (38.9%) increase in Swindon's population by 2026; from the current 180,000, to 250,000[2].

Business

Major employers include the Honda car production plant at South Marston, BMW in Stratton, mobile phone companies such as Motorola and Ubinetics and the retailer W H Smith which has its distribution centre and headquarters in Swindon. The computer company Intel also has its European head office on the south side of the town and Lucent Technologies head office is on the west side. Several insurance and financial services companies such as Nationwide Building Society and Zurich Financial Services, and pharmaceutical companies such as Patheon and Cardinal Health also have head offices in the town. Several of the UK's science Research Councils have their head offices in Polaris House, adjacent to the rail station. Swindon is also the location of two Tyco Electronics (a division of Tyco International) sites, based in Dorcan and Cheney Manor.

Tourism and recreation

Swindon:McArthur Glen Designer Outlet, a shopping complex built within the disused Swindon railway engine works.
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McArthur Glen Designer Outlet, a shopping complex built within the disused Swindon railway engine works.
Swindon:The Magic Roundabout
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The Magic Roundabout

Media

Education

Museums and cultural institutions

Trivia

Sport

Swindon in fiction

Books set in Swindon include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon (in which the main character's father describes it as "the arsehole of the world") and the Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective, Sherlock Holmes, also ate lunch in the town in the novel The Boscombe Valley Mystery.

Robert Goddard's Into the Blue and Out of the Sun both feature the central character of Harry Barnett from Swindon, and both novels start in the town. The TV detective series A Touch of Frost starring David Jason is often set in or around Swindon (called "Denton" in the series) and early episodes feature briefings of the detective team in front of recognisable maps of the Swindon area.

James Bond

References

  1. ^ VoB Swindon UA population

See also

Further reading

Categories


Swindon | Towns in Wiltshire | Railway towns in England

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