There is a popular tale about how Swindon came to be chosen as the home of the Great Western Railway’s works. Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his locomotive superintendent, Daniel Gooch, were out in Wiltshire looking for a suitable place for the railway’s engine works. The Great Western Railway’s main line was to run from London Paddington to Bristol, via Reading, Swindon and Bath, with lines on to Exeter and beyond. Legend has it that they decided to build the works wherever a crust from their lunch, or a stone, happened to land.
The Real Reasons
Sadly, the legend is probably just that. Swindon was chosen for practical reasons. It sat at the point where the line to Gloucester and Cheltenham branched off the main line, and where the gentle gradients from London gave way to steeper ones further west, making it a natural place to change engines. It was also served by the Wilts and Berks Canal, which could bring in coal, and parts of the old canal route later became roads in the town.
A Growing Railway Town
The works opened in the early 1840s, and the railway transformed Swindon from a small market town into a major industrial centre, with a new railway village built for the workers. Ask any of the Accountants Swindon based, and they will tell you it made sound financial sense. If you want the best ones, visit https://chippendaleandclark.com/.
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Seeing the railway works story for yourself
Anyone curious about the town’s railway past can explore it at the railway museum, which occupies restored buildings of the old works themselves. Locomotives and carriages are displayed alongside the personal stories of the families who worked there, with recorded memories and film footage that show how closely the community’s life was tied to the railway. Among the carriages is a royal saloon built for Queen Victoria.
The museum also covers Brunel’s wider achievements, and it is a useful reminder of how much ground his work covered beyond the line itself. Bridges, viaducts and tunnels along the route all came from the same design office, and his Clifton Suspension Bridge over the Avon Gorge in Bristol, linking Clifton with Leigh Woods, remains one of his best-known works. Seeing the engines and drawings up close makes it easier to understand why the works shaped the town so completely for so long.
Swindon’s place in rural Wiltshire
Swindon is the business and manufacturing heart of a county that is still very rural. Wiltshire’s sweeping chalk downland, including the Marlborough Downs and the ancient Ridgeway, and its river valleys support both livestock and arable farming, and much of the land remains unspoilt.
Salisbury, with its famous cathedral, is the county’s only city, and between the two lie market towns such as Cricklade, Marlborough and Devizes. The mix means the county suits people who prefer quiet rural life as well as those who enjoy the bustle of a town.
Visitors exploring the railway story will find plenty more nearby. There are National Trust properties including Stourhead, with its famous gardens, and Avebury, whose stone circle and manor form part of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. There are walks across the county and boating on the Kennet and Avon Canal, and good links to London and Cardiff for a longer trip out.