Swindon in 50 Buildings

Swindon's unusual history as a large industrial town in the heart of Wiltshire has defined its townscape for the last two hundred years. The town is largely the creation of the 19th century, built around the Great Western Railway's Works, but it nonetheless has over 600 listed buildings, not to mention scheduled monuments and three registered parks and gardens.

In Swindon in 50 Buildings local author Angela Atkinson examines not just the well-known landmark buildings of Swindon such as the Railway Village Conservation area and the Old Town but also more everyday buildings which reveal an aspect of Swindon's always fascinating and surprising story. Many of the buildings, inevitably, reflect Swindon's railway heritage but some of them are small stories in brick, that tell of a time before the railway came and changed everything. Others include farmhouses now engulfed by houses and more grand buildings such as Lydiard House which was rebuilt in the 18th century with a formal park and later served as an American army camp and prisoner of war camp during World War 2. The story goes up to the present day and includes buildings designed by well-known architects such as Hugh Casson, the creator of the Wyvern Theatre, and Norman Foster, the designer of the landmark, award-winning Spectrum Building.

Swindon in 50 Buildings covers a broad sweep of this Wiltshire town through time and geography and will appeal to all those who live in Swindon as well as visitors to the town.