Swindon

Sister cities

• Toruń
• Salzgitter
• Ocotal
• Chattanooga

History

The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Swindon sat in a defensible position atop a limestone hill. It is referred to in the 1086 Domesday Book as Suindune, believed to be derived from the Old English words "swine" and "dun" meaning "pig hill" or possibly Sweyn's hill, Sweyn being a Scandinavian name akin to Sven and English swain, meaning a young man. Swindon is recorded in the Domesday Book as a manor in the hundred of Blagrove, Wiltshire. It was one of the larger manors, recorded as having 27 households and a rent value of £10 14s, which was divided among five landlords. The manors of Westlecot, Walcot, Rodbourne, Moredon and Stratton are also listed; all are now part of Swindon. The Goddard family were lord of the manor from the 16th century for many generations, living at the manor house, sometimes known as The Lawn. Swindon was a small market town, mainly for barter trade, until roughly 1848. This original market area is on top of the hill in central Swindon, now known as Old Town. The Industrial Revolution was responsible for an acceleration of Swindon's growth. Construction of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1810 and the North Wilts Canal in 1819 brought trade to the area, and Swindon's population started to grow. Between 1841 and 1842, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Swindon Works was built for the repair and maintenance of locomotives on the Great Western Railway (GWR). The GWR built a small railway village to house some of its workers. The Museum of the Great Western Railway and English Heritage, including the English Heritage Archive, now occupy part of the old works. In the village were the GWR Medical Fund Clinic at Park House and its hospital, both on Faringdon Road, and the 1892 health centre in Milton Road, which housed clinics, a pharmacy, laundries, baths,…

Geography

Swindon is a town in northeast Wiltshire, west-northwest of Reading and the same distance east-northeast of Bristol 'as the crow flies'. The town is also southwest of Oxford, south-southeast of Birmingham, west of London and east of Cardiff. Swindon town centre is also equidistant from the county boundaries of Berkshire and Gloucestershire, both being away. The border with Oxfordshire is slightly closer, being around away. Swindon is within a landlocked county and is a considerable distance from any coastline. The nearest section of coast on the English Channel is near Christchurch, due south. Meanwhile, the eastern limit of the Bristol Channel, just north of Weston-super-mare, lies to the west. The landscape is dominated by the chalk hills of the Wiltshire Downs to the south and east. The Old Town stands on a hill of Purbeck and Portland stone; this was quarried from Roman times until the 1950s. The area that was known as New Swindon is made up of mostly Kimmeridge clay with outcrops of Corrallian clay in the areas of Penhill and Pinehurst. Oxford clay makes up the rest of the borough. The River Ray rises at Wroughton and forms much of the borough's western boundary, joining the Thames which defines the northern boundary, and the source of which is located in nearby Kemble, Gloucestershire. The River Cole and its tributaries flow northeastward from the town and form the northeastern boundary. * Nearby towns: Calne, Chippenham, Royal Wootton Bassett, Cirencester, Cricklade, Devizes, Highworth, Marlborough, Witney and Malmesbury * Nearby villages: Badbury, Blunsdon, Broad Hinton, Chiseldon, Hook, Liddington, Lydiard Millicent, Lyneham, Minety, Purton, South Marston, Wanborough, Wroughton * Nearby places of interest: Avebury, Barbury Castle, Crofton Pumping…

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  8,011
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  6,511
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,302
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,281
• European Goldfinch

  Carduelis carduelis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,311
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  5,226
• Western Jackdaw

  Coloeus monedula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,649
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,623

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2023-02-24
  1 km ENE of Brynmawr, United Kingdom
• M 3.1 — 2020-09-22
  5 km N of Aylesbury, United Kingdom
• M 3.9 — 2020-09-08
  2 km WSW of Pitstone, United Kingdom
• M 2.9 — 2015-01-27
  1 km ENE of Winchester, United Kingdom
• M 3.9 — 2008-10-26
  2 km N of Bromyard, United Kingdom
• M 2.5 — 2006-08-14
  1 km E of North Petherton, United Kingdom