2-798-861 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

New Swindon, 1845. Expansion due to the construction of the Great Western Railway in Wiltshire. 'The New Town, which has sprung up within the last two years, is principally occupied by the artisans employed by the Railway Company, who make it a sort of depot for their various works. The houses are all neatly built of stone, with slated roofs, and arranged in streets. They have already Bristol, Taunton, Exeter, and Bath streets; and others are fast rising...The old town has all the characteristics of an English market town. The old picturesque houses and cottages are here beginning to make way for the more modern style of architecture; and, if half the projects now in contemplation are completed, the old and new towns will ere long be amalgamated in one'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.