SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2010
By ADMIN
Approximate Population: 155,432
In 1840, Isambard Kingdom Brunel chose Swindon as the site for the railway works he planned for the Great Western Railway. Eastwards towards London the line was gently graded, while westwards there was a steep descent towards Bath. Swindon was the junction for the proposed line to Gloucester.
Swindon Junction station opened in 1842 and until 1895 every train stopped for at least 10 minutes to change locomotives. As a result, the station hosted the first recorded railway refreshment rooms. There were three storeys to the station in 1842, with the refreshment rooms on the ground floor, the upper floors housing the station hotel and lounge. That building was demolished in 1972, and replaced by an office building with a single-storey modern station under it.
The town’s railway works were completed in 1842. The GWR built a small railway ‘village’ to house some of its workers. People still live in those houses and several of the buildings that made up the railway works remain, although many are vacant. The Steam Railway Museum now occupies 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 1892’s Health Centre in Milton Road – which housed clinics, a pharmacy, laundries, baths, Turkish baths and swimming pools – was almost opposite.
IT Services Swindon Wiltshire
SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2010
By ADMIN
Approximate Population: 67,977
During the 14th century a number of friars arrived in Doncaster who were known for their religious enthusiasm and preachings. In 1307 Franciscan friars arrived and they were called Greyfriars because of the colour of their costumes. Carmelites or Whitefriars arrived in the middle of the 14th century. In the Mediaeval period other major features of the town included the Hospital of St Nicholas and leper colony of the Hospital of St James, a moot hall, grammar school, and the five-arched stone town bridge with a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Bridge.
By 1334, Doncaster was the wealthiest town in southern Yorkshire and the sixth most important town in Yorkshire as a whole, even boasting its own banker. By 1379, it was already recovering from the Black Death and had a population of around 1,500 people, and by 1547, it had over 2,000. The town was incorporated in 1461 and its first Mayor and corporation were established.
Today, many of Doncaster’s streets are named with the suffix ‘gate’. The word ‘gate’ is derived from the old Danish word ‘gata’ which meant street. During Medieval times, craftsmen or tradesmen with similar skills, tended to live in the same street. Baxter is an ancient word for baker thereby confirming that Baxtergate was indeed the bakers’ street. It is assumed that ‘Frenchgate’ may be named after French speaking Normans who settled on this street.
