The pace of life was slower then

AS more amateur historians put Rod-bourne's past under the microscope one man who grew up there in the 1950s has contacted the Evening Advertiser to share some of his memories with our readers.

Colin Parsons was prompted to put pen to paper after reading an interview we carried with Jean Allen, one of Swindon's best known local historians, who grew up in Rodbourne.

Colin said he, too, can remember the days when the people of Rodbourne regarded their area as a village.

He said: "The railway bridges at each end of Rodbourne Road gave the area a sense of identity when neighbours were friends and actually did things together.

"The Queen's coronation in 1953 is something I will never forget.

"My parents joined a committee to organise a street party. I was only seven years old at the time but could sense the excitement as the day got closer.

"The party was actually held in Jennings Street School, which has now been demolished for a community centre to be built.

"We had games, races, plenty to eat and lots of laughs. My father was a painter and decorator, so my brother and myself were dressed up as two workmen, with a bucket and brush each and a small ladder dad had made. The firm's name was painted on the side, W E Stingum."

Colin, who is now 56 continued, "Following on from that for about ten years we always had the 'street outing' when we all piled into a coach and spent a day at the seaside. The man who lived next door to us a great friend of my parents had a PSV licence so he drove the coach.

"It really felt like a family occasion, all in it together."

Today Colin, lives at Ecklington, Eldene, but he spent the first 21 years of his life in Rodbourne.

"The pace of life was slower then," he recalls.

"My parents had time on Sunday mornings to pass the neighbours a cup of tea. The neighbours passed one back in the afternoon.

"It was also safer, there were not as many cars of course, in fact hardly any, and children and old people were safe to walk the streets."

Colin, who today works for Network Rail as a bridge engineer, has worked on the railways for a total of 42 years. And he says: "The biggest influence on people living in Rodbourne was the railway works even for those who did not actually there.

"The factory hooter could be heard sounding out clearly and forcefully early mornings, midday and in the evenings.

"The stampede of men leaving the works for lunch and at teatime was a sight that is indescribable. Many people have seen the photograph of workmen leaving the Emlyn Square entrance, but Rodbourne Road was just the same and you had to go with the flow.

"The tall brick wall along the road looked very forbidding, especially to a small child, so did the footpath and adjacent railway buildings under the Rodbourne Road bridges."

Colin said that from Mannington Recreation ground, known locally as the 'rec', the tall chimneys of the rail works central boilers could be seen.

As a child who was brought up in Morrison Street, Colin can still remember many of the local shops.

Among them are Jacksons, the newsagents Witts and Nash's the sweetshop.

"Nash's sold homemade ice cream which was gorgeous and creamy," said Colin.

"My brother and myself were sometimes sent up to Nash's with a basin for ice cream and we never wasted anytime getting back home.

"I was fascinated by Winnings, another grocery shop, which had a wonderful machine that could cut ham any thickness you wanted."

He recalls that the post office at the other end of the block was run by a Mr Baggs and opposite was Bunce's the bakers where he always went on Good Friday mornings for a bag of hot cross buns.

He said: "At the bottom of Rodbourne Road by Bruce Street there is now a massive road junction with two railway bridges, a pedestrian subway and four roundabouts. But at that time there was just one small arch bridge carrying the railway line over the road to the next 'village' Cheney Manor."

The bridge was too small for buses to go under so they used a special area in front of it as a turning circle.

Colin also has this to say about the famous railway works annual 'Trip' outing:

"Railway workers had an annual holiday originally a lock-out without pay and eventually two weeks paid holiday. The heyday of the 'Trip' was in the 1920s-30s, but even in my time there were several special 'Trip' trains running to seaside resorts.

"All day on the Friday all over Rodbourne we could hear the trains whistling as they were positioned in the sidings near the station. There were so many that some people had to get to them by walking up a ramp from Rodbourne Road by the bridges, along the track and up into the coach by using wooden steps.

"This was so much more exciting than leaving from the railway station."