Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 23/04/2020

EXETER STREET (north side)
SU 1484 NE
SWINDON
6/95
Nos. 51 - 53 consecutive
17.2.70

GV II

In order to house the workforce for the new Great Western Railway works, IK Brunel designed a new village to the south of the railway line. Brunel’s early layout drawings of 1840 show a grid similar to the final plan of 12 terraces in six blocks on either side of the High Street (from 1893 Emlyn Square). Construction started in 1842, and by 1855 most of the buildings had been completed. Houses and cottages of different types were built, as well as lodging houses. Brunel himself designed only the first block of 1842 (4-25 Bristol Street); as it was visible from the railway line, this is in a more decorative style than the others.
The financial difficulties of the contractors JD & C Rigby, who undertook to build 300 cottages but only completed 130, delayed the completion of the village until the 1850s. The cottages to the west of Emlyn Square were built first (1842-1843), followed by those on the east side (1845-1847). The end blocks towards Emlyn Square, containing corner shops on the ground floor, were built in 1845-1847, and the remainder, mostly end blocks on the outer ends of the streets, were built in 1853-1855. In 1966, the local authority acquired the cottages from British Rail and restored them. The village is one of Britain’s best-preserved and architecturally most ambitious railway settlements.

Terrace of three cottages. 1846 for Great Western Railway Company. Dressed squared rubble, rubble to rear. Ashlar quoins and dressings. Slate roofs with asbestos cement slate to rear. Two storey, each dwelling of one-bay. C20 brick stacks on gable and party walls. Chamfered plinth and chamfered windows and door openings, latter with pyramidal stops. Inset doors on splay up two steps. Eighteen-pane doors. Four-pane sashes to both floors. Extensively renovated c1974.

Listing NGR: SU1454084736

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26638581

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)