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The century-and-a-half between the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and Queen Anne were a period of transformation for swindon from a medieval manor to a market town and Swindon's weekly market was expanded attracting commerce from the surrounding area.

In his Highworth and Round About published in 1973, PJ Archer writes that the Parliamentary soldiers occupying Highworth were very rude to visitors to Highworth's markets causing them to resort instead to Swindon which subsequently took much of the Highworth's trade. Swindon captured more trade from Highworth when the West Country ravaged by the Great Plague in 1664-5 and the outbreak was less extensive here.

It is likely that the Roman camp at Wanborough was built of limestone from Swindon and roof tiles hewn from the stone were used at Sevenhampton as early as 1301. It was the discovery of the fine Purbeck seam in the 17th century which launched Swindon's modern quarrying industry.

A seam of fine Purbeck stone was discovered near the town in the 17^th century and gave rise to the quarrying industry. Only five feet beneath the overburden of soil, the white stone could take a polish and remained dry in the rain. It was used for paving and in the erection of houses for the aristocracy. Much of the stone being sent to London along the Thames from Lechlade.

Prior to the discovery of the Purbeck seam, building stone was quarried from Flaxlands, Old Quarry, Wescott and Windmill Quarry, the land being rented for the purpose from the landowners (such a lease of 1694, for example, was for £25 and acre). The record of a sale transaction in 1641 indicates the antiquity of the Swindon quarrying industry even then; from "Richard Goddard III to Robert D'oyley the younger gent. of Lincoln's Inn of The Old Quarry and various messuages in Swindon ". The names of many of the 17th-century families of masons such as Archer, Bury, Cox, Ewen, Hopkin, Humphries and Simmons are still represented in the area today.

The Goddard family held the sway of power in Old Swindon although the St Johns of nearby Lydiard Park were more widely known throughout the country.

A list of employments in Swindon survives from 1697 providing us with a flavour of the commercial activity of the town at the close of the 17th century. Apart from labourers and servants, lists an Alehousekeeper, Bailiffs, Bakers, Barbers, Blacksmiths, Butchers, Carpenters, Clerks, a Collarnaker, a Combmaker (for wool), Coopers, a Currier, a Feltmaker, a Glazier, Glovers, Innholders, a Joiner, Masons, a Quiltmaker, a Saddler, Shoemakers, Slaters, a Tabacco Cutter, Tailors, a Translator, Weavers, a Wheelwright, a Woolman, Teomen and Gentlemen of Means. Noticaeably absent from the list are a clergyman or schoolteacher - perhaps Swindon had none at the time.

In 1898 the Richard Jones foundation was established to provide exhibitions of £5 and £20 a year.

EDUCATION
In 1696, Richard Jones left a legacy of £300 in his will to pay for a free grammar school for boys. The money was used to purchase land at Haydon Wick and Rodbourne Cheney, the rent from which was used to pay the Master's salary. By 1859 when the school was held in the Town Hall it had fallen into disrepute, the money being used for the upkeep of the National Schools. The land in Rodbourne Cheney was sold in 1920 and the proceeds of the sale reinvested to provide a return of £70 annually.

19th CENTURY
The Wilts. & Berks. Canal, to run through the low northern part of Swindon parish was proposed in 1793. Building commenced at Semington in 1795 and reached Swindon in 1804. The building of the canal boosted the local quarrying industry around the turn of the 19th century as Swindon stone was used for the construction of the canal bridges, the canal offices at Swindon Wharf and the paving of other wharves in the heighbourhood.

The better communications afforded by the arrival of the nearby canal must have benefitted the economy of the town generally.

Swindon was primarily an agricultural town until the discovery of the building stone but, suffering from poor communications, it was overshadowed by Marlborough on the London to Exeter road to the south as a market town. The Parliamentary Gazeteer of England and Wales, 1840-1843 (A Fullerton & Co., London, 1843) described the town thus;

The town is situated on the summit of a hill of considerable eminence, which commands a delightful view of parts of Berkshire and Gloucestershire. The principal streets are wide and contain many good houses. No particular manufacture is carried on in the town, but it is the residence of many persons of independent fortune. Extensive quarries are wrought in the neighbourhood, which, together with agricultural pursuits, afford employment ot the greater part of the working population of the town. The inhabitants are abundantly supplied with pure water from the springs. There are 325 houses in the town and the population at the 1831 census was 1742.

In 1819, Lord Clarendon paid for a school for eighteen girls.

High Street was the principal street of the town and contained fine limestone-built houses. The pricipal inns of the town were located here; the long, ivy-covered brick-built Goddard Arms, with its stone roof, dates from the middle of the 18^th century and the front consists of nine bays; the assembly rooms of the King of Prussia on the opposite side of the street became a make-shift ballroom; an inscription on the nearby Bell, one-time posting house, suggests it dates from 1515

By establishing the hub of its operations near the quiete agricultural town of Swindon, the GWR unwittingly also established an experiment which is almost unique - bringing the industrial revolution quite abruptly to a rural community.

The easy access to Somerset coal offered by the Wilts. & Berks. Canal brought the Great Western Railway which built its track to the north of the canal and extensive workshops in 1843. To house its workers, the GWR built a village, New Town or New Swindon to the south of its works. As the works expanded rapidly, so did the new settlement until it overshadowed ancient Swindon atop its hill.

see also:   Buildings of Old Town

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