DECEMBER 2001
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Following the stunning success of West Swindon Schools' Millennium
Shakespeare Festival in May 2000, Neil Griffiths, director of the internationally
acclaimed National Storysack Project, has become involved with students at
Greendown School to create another world first: a Shakespeare Storysack. Click here to read more |
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Staff at Swindon based charity, Bible Society, hoped to raise £1,500 by
sponsoring one of their bosses to shave off his locks to raise money for
Bibles to be provided at immigration detention centres around the country. Click here to read more |
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Following last May's phenomenally successful eighth Festival, plans are now
well underway for the ninth Swindon Festival of Literature from 1 to 11 May
2002. Click here to read more |
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The Mayor of Swindon, councillor David Cox, describes his recent trip to
Ocotal Click here to read more |
NOVEMBER 2001
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Lydiard House and St Mary's Church next door, are under recognised as two
of the nation's most impressive heritage buildings, according to Simon
Jervis, chairman of the Furniture History Society and director of the
National Trust Historic Buildings Department. Click here to read more | |
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The National Trust, Britain's biggest conservation charity, with well over
a million members is to move out of plush London offices and establish a
single central administrative centre in Swindon sometime in 2003/4. Click here to read more |
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See the Enigma machine in Swindon Click here to read more |
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This year's London Boat Show at Earls Court promises to banish those
mid-winter blues with a breathtaking display of world-class boats as well
as the thrilling finale of Britain's hottest interactive boating game ever. Click here to read more | |
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With the opening of the £12 million Northern Orbital Road/Thamesdown Drive
extension by the Mayor of Swindon councillor David Cox on 22 November, the
scene is set for the arrival of the first people at Priory Vale, a new
development that is likely to set national standards in urban development. Click here to read more |
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Martha Parry argues that the issue of having a mayor elected by all the
people of the town has not been adequately explained or discussed Click here to read more |
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Application forms are now available for the annual overnight moonwalk
marathon on 11 May through the streets of London in aid of Breakthrough
Breast Cancer and the Bristol Cancer Help Centre. Click here to read more | |
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Swindon Council is reviewing provision for skateboarders in a major report
to go before the Equalities, Community and Health Commission on 17
December. Whether the council has the cash to go ahead with building sites
across the town remains to be seen. Click here to read more |
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Youngsters from Salt Way School learnt about life in Japan when wives of
Honda employees visited the school recently. Click here to read more |
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Earlier in the year eight year old Ellen Howard from Westlea School
nominated her class teacher Anne Wang for a Life Time Achievement Award. Click here to read more |
OCTOBER 2001
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Norman Butler called swindonlink.com from somewhere out in the Atlantic
with his account of the row so far. Click here to read more |
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Five years ago Phil and Heather Walker appeared on the front page of the
Swindon Link magazine under the headline 'Marriage takes on magic quality'
after Heather decided to join Phil in his developing magic and illusion
business. Click here to read more |
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Fire crews present cheques totalling nearly £88,000 donated by the
people of the county in aid of the families of colleagues who perished
in the New York terrorist atrocity
on 11 September. Click here to read more | |
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Norman Butler is not lost and is rowing strongly in the Spirit of Swindon Click here to read more | |
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An e-mail from Chris and Vivienne Hamblin, who run Twin Arts Educational
Trust, in Zimbabwe in June to www.swindonlink.com, led to a meeting with
the Mayor of Swindon in early September. Click here to read more |
SEPTEMBER 2001
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Two women from Swindon were amongst fifty who were invited to meet Prince
Charles at his country residence Highgrove House wearing their bras on
Monday 3 September. Click here to read more |
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Your thoughts and reaction Click here to read more |
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Devastating report on Swindon education authority Click here to read more |
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Swindon Borough Council's Public Arts Unit took on a new appearance with an
exhibition of dance and stone sculpture from Zimbabwe. Click here to read more |
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North Swindon parents, unhappy with the quality of secondary education
in Swindon, bus their children to Fairford Click here to read more |
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When Andrew Fleet was appointed headteacher of Hreod Parkway in 1997 it was
already a school facing difficulties. As an experienced head he knew that
driving the school forward would not be easy. The critical Ofsted report in
April which put Hreod Parkway into Special Measures, confirmed that it is
being led in the right direction. At the start of the new year he reflects
on the inspection and the way ahead. Click here to read more |
AUGUST 2001
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Jean Saunders of Swindon FoE says : Swindon Borough Council has had the effrontery to seek Swindon FoE's
support for the next City Status Bid Click here to read more | |
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Westlea School year two teacher Anne Wang won the regional National
Teaching Lifetime Achievement Award in July and goes through to the
national finals in the Autumn. Fay and Ian Howard and their daughters
Jessie and Ellen explain why they nominated her. Click here to read more |
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They have large houses, a private club with pool and tennis court, and lots
of open space. But the well off residents who live at The Bramptons are at
each other's throats because some parents allow their children to play in
the well manicured public spaces. Click here to read more |
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Live musicians, street performers, animated theatre and children's
woodland treasure workshops are just a few of the unusual attractions at
the third Swindon forest festival at The Lawn, Old Town on Saturday 1
September, 10am to 5pm. Click here to read more |
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Swindon will once again be putting itself forward to be considered
for city status and the strength of the bid will be the community's
involvement, writes councillor Sue Bates, leader of Swindon Borough
Council. Click here to read more |
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Councillor Nick Martin, Conservative, Shaw & Nine Elms, contemplates
another bid for city status Click here to read more |
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Norman Butler is nearing the start of a dream he's been working towards for
nearly two years - racing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in a rowing boat. Meet him and wish him well. Click here to read more |
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Structures of all shapes, size and diversity will be open across the
country free of charge on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September. Click here to read more |
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Two women from Swindon will be amongst fifty who will stride into Prince
Charles' country residence at Highgrove House wearing their bras on Monday
3 September. Click here to read more |
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Youngsters from Swindon have been singing winter songs throughout the
summer heat with prolific composer Margaret Carpenter from Shaw, recording
two musicals in time for schools to rehearse their own productions. Click here to read more |
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Swindon's architecture was been recognised yet again when two contrasting
buildings received Civic Trust Awards for 2001 on 9 August. Click here to read more |
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How much would you pay for the shirt off David Beckham's back? Click here to read more |
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Cambridge University geography student Rachel Wood from
Grange Park in Swindon is researching the question of community in West
Swindon. Click here to read more |
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Swindon is thinking about asking its people whether the town should become
a city after its first bid was denied in favour of Brighton, Inverness and
Wolverhampton last December. Click here to read more | |
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New kit for crime busting officers Click here to read more |
JULY 2001
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After sixteen years in Swindon, Greendown headteacher Ian Matthews has
departed to live in Shoreham, East Sussex, where he will be engaged in
school inspections, consultation work and part-time teaching. Click here to read more |
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Parents living in North Swindon, unhappy with the quality of the secondary
education in the town, have signed up in large numbers for Farmors School,
Fairford, in neighbouring Gloucestershire, and are willing to pay £400 a
year to bus their children there. Click here to read more |
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Following a difficult few months after Hreod Parkway School failed its
Ofsted inspection and was put into special measures, the school should be
fully staffed when term starts in September and will be celebrating much
improved year 9 SAT results. Click here to read more |
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Just 18 months after Abbey Meads community primary school opened,
inspectors from Ofsted have commended the work of teachers and pupils. Click here to read more |
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An anonymous visitor to a discussion by Booker prize winning author Ian
McEwan at May's Swindon's Festival of Literature was so impressed that he
described it as an 'excellent event in a well-run festival.' Click here to read more |
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Summer is festival time and Swindon town centre becomes a mass of swirling
carnival colour over the weekend of 21 and 22 July. Click here to read more |
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After ten years tightly closed and out of the public eye, a rare mechanical
desk has been restored to reveal its original glory, cunning mechanism and
hidden compartments and is now back on display, writes Sarah Finch-Crisp,
keeper of Lydiard House. Click here to read more |
JUNE 2001
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Swindon's first ever visual arts festival was officially launched by the
Mayor, councillor David Cox. Click here to read more |
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Peatmoor Primary School must be the artiest in Swindon and only eighteen
months after it opened, it has applied to the Arts Council of England for
the new Artsmark award. Click here to read more | |
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A yellow Thamesdown Transport bus visited the Prospect Hospice on 15 June
to promote Wear Yellow Day on 21 June Click here to read more |
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In keeping with the national mood of support for a Labour government,
voters again put their crosses against the Labour candidates for both
Parliamentary seats in the General Election. Click here to read more |
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Sir Terence Conran, the distinguished British designer and restauranteur,
recently unveiled at new exhibition dedicated to the world's greatest
industrial designer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, at Swindon's Museum of the
Great Western Railway STEAM. Click here to read more |
MAY 2001
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by David Cox, councillor for Toothill Click here to read more |
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Over two hundred Swindon women, and a few men, joined 8,000 others from
across Britain to walk an overnight marathon through the streets of London. Click here to read more |
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Hula dancers from Hawaii will be the theme for the Swindon Twin Peaks team
who will walk a marathon by moonlight through the streets of London on 12
May. Click here to read more | |
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Landlocked Swindon will soon see its name riding the ocean waves when
Norman Butler from Westlea and Andy Norris from Lechlade make a 70 day dash
across the Atlantic in the Ward Evans Atlantic rowing challenge. Click here to read more |
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Storysacks, the brainchild of former Westlea School headteacher Neil
Griffiths to develop literacy in the early years of childhood, is rapidly
becoming a major cultural and community development tool across the globe. Click here to read more |
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Swindon's Prospect Hospice celebrated its twenty-first birthday on 1 May
and they are hoping the whole town will party for 21 days to kick off a
year of fundraising. Click here to read more |
APRIL 2001
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Swindon's Brook Field School in Shaw was more like Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry at the end of the Spring term before Easter when a
dragon took shape in the school hall. Click here to read more |
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To mark the eighth Swindon Festival of Literature during the first ten days
of May, Greendown pupil Anna Hirsch-Holland interviews her father Matt
Holland Click here to read more |
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Fire fighters from Group 2 at Westlea station all went blond in public at a
mass bleach at the West Swindon Centre on 14 April with the help of hair
stylists from Partners hair salon. Click here to read more |
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Swindon resident Sarah Banks has given up a steady job and the
materialistic life to work as a volunteer at the Mokolodi nature reserve in
Botswana for a year. Click here to read more |
MARCH 2001
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Super grandparents Sheila and John Povey from the Lawns in Old Town are sanguine about their status as grandparents to Swindon's largest family. Click here to read more | |
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For the eighth time around, Swindon comes alive with the wonder of words
during the first two weeks of May. Click here to read more | |
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Martial Arts Expert Matt Fiddes and Pop Superstar Michael Jackson are to
team up to make an educational video which will feature North Devon. Click here to read more |
FEBRUARY 2001
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Another massive sell-out show at the Party in the Park on Sunday 26 August
is expected after Wiltshire Festival organisers revealed that fantastic boy
band Five has been booked. Click here to read more |
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Thirteen year old Shaun Shirley from Toothill was finally laid to rest on
15 February, nearly a month after he died from injuries sustained in a
fatal accident on Corton Crescent. Click here to read more | |
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Congratulations to PC Ian Horne who was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in
the New Year's Honours. Click here to read more |
JANUARY 2001
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Ian and Sue Povey, parents of Swindon's most populous family, are delighted
to announce their newest arrival on 11 January. Click here to read more |
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STEAM has received a tourist accolade within its first year of opening. Click here to read more |
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There are two great events coming up where Swindon women can get fit and
raise money for women's cancer charities. Click here to read more |
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The one question everyone asks about our new hospital is 'will it be
big enough?' writes Chris Birdsall, communications officer for the Swindon
and Marlborough NHS Trust. Click here to read more |
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Couple plan ambitious Ukraine aid trip with backing from
after recycling company Holland Handling donates mobile dental unit. Click here to read more |
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Matt Holland, director of the Swindon Festival of Literature, describes the
hard work that has to take place before an event can be successful. Click here to read more |
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Rosa Matheson, director of the Swindon Arts Community Fund writes: Click here to read more | |
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Home Secretary Jack Straw will open an innovative project in Swindon
designed to improve safety and reduce crime in the town at the end of
January. Click here to read more |
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