Archive Films

Continuing our collection of silent cine footage showing Swindon over the past 60 or so years. Our previous pages filled with a wealth of vintage video of the town can be found via the links below.

This latest batch of video clips  - which have once again been kindly supplied to us by local TV production company AVP Studios  - show certain parts of the town centre almost unrecognisable to how they appear now.

The majority of clips focus on the wholesale demolition and reconstruction which occurred in the mid-1960s.

Edgware Road, Bryon St, town centre construction

The first collection of videos includes a 1.45min clip of footage of the area around Edgeware Road located just off Regent Street (behind Next) in the heart of Swindon's shopping centre.

As evidenced by the film, the area was once very much a residential district.

Another clip which runs for 1.47mins shows Byron Street in the Regent Circus area as it was before most of it was demolished to make way for Swindon College.

Running for 2.41mins is a clip showing construction work on the Wyvern Theatre and Islington Street car park.

At the time the theatre was designed to become the heart of the new Civic Centre for Swindon and the film begins with a shot of the inauguration plaque which marked the start of the building work on 30th October 1968.

The film ends with fascinating views of the town centre from the old Swindon police station which was situated on Fleming Way until its demolition in 2005.

Whale Bridge, Railway Village and the building of Penhill

In the second batch of clips a 2.16min film shows more town centre areas which look not to exist anymore. Particularly interesting is a segment showing the Whale Bridge area with Prouters Garage prominent before it became a busy roundabout intersecting Fleming Way, Princes Street and Corporation Street.

Whale Bridge

The clip ends with some brief shots of the top of Victoria Road in Old Town at the Bath Road junction.

The penultimate piece of footage running at 3.05mins focuses on the Railway Village around the Faringdon Road area as well as St Marks Church and Faringdon Road park, then known as GWR Park.

And the final film on this page - which runs for 9.24mins - comes from the 1950s and shows construction work taking place on the Penhill housing estate in North Swindon.

In order to produce future DVDs, AVP Studios are very keen to obtain similar cine footage of Swindon in days gone by. If you think you can help, contact them on (01793) 436735 or visit their website via the link on the right.