MY STREET CHALLENGE - WOOD STREET

We were out and about early again on a cold and frosty morning - Wood Street gets very busy, especially on a Saturday morning, and as it is a one-way street, with parking allowed on only one side, I wanted to be sure that it was relatively car-free.

Wood Street is first recorded by name as long ago as 1599 but because of the businesses in the street, it was also known as Blacksmiths’ Street because of the forges situated there and also Windmill Street since there was a windmill where the Kings Arms Hotel and Public House now stands.  It was originally a mixture of small thatched cottages with the poorer houses continuing at the end of the street down the hill into a lane known as Little London.

In the late 1800s, Wood Street was a very busy street with many trades evident – grocers, banks, public houses, jeweller and watchmaker, boot and shoe maker, chemist, solicitor, draper, stationers, butcher, gentlemen’s outfitter, game dealer and poulterer and architect, to name a few.

The beautiful building known as Bank House, shown in the collage at the bottom left, was built in about 1740 and is at the end of Wood Street, where it adjoins Cricklade Street.  It used to belong to a surgeon, with his rooms above, with Blackfords Butchers below and following that it was used by a saddler and harness maker.  Apparently, the butchers leased a slaughterhouse and stables in nearby Cricklade Street.  The building was purchased by the Wiltshire & Dorset Bank in 1876 and after that was Lloyds Bank then Barclays Bank from 1919 until 1976.  It now houses a hairdresser’s salon and is a Grade II Listed Building. 

On the other corner of Wood Street, where it joins High Street is a large shop that was run from the early 1900s by Samuel Joseph Limmex, an ironmonger.  Sadly this shop closed in the mid 1970s but I remember going in there especially when I worked in Old Town.  They always displayed their wares outside the shop and there was a strong smell of creosote that pervaded the whole shop.  It was a wonderful place with many little nooks and crannies, but you could buy just one nail or screw or you could leave your scissors or secateurs to be sharpened – something which is very unusual these days especially in our throw-away society.  Mr. Limmex had a tin smithy upstairs where he would make galvanised tin items, and I do remember going upstairs and seeing tin buckets and watering cans in the 1970s.  It was a sad day when the shop closed in the late 1990s. This large shop is now a hairdressing salon.

Old Town Hardware, across the road is very similar and as with the staff in Limmex they are very helpful – and I believe that at least one member of staff actually worked at Limmex.  If what you are looking for isn’t in stock, they will always order it.  Again, like Limmex, this shop has its wares outside on the pavement – I’m not sure this is really legal, but I guess until someone tells them otherwise, they will continue to do it but because we were up there so early, the shop was still in darkness.

Deacon & Son (Swindon) Limited, was founded as a jewellers and watch and clock makers in 1848 by George Deacon and is still a family-run business today in its sixth generation.   A few years later the adjoining premises were purchased, which at the time was run as a bookseller and stationer’s shop.  The business continued to expand and between 1860 and 1890 made a variety of time pieces which include long case clocks, trunk dial clocks, carriage clocks and pocket watches.  They still have a watch and clock repair and jewellery workshop on the premises and are often asked to do valuations on modern and antique jewellery.  

The shop deals not only in jewellery and time pieces, but in the shop next door they also sell high class china, crystal glass and many other small gifts – the middle photograph in the collage is the Nativity scene in the window of the gift shop – again because it was so early, the jewellers still had the shutters up at the window.

My “claim to fame” is that many years ago, in the mid 1980s, I wrote out the notices that were placed in the window setting out the history of the birthstone of the month and placed near the rings displaying those stones.  These were eventually replaced by computer-generated notices, which again I produced and they are still used to this day.  The “claim to fame” of Michael Deacon, who died in 1998 and was the father of the present Managing Director, Richard Deacon, is that Diana Dors, the famous Swindon actress, used to take Michael to school!

The Old Bank Brasserie, shown in the collage at the top left, which is our “go to” place on a Saturday morning, actually used to be the Natwest Bank, hence the name and I do remember going in there when it was still a bank. We are so well known in there that the bar staff don’t even have to ask what sort of coffee we want when we arrive!

Wood Street Food Hall is a fairly new shop in the street, which has a fishmonger, butcher and a delicatessen in one shop.  It is run by two ex-chefs and sells wonderful meat and fish and the staff are all very knowledgeable about their products.  The shop also sells artisan bread and seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables, sourced from local farms and suppliers.  There was plenty of activity in there this morning, so I went in but the staff weren’t that keen on having their photograph taken – however, they were happy for me to photograph the meat and fish.  

The Kings Arms Hotel, built in the Gothic revival style, shown in the collage at the top right, is a very prominent building in Wood Street and is very ornate, with a large coat of arms above the main door and stands possibly where the windmill stood.  It is usually flying the Union flag,  which this morning appeared to be caught on one of the downpipes on the front of the building.  This is also a Grade II Listed Building.

Youngs of Wood Street sells many small gifts such as scarves, cuddly toys, costume jewellery, photograph frames and also has quite a lot of works of art in a small room at the back of the shop.   It is run by a lady whose mother I knew many years ago and is another of the shops in Old Town where you get personal service and are always served with a smile.  When I worked in Old Town in the 1970s it was The Pork Shop and sold all manner of things pertaining to pigs – and Mr. HCB tells me that he remembers that they sold the best chitterlings (small intestines of a pig) in town – I always hated the smell and have never tasted them, so in those days, I would buy them for him to eat when I was going to be out in the evening.

The photograph at the bottom right of the collage, which is used by a Solicitor, shows the decorative bricks used on the front of the building – possibly those from the kiln of Thomas Turner, a well-known Swindon brick-maker, in the 1870s, who had a quarry and kilns off Drove Road, in what is now Queens Park.  There are a number of “show” houses advertising his bricks, made of Kimmeridge clay, around the town, with eye-catching patterns, that were distinctively red. 

On the building next door and on the middle right of the collage is a photograph of tiles that are down both sides of a doorway which are very distinctive and quite beautiful – I don’t know anything about them, but I would imagine they are quite old and obviously put there to enhance the doorway many years ago. 

Bowmaker House used to be a private dwelling, shown in the middle left of the collage – the building and the railings along the front are Listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, for its special architectural or historic interest.  It is certainly a very well kept building but I’m not sure what it is used for today.

Next door is Willoby’s, a family furniture company, which specialises in well-made oak and pine furniture.  In fact, our new sideboard and several other items of furniture were purchased from this shop – we have always found the staff very helpful and knowledgeable.

Wood Street today is as much a mixture of shops and businesses as it was in the 1800s – there are several hairdressers, public houses, restaurants, including Thai, Indian, Moroccan and English, fast food outlets, cafés, shops selling high quality running shoes, gifts, carpets and hardware, a pet boutique, a wellness centre, an opticians/hearing centre, where we purchased our glasses and where Mr. HCB also purchased his hearing aids,  Solicitors, two Estate Agents and Boots The Chemist.  All this diversity in one street, which is not that long – I think the over-riding thing is that they all give good and friendly service and of all the buildings, at least eight are Listed.

“Diversity may be the hardest thing
     for a society to live with,
          and perhaps the most dangerous thing
               for a society to be without.”
William Sloane Coffin Jr.