Twyford Almshouses

Another Twyford day today. The building here is the Twyford Almshouses built in 1640. Until today I thought, or incorrectly recalled, that this was the the oldest building in the village. Instead this honour goes to another building in the village a hundred yards or so to the west. It is a former farmhouse (now an office) built in the 16th century.

Until about 70 years or so ago Twyford was still genuinely a village, but now it has a population of around 10,000. The residents, or in my case former or part time resident, still refer to it as a village, and to me it still has the feel of a village. The housing estates which have gone up around the core village have not entirely destroyed the village atmosphere. The railway line and station have ensured this is an important centre for commuting into London.

Twyford means two fords, and this meaning may explain why there are several Twyfords in England. The village lay on the road from Bath to London, so the fords made it an important hub on the route. Fortunately the construction, first of the A4, and later of the M4, have ensured traffic is now diverted away from the village. Though there is still more traffic passing through the centre of the village than many people would like, especially as the central crossroads was not designed for modern traffic, and so creates a bottleneck.

Despite a sunny start to the day by mid morning cloud had set in and remained for the rest of the day. Like a 16th century drover I will be back on the road tomorrow.