Past and Present

The Causeway

Just why this old guy should choose to build his hut in such a low place prone to flooding is a bit unclear, but there you have it! As a child, I could never understand why anyone would go around saddled with a name like Cyppa.

Flood it did of course. Once there were several islands around the location of the present town bridge. Way back, a wooden structure was built to enable the poor traveller to cross the river. Well several wooden structures probably, as they were frequently swept away by the winter floods. Some five hundred years ago, a few miles upstream at East Tytherton, a legacy from Maud Heath helped the local villagers with similar problems reach Chippenham market.

ing Alfred had a country retreat here, in fact it was from Chippenham that his sister left to marry the King of Mercia. Alfie being only four at the time probably didn't take a lot of interest. Although, sisters' weddings being what they are, maybe the day was filled with the sorts of trauma that later led to the cake burning episode. There is no claim to that having happened around here though.

Alfred (The Great) was born in Wantage in 849, he became king in 871 a the time of a Danish invasion. After several bloody battles (notably Slaughterford) and a few defeats, he succeeded in making peace with the Danes. The final battle taking place probably at Edington, about May of 878.

About 1554 the town was given it's first charter by Queen Mary who generously forked out for the building of the first stone bridge. An imposing structure of some twenty-five arches.

Over the next couple of hundred years the bridge was strengthened, widened and had an ornamental balustrade added.

There were weirs constructed either side of the large island just upstream of the bridge. These have disappeared with the anti-flooding improvements made to the river and the smaller water course has been filled in, 'though the park here is still referred to as "The Island". This was in my youth reached by a small pedestrian bridge, locked at dusk. I recall getting locked on one night while doing "a bit of courting"!

There was a mill stream and sluice gate near to the bottom of Monkton Hill and each year swans would nest, in full view and unmolested.

Planning wizards of the 1960's tore down the stone bridge, filled in the waterways and built the wider, functional, but typically 60's boring, structure which you see today. I worked in a nearby off licence while the new bridge was being built and remember the four times a day purchase of a bottle of whisky by the head of the labouring gang! A short section of the balustrade remains at the side of the shops on the west side of the river.

A couple of years back there were plans to take down the ugly, seldom painted, metal balustrade of the 60's bridge and replace it, in an effort to smarten this area up. I was not alone in hoping for stonework similar to the old one. That was not to be, a competition was held and the winner was a very modern iron balustrade, best described as "striking" but of no greater merit than the one it replaced.

A "bridge" of far greater significance is the viaduct built to carry Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway across the town. The stretch of line from Wootton Basset, through Chippenham to Bristol is rarely at ground level, being either on an embankment or in a cutting. For several years Chippenham was the terminus of the railway until Box Tunnel, the line's most imposing feature was finished.

Alongside the viaduct was a block of elegant houses, built by Brunel for the directors of the railway company. They were demolished some years back to make way for St.Paul's House, an office block, and possibly the ugliest building in the town.

The railway brought new life to Chippenham. Alongside the station the engineering works of Rowland Brotherhood sprang up. Brotherhood had worked for Brunel as a Civil Engineer, on the cuttings and embankments of the railway. He started his works in Chippenham in 1842 to repair and build equipment used in his earth moving. He quickly diversified into manufacturing signals and points for the railway. Then came iron bridges and eventually waggons and locomotives. However after thirty years in the town he ran into money difficulties, was forced to sell up and moved away to Bristol .

Rowland died in 1883, his son Peter inherited his father's engineering genius. The Peter Brotherhood company still continues today.

His works stood empty for a short time, then they were used by, Evans O'Donnell followed by Saxby & Farmer signal manufacturers, eventually to become Westinghouse Brake & Signal Works. Westinghouse is still a major employer but a shadow of itself in the heyday of the railway. Now the industries of the town have diversified. The front runner in the employment stakes probably Wavin Plastics.

While on the subject of employers and ugly or elegant buildings, on the edge of town are Herman Miller.
Herman Miller, an American company founded in 1923, has always been at the forefront of furniture design. With award winning designers such as Charles and Ray Eames and Isamu Noguchi and more recently Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf they know more than a thing or two about good and bad design. I guess that extends to buildings too. Nevertheless the Herman Miller Building on the Bath Road opposite the Pheasant (it is their logistics and distribution centre, for the whole of Northern Europe) was pretty controversial when it first appeared 1983. Design was by Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners. Now most of the people in Chippenham have got used to it even if they don't exactly love it. Nicholas Grimshaw went on to design the Financial Times Print Works, the railway terminal at London's Waterloo Station and in 1996 beat 18 rival architects to win the competition to plan a 2km stretch of Pusan in South Korea, including the design of a 16 platform high speed rail terminal. A contract estimated to cost more than £200million. The RAC supercentre building in Bristol was also designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, opened in 1994, it took 17 months to build and cost £16 million to complete. Now that its architect has gained international renown, perhaps the Herman Miller building too will be hailed as a masterpiece of design.

Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners are also the architects for the new Bath Spa buildings, in 2003/4 the subject of much wrangling between the architects, the builders and the local council, months behind schedule, millions over budget and late opening. All over the quality of the paint apparently. (Bath? that’s a little place down the road a bit. Worth a visit if you're coming to Chippenham anyway!)

Not necessarily a masterpiece of design but fine enough and familiar to everyone in town are the Town and Neeld Halls. Its hard to tell where one begins and the other ends, but both were built with the generosity of Joseph Neeld, one of the towns greatest benefactors and MP for Chippenham from 1830 until his death in 1856. The Town Hall came first and was an open arched cheese market with rooms over. When this became too small for the town's needs the Neeld Hall was added on behind. The Neeld family home was at nearby Grittleton, Joseph was succeeded by his brother John and eventually Sir Audley Dallas Neeld.

Did you know that. . . Joseph Neeld and his successors also owned the estate of the Manor of Tokyngton, now better known as Wembley Hill Garden Suburb, from 1827 on. It was one of the earliest examples of "Town Planning". now a conservation area. Many of the street name will be familiar to Chippenham residents, with names like Neeld Court and Neeld Crescent, Audley Road, Dallas Road, Vivian Avenue and Vivian Gardens.(the maiden name of Sir Audley Neeld's wife, Dame Edith Vivian) Grittleton Avenue, Allington Road. There's even a Chippenham Avenue, just two streets away from Wembley Stadium.

The Rev. Francis Kilvert was vicar at Langley Burrell for a time. His father was parson at Hardenhuish. Kilvert attended Wadham College, Oxford, at the same time as Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and shared with him an interest in young children that today would have had his home raided.
Francis is noted for his diaries of life around Chippenham and in South Wales. On Saturday, 8 August 1874 he wrote."In the afternoon there was a very good cricket match on the Common between Langley Burrelll and the Chippenham 2nd eleven. We were beaten by two runs, and up to the last moment it was anybody's match."

 Later that day he delighted in recounting the story of a young girl's repeated thrashings on her bare bottom. No detail was missed. there are many other similar accounts of his encounters with young girls in his diaries. No small wonder that after the first selection was published in 1938 his decedents destroyed many of the others.

Leaving his predilections aside, though his diaries contain beautiful descriptive accounts of local country life.

Tuesday, 27th December "After dinner drove into Chippenham with Perch and bought a pair of skates at Benks for 17/6. Across the fields to the Draycot water and the young Awdry ladies chaffed me about my new skates. I had not been on skates since I was here last, five years ago, and was very awkward for the first ten minutes, but the knack soon came again. There was a distinguished company on the ice, Lady Dangan, Lord and Lady Royston and Lord George Paget all skating. Also Lord and Lady Sydney and a Mr Calcroft, whom they all of course called the Hangman, I had the honour of being knocked down by Lord Royston, who was coming round suddenly on the outside edge. A large fire of logs burning within an enclosure of wattled hurdles. Harriet Awdry skated beautifully and jumped over a half sunken punt. Arthur Law skating jumped over a chair on its legs."

In September 1840 William Henry Fox Talbot invented the negative-positive process of photography, at nearby Lacock Abbey.

Elected to Parliament in 1809 standing for the Tories, Robert Peel became MP for Chippenham in 1812, he was Secretary for Ireland until 1818. But in 1817 he had moved onwards & upwards to become MP for Oxford. Then in 1822 he became Home Secretary until 1827, and then again from 1828-30. It was in 1829 that he set up the Metropolitan Police "Bobbies" or "Peelers" as they became known.

Rock star Eddie Cochran met with a fatal accident in a taxi at Rowden Hill Chippenham, in the early hours of April 17 1960. Cochran was returning to London from a Bristol gig with his girlfriend Sharon Sheeley, and fellow performer Gene Vincent. The driver, Sharon and Gene were all injured in the accident but survived. I was seventeen when Cochran died and well remember passing the scene of the accident on my way to work the following morning. The following year Gene Vincent gave a performance at the Neeld Hall. What a crush there was that night!

Just when you think there is nothing more, a bit of history writes itself:- On Sunday, February 15, 1998 two World War II bombs one 1000lbs, another 500lbs, were detonated by army bomb disposal expert, Captain Peter Shields. The bombs had remained buried 25 feet deep in a field at Hardens Mead for well over fifty years but were only investigated after local farmer Tony Crew voiced his concern, as a new school was proposed for the site. Some 500 homes were evacuated, resulting in more than 1100 people spending two nights away from home. After two days spent attempting to defuse the bomb Captain Shields decide that a controlled detonation was the safest option. Later, then Chippenham Mayor Clive Grace suggested that the new school should be named after Peter Shields in recognition of his professionalism and bravery. Two years later that grand suggestion was forgotten. The school, finished, has been named Abbeyfields. This, after Stanley Abbey which disappeared long ago, the only remaining traces being a few stones in a farmyard. (Poor choice?) The first pupils arrived for the new September term of 2001.

( Revised Sunday, February 1st 2004 - More to come folks)

If you would like to see Chippenham in the 60s visit The Francis Frith Collection