ABSTRACT
Swindon’s history has been one of remarkable growth and change. In 1841, when Brunel chose the town as the site for the Great Western Railway’s locomotive works, the population was less than 2500. By 1911 it was 51000 and the railway works, employing more than 10000, dominated the local economy and shaped a distinctive, geographically isolated, working-class community set in the heart of rural Wiltshire. Railway employment began to decline in the 1930s and the works finally closed in 1986. But Swindon did not suffer the fate of many similar one-industry towns. It experienced rapid growth from the early 1950s and a transformation of its economic and social structure. By the 1980s the town had a population of 186000 and a diversified economy based on new and high tech industries, offices, warehousing and distribution centres. It was being hailed in the press as ‘the fastest growing micro-economy in Europe’ and ‘a high tech boom town’. All this, it was claimed, had been accomplished by a progressive, go-ahead council without any government assistance, representing (in the words of the town’s chief executive) ‘a model of urban development that is under local democratic control’ (Financial Times, 9 November 1984).
