IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Plymouth Street, SWINDON, SN1 2LD

Newcastle Street passes across the image from left to right. The viewpoint is in Plymouth Street. One purpose of the section of Plymouth Street leading away from the viewpoint was to provide access to the large Garrards factory that once stood at the right, and which can be seen in this historic image from P L Chadwick Image The blue-coloured building is a retail outlet built in the early 1990s.

This was the main Garrard factory and had long frontages to both Newcastle Street and Fleming Way. The Newcastle Street frontage, as can be seen in this view, was partially hidden by the large trees. The factory mainly made gramophone record decks, for which it was renowned, but during the Second World War it made a lot of clocks. Garrard was taken over by a Brazilian company in 1979, and continued to decline, unable to compete with Japanese competition. The factory was demolished in the 1990's, having ceased manufacture about 1982. Along the frontage to Newcastle Street, new housing has been built. Most of the remainder of the site became a B & Q store and a branch of Halfords. B & Q have gone elsewhere and been replaced by a branch of The Range.

These houses were constructed in the 1990s as part of the redevelopment of the site once occupied by the large record player factory Garrards. The houses are situated on the area marked by the row of trees in this historic image from P L Chadwick Image from 1983.

Viewed from the top of Spring Gardens multistorey carpark, the Wiltshire Air Ambulance and the Great Western Air Ambulance in Spring Gardens while paramedics attend a nearby emergency.

Part of a retail park on the site of a former brickworks.

The viewpoint is the car park of a retail park containing branches of The Range and Halfords. The site was once occupied by the Garrards gramophone company Image The houses in the background are in Newcastle Street Image This image was obtained on my cellphone after a shopping trip.

This view shows part of the factory, on the corner of Newcastle Street and Fleming Way. The Fleming Way frontage of the factory was particularly badly affected by the fire in the late 1950s, so this part probably dates from after then. Fleming Way itself didn't exist when the factory was built. Instead on this frontage was the former Wilts & Berks Canal. Fleming Way was built on part of the canal's line. The factory was originally used by a firm called Grundy, who made rope and sails in the First World War. Garrard moved their record deck business from London to this factory in 1919. The record decks and record changers produced here were thought by many people to be the best in the world. A few years after purchase by a Brazilian company, production here ceased but the factory was not demolished until the 1990s. The purchasers later came to an arrangement in 1997 with a British firm, Loricraft Audio, based in nearby Lambourn, for them to use the Garrard name for their range of handbuilt decks and restorations Image

The Range is a large retail outlet selling a wide selection of homeware, garden tools and machinery, musical instruments, camping gear, toys and furnishings plus more besides. It is situated in what was once Swindon's B&Q store until they moved out to larger premises on the western side of Swindon Image Before that this site was home to a large factory making record decks called Garrards. There is also a large branch of the motoring and cycling retailer, Halfords, here.

As well as having its main frontages to Newcastle Street & Fleming Way, the factory also partly fronted the extension of Plymouth Street. The factory gates were also here, and can be seen in the distance ahead. When the factory was in operation, it usually worked night and day, and the thump of the presses could be heard in nearby houses. The factory suffered a major fire in about 1958, Swindon's worst to date, but the factory was rebuilt, and continued operation for another twenty plus years. Image Some multi-storey buildings can be seen in the distance. They were built as offices for various organisations on land between Princes Street & Spring Gardens. Originally Princes Street had two-storey terraced houses on both sides.

The viewpoint is almost the same as P L Chadwick used for this historic image from 1983 Image and shows the same corner. Where the Garrards factory once stood is a terrace of 1990s houses marketed if I recall correctly as 'starter' homes.