IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Rylane, SWINDON, SN1 7AW

I haven't been here for about a year. In that period development has taken place. New houses stand on what was once farmland. In the foreground a highly customised Ford Focus estate car can be seen. It is an '08' model.

There is a diverse range of styles in this part of the large Wichelstowe development. These properties have a distinctly Georgian feel to them. More on Wichelstowe here courtesy of the developers http://www.wichelstowe.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=1

The centre of a new urban village on the southern edge of Swindon.

This affords a closer view of the 2008-registered Ford Focus estate car seen in this image http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1870672 It isn't a top of the range model having steel wheels as opposed to the magnesium alloys that would grace one of the top-line models. Even more lowly versions are quite highly specified though and I wouldn't mind owning one. They're a lot better than those awful Morris Minors folk get excited about. I had one once and what a bucket of bolts that was. The brakes didn't report for duty half the time and changing gear was like stirring a box of marbles with a garden spade. My misery was brought to an end when the chap at the MoT station failed it by telling me that the rust was so bad that if I went over a hump-backed bridge in it it would come down in three bits.

One of a line of shops in the centre of this new neighbourhood.

This is roughly in the centre of the East Wichel phase of the large Wichelstowe development. The high ground in the distance contains the trackbed of the old Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR). More about Wichelstowe here http://www.wichelstowe.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=1

Although only about 150 homes are now occupied, a bus service is already in place. East Wichel is the first phase of the large Wichelstowe development. More here http://www.wichelstowe.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=1

Barratts are one of several other builders in a consortium that also includes Bryant Homes, George Wimpey, Bloor Homes and Sovereign Housing. More on Wichelstowe here http://www.wichelstowe.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=1 Visible on the far horizon are hangars once used at the wartime RAF Wroughton airfield but now occupied by the Science Museum.

A modern residential development in East Wichel. The road crossing Rylane is Holne Road.

Builders' compounds are rarely glamorous but they are functional. Here, various aggregates and blocks share space with items of plant. The bridge in the background will one day carry a footpath over the M4. More on the Wichelstowe development here http://www.wichelstowe.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=1