IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Heywood Close, SWINDON, SN2 5JT

Penhill is a local authority housing estate developed in the early to mid 1950s. Swindon Borough Council took advantage of the Town Development Act 1952 to expand at a rapid rate in the post-war years. Most of Penhill sits on relatively high ground in the northern part of the town but falls away north into a valley through which a small watercourse runs. Minety Road takes the visitor into the valley.

Penhill is a local authority housing estate developed in the early to mid 1950s. Swindon Borough Council took advantage of the Town Development Act 1952 to expand at a rapid rate in the post-war years. The theme for the naming of the roads and closes in the estate is Wiltshire towns and villages. Avebury is famous for its old rocks http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/567773

Penhill is a local authority housing estate developed in the early to mid 1950s. Swindon Borough Council took advantage of the Town Development Act 1952 to expand at a rapid rate in the post-war years. As with many other roads in Penhill, it is named after a town or village in Wiltshire. Downton is near Salisbury. The road leading away to the left is Minety Road. Its eponym is in north Wiltshire.

This a view further down the hill into the valley on the northern edge of Penhill. In the far distance on the skyline is the much more recent northern development area.

Penhill Copse, situated between Penhill and Abbey Meads, is the main wooded area of the Seven Fields Nature Reserve, which was established in 1995.

A strip of woodland extending off the Seven Fields Nature Reserve. Possibly preserved as an environmental amenity, but more likely because it's on a slope too steep to build on. Whatever the reason, it's a nice bit of green amongst all the houses.

Penhill Royal British Legion Club (note the war memorial and Union flag in front of the Club). The branch was opened in 1967, and closed in 2010 after falling into debt. A fire caused severe damage to the derelict building in February 2012.

The avenue is the spine road of 'the valley' area of Penhill, that part of the estate developed last. The entrance to Imber Walk is visible at the left behind the silver car. The pillar box is unlikely to be a Victorian post box or a Georgian post box or an Edwardian post box.

Penhill Copse is the main wooded area of Seven Fields Nature Reserve, which was established in 1995. This small wood is situated between the Penhill and Abbey Meads housing estates.

Melksham Close is at the northern edge of Penhill. The estate was developed in the early to mid 1950s by the local council. I understand it had been intended to complete the estate a few hundred metres south of here but circumstances made the council decide to carry on down the northern slope of the hill the estate is mainly built upon. This northern extension became known as 'the valley' and soon acquired something of a poor reputation where it was suspected 'problem families' were housed. I have no way of knowing whether that is true or, if it is, was a deliberate policy on the part of the Housing department. It is true that there have been instances of some properties in the valley having been used as crack houses.