Things To See And Do In Swindon

Swindon is an English town that was originally meant to be a city, and was designed to be a city, but was not granted city status. It was first a town as then had grand plans to be expanded in order to deal with the population overspill from London.

Primarily it was market town that did not grow until the industrial revolution as the construction of the Wilts and Berks Canal and the North Wilts canal opened up additional trading routes.

Lydiard Park is a lovely country park that is home to Lydiard house. The house was built in an Elizabethan style but was modernized and updated during the English Civil War. The home was open to the public in 1955 and was completely restored. Though this is small for the majority of English stately homes it is beautiful to explore and the grounds are kept up.

Queens Park is near the town center and contains a small lake with many ornamental shrubs and trees. The park contains a Garden of remembrance which remembers those that fought and died in World War II. Coate Water is an additional park that contains a reservoir originally made to feed water into the Wilts and Berks Canal.

The Lady of the Hill is a beautiful church that was created in 1851. This was a replacement of the medieval parish which could not handle the influx of new residents. Inside are several memorials to the Goddard family and of particular note is the west window which shows a view of the hollyhocks of the lawn.

The Renault Building was designed by Sir Norman Foster and is the town's most acclaimed building. The roof is bright yellow making the entire building highly recognizable. If has contained offices, a showroom, restaurant, warehouse and distribution center. The design of the building has won many awards. This building was actually used in the Bond movie, A View to Kill.

The Link center is the town's main leisure center. This building was built in 1985 in an environmentally friendly manner. Inside the leisure center contains a district library, ice rink, squash courts, Olympic size swimming pool, snooker hall, health suite, community center, craft studios, sports hall and drama studios.