Swindon's 160 greatest headline makers...part 8

Here you will find those whose work and achievements have helped raise the standing and profile of both the town and the borough, or who have striven to improve the lives of ordinary folk.

It includes the greats of industry, commerce and technology along with those who have gained prominence through sport, arts, culture and media.

We have attempted to cut through the strata of Swindon life to include some of the town’s many colourful characters…along with two horses, a dog and one or two who have brought infamy crashing down upon us.

This is part eight in our series of ten.

NORMAN, SIR TORQUIL (1923-) CBE

Old Etonian, graduate of Harvard, RAF pilot, sky-diving ace, US-based investment banker, saviour of London’s Roundhouse, collector and flyer of classic aircraft and recipient of a knighthood for “services to the arts and to disadvantaged young people.”

But why is 6ft 7ins tall Sir Torquil included in this supplement? Because in 1980 he founded Bluebird Toys in Swindon, one of the UK’s most successful firms of its kind.

Under the guidance of the ever inventive Norman, who seemed to know what made children tick, the Kembrey Park-based company turned out some of the world’s most popular toys.

They included the Big Yellow Teapot, the Big Red Fun Bus, Mighty Max and – most successful of all – Polly Pocket.

O’SULLIVAN, GILBERT (1946-)

Raymond O’Sullivan was 13 when his family moved from Waterford to Swindon in 1960. A pupil of St Joseph’s school, his pal Rick Davies – later of Supertramp – taught him piano.

The talented young songwriter signed to the MAM label with whom he had a string of big hits including Nothing Rhymed, Clair, No Matter How I Try, Get Down and Alone Again (Naturally).

The latter was a world-wide chart-topper which spent six weeks at Number One in America.
O’Sullivan initially adopted a bizarre ‘Bisto Boy’ image of pudding basin haircut, cloth cap and short trousers which he later ditched for a US college look.

Ironically, one of his best loved songs, the often aired Matrimony was not a hit single. Today, O’Sullivan continues to write and record.

OLLIVER, TOM (1812-1874)

As a steeplechase jockey, Olliver won an incredible three Grand Nationals between 1842 and 1853.
However, it was as a trainer that Olliver – known as Black Tom due to his swarthy looks – made an impact in this area.

Setting up in Wroughton High Street, Olliver poured everything into coaching George Frederick to win British racing’s richest prize, the 1874 Epsom Derby.

After a brief illness, five months before the “blue ribbon of the turf”, Olliver died at 63, leaving instructions on the colt’s training programme to his head lad.

Tom’s dying words were that only an Act of Parliament could prevent George Frederick from victory. He romped home at 9/1 to the combined joy of Wroughton and Swindon.

PARRY, MARTIN (1947-)

From his terraced town centre home, Martin is creating a unique and invaluable archive that will enthral and enlighten generations of Swindonians.

Born in Hereford, he came here in 1980 to run a film workshop and became involved with Swindon Viewpoint, the town’s pioneering community TV channel.

As well as teaching film and media to hundreds of young people in 1988 he founded the Western Film Archive to “collect, preserve and make available audio visual material” from the area.

Very much a labour of love, his work involves restoring and placing on the internet historic reels of film that would otherwise rot.   

He is also digitising and uploading Viewpoint’s vast and unparalleled library of footage that focuses on everyday life and culture in Swindon since the 1970s. 

PAUL, BILL (1910-1992)

For nearly four decades council worker Bill Paul made a regular, unique and often amusing contribution to Swindon… as the Advertiser’s resident cartoonist.

A surveyor’s department draughtsman by trade, “Swindon’s greatest cartoonist” mostly contributed to our Football Pink which for almost 60 years rounded-up the Saturday soccer action.

His wry and keenly observed cartoons were a key feature in the publication. 

An accomplished artist, he helped found the Swindon Artists Society and exhibited widely in town. Bill also created posters for local campaigns such as anti-smoking initiatives.

PIPER, BILLIE (1982-)

A former pupil of Bradon Forest School in Purton, Swindon-born Leian Paul Piper became an instant pop sensation at just 15 in 1998.

Known simply as ‘Billie’, she had a series of major hits including Because We Want To, Girlfriend, She Wants You, Day & Night and Something Deep Inside.

Having become one of the most successful female artists of the era, the ‘princess of pop’ dramatically quit the music business only to re-emerge as a successful actress. 

In 2005 she became The Doctor’s popular side-kick Rose Tyler in the BBC’s successful revamp of Dr Who.

Billie went onto appear in several stage and TV productions and famously starred as high-class escort Belle de Jour in ITV2’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl from 2007-2011.

 

PITT, REV WILLIAM (1856-1936)

Newly arrived from Exeter, the 23 year-old Christchurch curate quickly immersed himself in community work and after meeting some young factory workers (presumably from the GWR) he formed a club.
This, in 1879, was the birth of Swindon Town FC.

Researcher Paul Plowman found evidence of Pitt playing for Swindon Association FC that year against Rovers FC.

They changed their name to the Spartan Club for whom Pitt was still a member when they played St Mark’s Young Men’s Friendly Society on November 12, 1881.

Both teams then decided to merge under the name of Swindon Town FC with the club’s official founding now agreed as 1879.

William Pitt soon afterwards severed his connections with the club to become Rector of Liddington, leaving the town with an enduring and much loved legacy.

PLUMLEY, GLADYS (1897-1975) MBE

When the Swindon Advertiser in 1999 launched a Citizen of the Millennium poll, Gladys Plumley was among the Top Ten contenders. 

Miss Plumley – Plum to her friends – had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the benefits system, housing regulations, employment rights, and how hard-up citizens could best cope with debt.

For nearly 30 years, until fading eyesight forced to her to retire in 1970, she assisted thousands of people who sought help at the Council for Social Services, which later became Swindon Voluntary Service Council.

Plum did everything from organising the distribution of gift vouchers for the needy to helping deserted wives or people entangled in legal problems. Throughout she maintained, as one Adver millennium voter described it “a cheerful and positive dedication to people needing help and advice.”

POOLE, TED and IVY (both 1926-) 

A married couple of Penhill, Ted and Ivy founded the Swindon Folksingers Club in 1960 and today – 54 years later – it continues to thrive as one of the longest running institutions of its kind in the country
Ted said: “We deliberately called ourselves the folksingers club because we wanted people to join in and sing.”

Over the years leading musicians such as Martin Carthy, Christy Moore, Peggy Seeger and Norma Waterson have performed at the club.

Currently based at the Ashford Road Social Club, it remains true to one of its basic tenets of “fostering good singing and helping new singers and musicians.”

Such is the esteem in which it is held that Ted was in 1999 invited to speak at America’s One Hundred Years of Folk Revival conference in Brooklyn.

POWELL, JAMES ‘RAGGY’ (1843-1930)

One of Swindon’s most endearing characters, the rag and bone man was for years a familiar sight in town traipsing the streets with his horse and cart and a sack over his shoulder.

As his Regent Street business prospered, big-hearted Raggy was able to fund shows and refreshment at the Empire Theatre for wives and children of servicemen fighting in World War One.

Over the years he acquired numerous paintings and antiques which he framed or repaired in order to present to a variety of Swindon institutions.

Raggy also donated land to the council for recreational and educational purposes. The council in 1920 said ‘Thank you Raggy’ by making him – alongside GWR giant George Churchward – the first ever Freeman of Swindon.

He was, as Trevor Cockbill said in his book A Drift of Steam, “a generous and public spirited soul.” 

PRITCHARD, NORMAN (1918-2010)

Bold, audacious, unprecedented: for some it is a pioneering and dramatic answer to an increasingly difficult transportation problem; to others, it is simply to be avoided. 

The Magic Roundabout is Swindon’s most iconic structure, and the man largely responsible for its design was deputy borough engineer Norman Pritchard.

By 1970 the junction next to the County Ground where five key roads converged had become a nightmare of congestion and a solution was urgently required.

Pritchard worked with the Transport and Road Research Laboratory to crack the problem by placing five satellite roundabouts around a central roundabout.

The £62,000 “Experiment at the County Island Roundabout” was trialled in September, 1972 and dubbed by the Advertiser “Norman’s Magic Roundabout.”

RATCLIFFE, MARY (1926-)

Queen Victoria never visited the gritty, smoky railway town that was built during the great industrial era that still bears her name.

However, for around three decades Swindon had its own Queen Vic – acupuncturist and mother-of-three Mary Ratcliffe.

Mary first began impersonating the Empress of India when approached by railwaymen setting up a pageant in 1974. 

Over subsequent years ‘royal pretender’ Mary donned her regal regalia for countless fun days, fetes, carnivals and Swindon’s Old Town Festival.

She said of the often misunderstood monarch: “She was an extraordinary woman of great humour and great love.”  

REA, MINARD (1822-1857)

A great man of New Swindon during its formative years, Rea used his position as GWR works manager to improve the social and educational needs of the growing community.

It was Rea who persuaded the GWR boss Daniel Gooch to allow a company to be set up to build the Mechanic’s Institute, a pioneering, multi-faceted institution that fulfilled a number of roles. 

It became a library years before public libraries, and a community centre long before such important public facilities existed.

The structure also contained New Town’s first market, enabling families to obtain a supply of fresh produce locally and at reasonable prices.

Rea chaired the newly formed GWR Medical Fund that led to a cottage hospital – paid for and used by the people of New Swindon – which a century later became the blueprint for the National Health Service.

REA, STUART (c1820-1848)

Minard’s older brother Stuart was New Swindon’s first doctor, known locally and with great respect and affection as The Medical Man.

Setting up home and surgery in the Railway Village, the young surgeon dedicated his life to tackling the population’s often severe medical needs during a period when fever – sparked by insanitary and overcrowded living conditions – was rife.  

Historian Trevor Cockbill wrote: “Rea never withheld his services and was frequently out of pocket, his generosity being much admired by the men.”

When the Railway Village was the scene of a serious outbreak of tuberculosis Rea was in the thick of it treating patients.

As a result he contracted TB but even whilst sick continued to answer emergency calls before dying of the disease in his late 20s.

REID, BILL (1935-)

For many, booking The Beatles to play McIlroys ballroom on July 17, 1962 – paying the pre-fab four £27, ten shillings – would have been enough to secure Bill a place in this tally of 160 Swindon headline-makers.

But he went on to do so much more. With business partner John Norman, on March 29, 1973, he opened the Brunel Rooms at premises originally earmarked as supermarket storage space. 

Over the next 35 years, during which more than five million pairs of feet would pass through its familiar gold-coloured doors, the 1,400-capacity venue played a significant role in the social and cultural lives of countless Swindon people.

From disco to punk, rave to drums’n’bass, the Brunel swiftly and astutely adapted to the ever changing face of popular music.

At one time it was hailed by a magazine as among the world’s top 100 clubs, prompting the description “unique and rather wonderful.”

REILLY, NOEL (1946-2008)

It was a story that flashed around the globe… a backstreet hostelry in Swindon, UK, had hired the world’s first pub philosopher! Even the New York Times devoted hundreds of words to it. 

During his 11 years at the Beehive in Prospect Hill – from 1982 to 1993 – former Irish Army officer Noel Reilly made a huge, colourful, unforgettable impact. 

In his own words he introduced “high culture into what is perceived as a non-cultural environment.”  
This included lectures on art, a two hour rendition of Handel’s Messiah by the Swindon Choral Society and coach trips to productions of Shakespeare.

However the highlight of his incident-packed tenure was paying dissident Czech philosopher Dr Julius Tomin to give lectures – after which Noel staged a courageous protest in Eastern Bloc Prague against the stripping of Tomin’s citizenship.

 

To be continued...