PRECISELY 48 years and two days ago shoppers could stroll the broad expanse of Regent Street, crossing at will from one window display to another.

Had they tried that a day earlier, though, they would have risked being flattened by a car, a bus or a lorry.

The weekend just gone marked the anniversary of a major change in the centre of Swindon.

We wrote on that Saturday in 1967: “Swindon today became only the third town in the country to make its main shopping street a pedestrian precinct.

“Pedestrians took over Regent Street and Bridge Street as far as Fleet Street at 10am and it will be all theirs until 6pm - this and every Saturday.

“A team of eight policemen and several traffic wardens started putting motorists on a 30-minute waiting time in the two streets at 9am and by 10 o’clock the street was clear of traffic.

“Three metal barriers were erected by council workmen at the end of Bridge Street about three minutes to ten and then the streets began to clear.”

There were also barriers on other streets feeding into Regent Street, and the College Street junction alongside what was then the Wiltshire Bacon Company had been sealed off altogether, ready for pedestrianisation to become permanent.

We said: “Initial reactions by shoppers were amusing. Some people just stood in the middle of the street with a ‘victor-over-the-motorist’ air.

“Others walked down the middle of the streets as though they were leading a column of troops in a services parade.

“Those annoying conversations by pram pushing mothers could now take place in the middle of the road instead of on narrow, congested pavements.

“Some people seemed to be completely bewildered with the whole thing and could only express words of wonderment when speaking to an Advertiser reporter.

“One woman was far more down to earth. ‘Now we want bigger and better shops to go with it,’ she said.”