THE black and white image of the old Head Post Office at the top of Regent Circus is known to have appeared on old postcards and occasionally turns up in books about the history of the town, but a full-sized framed version was found by Rewind reader Tom Jones at one of the weekly car boot sales in Blunsdon.

Mr Jones, 81, is a local history enthusiast who has lived in Swindon since 1961.

Originally from Wales, the retired bus driver is the author of a book, About Llangynog and Neighbouring Villages.

The Head Post Office was built in 1900 and was demolished in the early 1970s. Its business was transferred to a new building in Fleming Way, which was itself demolished in 2005. Our photo of the newer building was taken a couple of years before the bulldozers moved in.

Mr Jones believes the person who framed the photo of the old one must have worked for the Post Office.

The image was captured by pioneering Swindon photographer William Hooper, who turned his hobby into a business after losing a leg in an accident Railway Works.

He and his wife, Mary, would travel from job to job on a motorcycle and sidecar, and they had a shop in Cromwell Road. Both lived until 1955.

The horse drawn cart and complete lack of motor transport in the photo of the Head Post Office suggest it was taken before World War One.

The 26-armed post on top of the building is a reminder of how much telegraph traffic such places had to handle in the days when telephones were cutting edge technology available only to the very few.