SHE put Swindon on the map as the darling of the silver screen, and now a team of historians are keen to return the favour and put the Swindon Siren on the map of the town with her very own blue plaque.
Swindon Heritage has managed to secure permission to install a blue plaque marking the building where blonde bombshell Diana Dors was born in 1931. But like the whereabouts of the large fortune left to her son in her will, the location of the new plaque remains a mystery – for the time being at least.
To get the project off the ground, Swindon Heritage has called on residents across the town to help them meet the costs of having the plaque cast and put in place by launching a crowdfunding page.
If the £380 required can be raised the prestigious plaque would be unveiled by the end of the year, coming hot on the heels of the town’s first blue plaque, unveiled in honour of suffragette Edith New in March on North Street. Two further plaques honouring Second World War heroes the Starr brothers that were put in place at The Savoy on Regent Street last month.
Swindon Heritage researcher Noel Beauchamp said that now it was time for the town to pay tribute to Diana, although he remained tight-lipped at who the guest of honour to unveil it would be and even where the plaque would be installed.
“It is not the house that most people would think,” he said. “Most people will think it is on Marlborough Road, but it is going to go where she was born, which Swindon Heritage has discovered recently.
“If you ask anyone to name someone famous who came from Swindon the name Diana Dors comes up. So many people claim to have gone to school with her or known her – I think half the town would claim to have some sort of connection to her.
“Diana was someone who was famous for being famous – but in a very positive way. Diana really was the real deal – she was a superstar of the silver screen.”
Often referred to as the British Marilyn Monroe, Diana became an icon of her time before her untimely death from cancer in 1984 at the age of 52.
Noel said it was fitting that the town now paid tribute to Diana in this way. The only traces of her legacy in the town are currently marked with a statue at Shaw Ridge and a bronze bust created by Enid Mitchell, currently on display at the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery on Bath Road.
To make a donation towards the plaque visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/diana-dors
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