An exhibition celebrating 100 years of Eastcott history will be hosted at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery from tomorrow.

The Eastcott Community Organisation is working with the museum, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to bring a flavour of a variety of historical periods of the area.

The exhibition brings together old photos, documents and objects, as well as brand new art created by local primary schools. Volunteers at the organisation recently helped to put a book together about the history of the town and its famous rag and bone man, James 'Raggy' Powell.

He travelled Swindon in his horse and cart in the early 20th century as he bought and sold bric-a-brac to locals, before donating the land on which the Savernake Street Social sits to the Eastcott community in 1918.

Caroline Davies-Khan, chairman of the Eastcott Community Organisation, said: "We've worked with four primary schools, and they have produced artwork on four of the themes. One is the circuses, the next one is the invasion of crickets on the site in 1923 which is an interesting story. There's the theme of make do and mend in British restaurants because there was a British restaurant on site in the 1940s, and James 'Raggy' Powell. There's also a lot of material about when Savernake Street Social Hall was used as a civil defence training centre."

Speaking of the students' artwork, she said: "We're incredibly impressed by what they've done."

She added: "It will be really lovely for everyone to come and see, and it ties in nicely with the book we published."