SWINDON has always been a place of commerce just as it has always been a place of invention and innovation. When the Great Western Railway came in the 19th Century, it brought with it more prosperity than the relatively sleepy little market town of Swindon had ever known.

We have never looked back since then.

The population has expanded many times since, and the towns prosperity has made it a popular location for people and companies seeking locations for new shops.

Some of those shops remain for long enough to become loc al institutions, and part of the collective memory of generations of Swindon people.

Arguably the best known, and certainly the oldest shop in Swindon, is Deacons the Jewellers in Wood Street, Old Town.

Queen Victoria had been on the throne for little more than a decade when the business was founded in 1848, and it has maintained a high profile ever since.

Some 18 years after the Deacons first opened its doors, Gilberts of Swindon was founded as a seller of fine furnishings and carpets, and has been a constant feature in the town ever since.

Just as generations of couples have gone to deacons for their wedding bands, so they have gone to Gilberts when the time has come to furnish their homes.

Of course, not all of the old Swindon businesses have managed to last the distance. McIlroy's, for example, is remembered by all but the newest Swindonians. However, like to many other fine old department stores, it didn't make it to the new century.

At the other end of the age spectrum for shops, new ones open almost constantly across the Swindon area, their owners drawn by the go-getting ethos of the town. No trend has ever gone unexplored, no new line has ever been unobtainable, and it looks as though Swindon shoppers in the years and decades to come will be even more satisfied than their predecessors.