GWR children had one day a year that was dedicated to them.

It was the annual fête and for 71 years it had been the day red starred on everyone’s calendar in Swindon.

It was nothing less than spectacular for the children involved, and left a lasting impression in the memories of those that attended them. It was an idea that was first started by a committee in 1868 in the Mechanical Institute. It was an immediate success and thereafter became for many an annual ritual right up to 1939, when it stopped as war broke out in Europe.

Its organisation must have been an epic task, which would have been easy to railway staff. There were 38,000 people attending the event in Faringdon Road Park – now that must have been a squeeze!

When there they consumed three tons of cake and drank almost 6,000 pints of tea.

There were sideshows and fairground rides as well, dotted around the park, along with dancing and other competitions. At the end of the day there was a traditional fireworks display.

It must have been a real mass invasion as the gates opened and people rushed in to have a go on the amusement machines and penny slots.

It was an event that was run by volunteer railway staff and every child attending would get one free ride and, as Wurzel Gummidge would say, a slice of cake and cup of tea.

I am sure that Victorian, and Edwardian Swindon, would have been entertained by several bands and other players.

This was the real community heart of Swindon – one that was not a display, or of what local people thought they could do, or would like to do. No aspirations here; just get on and do it in typical Swindon style. And style it did have in barrel loads.

Along with Trip Weeks, it was the highlight of the year. Local towns like Marlborough may have had the Mop Fair, but this was Swindon’s fête, and it knocked spots off any other local event.

If the GWR and the people of Swindon did it; then anything else was second best.

Today youngsters would say it was done with “attitude”, but that attitude had made Swindon and the GWR, so running a children’s fête, was no big deal.

After the war, as nationalisation began and British Railways absorbed the GWR, it never resurrected, which probably goes to prove what a mammoth task it actually was to organise.