The settlement of New Swindon was at bursting point from the moment it was built.

Only eight per cent of its occupants were born in Wiltshire and it was clear that more space was needed.

And it needed more than just cottages for workers. It was a wild west frontier town in every sense of the meaning.

Residents demanded shops and other facilities and, possibly with worries about retaining the people the GWR had brought into the works, it began to help individuals and groups to secure facilities and shops.

Rochdale may well have been the place where the Co-operative stores were founded but Swindon was not far behind it with a General Stores and later a bakery founded by a co-operative of GWR workers.

There was also a slaughter house and laundress.

The pressure and overcrowding were causing some real problems for the workers and the GWR Board.

It is well known that none of the GWR foremen lived in the Railway Village, which was probably due to the fact that they were very well paid and had been sought out by Gooch personally.

These highly skilled men had a status, which also meant that they would be sought after by other companies so holding on to them in a sparse new town surrounded by fields was a priority.

The GWR also found out that being a landlord was important too, keeping staff happy by repairing cottages and providing other facilities and cheap coal was also a consideration, in retaining them.

It employed Edward Streeter, a contractor from Bath, to maintain the cottages and to add improvements like drainage and refuse clearance.

This was instigated after people had petitioned the General Board of Health to apply the 1848 Public Health Act to the whole of the parish, including New Swindon.

The GWR had opposed this and it is the first real case of Old Swindon versus New Swindon.

The Public Health Act was eventually applied to the whole town in 1864 but, before that there were outbreaks of typhoid typhus fever.

More 400 people had the illness in one outbreak, and 14 subsequently died.

It was said the problem was exacerbated by stagnant pools of which overflowed from cess pits in the village.

As the clay in this part of Swindon is 60ft deep so water fails to soak away. Water was supplied to every house in 1853, but it was canal water from the Wilts and Berks Canal.

Though it was boiled and filtered through sand and charcoal it still had impurities, and an inspector declared it unfit for drinking.

Men and women usually drank beer as the water was impure, but the children were given the water, or milk, which was not pasteurised, so child fatality rates were high during this period.

In 1866 Swindon Water Company was set up to supply fresh drinking water and the GWR owned 50 per cent of the shares.

The GWR company also spent £2000 paving the back yards, footpaths and alleyways, to prevent the pools forming.

And deeper drainage was installed.

The formation of the New Swindon Improvement Company by Gooch, was floated in 1853, but that’s another story.