Looking at the Walcot East estate today it is hard to imagine that once all that stood here were two farms – Upper and Lower Walcot Farms.

This all changed when Swindon was declared a designated overspill area for London during the 1950s and the two Walcot Farms and surrounding land were acquired by Swindon Corporation, becoming part of the thousand acres of land purchased across the town and used to build housing. The building of low-cost housing in Walcot quickly began on the heavy clay land which had once formed part of the Goddard Estate.

Many people moved into the houses whilst the estate was being built around them and scaffolding planks were used as temporary paths. The new residents had to rely on a travelling Co-op van in order to purchase goods because there were no shops close by.

Alf Allen and his family moved from London to Swindon in 1956.

Alf, who passed away in 2001, wrote about moving to a newly- built house on the estate in his autobiography.

“I registered at the Labour Exchange in Tooting for a job in an ‘overspill town’ and after several months on the waiting list and interviews at two different Employment Offices in London I was finally offered a job at the Vickers Armstrong aircraft factory in Swindon,” he wrote.

“I was told that a council house went with the job and I wouldn’t have to report to work until after I had moved my family into the new house at Swindon.

“Shortly afterwards I received notification from Swindon Borough Council that a house on the new Walcot Estate was now available for me and that I should arrange to move in as soon as possible. Consequently I left my job at Mitcham and arranged for a removal firm to take us to Swindon.

“We had no opportunity to view the house; we didn’t even know where Swindon was but, fortunately, the removal men did.”

Alf, wife June, and son Michael, moved to a terraced house in Hamilton Close. Many of the nearby houses were still being built and only a few were occupied.

Alf said: “From an upstairs window the outlook was just an enormous building site in a sea of mud, but to us it was home and Michael, then three years old, absolutely loved it. He had never had his own garden before, and it was a job to get him to come indoors, as he was content to sit on a pile of bricks with his wellington boots on, even when it was raining.”

Shortly after moving to Walcot Alf – an ex-tuberculosis patient – was referred by the site medical officer at his new employers Vickers, to the Swindon Chest Clinic in order to make sure that he was fit for work.

Unfortunately an X-ray showed a problem on his left lung and he was admitted to Gorse Hill Sanatorium.

Alf was finally discharged from hospital six months later, returning home to Walcot where he then became an active member of the Walcot branch of the British Legion.

He said: “I attended my first meeting of the British Legion on 19th June 1957, held in the newly-built Community Centre on the Walcot Estate, quite near to where we lived. The mere handful of members that attended those early meetings was soon increased to several hundred as the population of the Estate grew. The boundaries of Walcot were now joined by two new Estates, Park North and Park South. Our branch of the British Legion soon took advantage of this opportunity to serve more of the expanding population and the responsibility it involved: the branch was renamed ‘Walcot and Parks’ branch. We immediately sought the necessary permission to build our own headquarters and club.”

The family moved from Walcot in 1960 after Alf transferred from a position at Plessey in Cheney Manor to Havant.

Sussex Square – a paved shopping precinct comprising of fourteen shops with maisonettes above – was opened in 1958. A community hall and branch library adjoined the shopping facilities and the church of St Andrew, also built in 1958, can be seen from the square. A petrol station and public house were also built nearby.

Walcot Secondary School, where New College now stands today, opened its doors to pupils in 1958 with Mountford Manor School – first known as Walcot East Primary School, opening shortly afterwards. The primary school still serves the estate today taking pupils from the age of three to eleven.

Coun Mavis Childs moved to Frobisher Drive, Walcot, along with her husband Gordon and son David in 1961.

She said: “Walcot was a friendly area where neighbours pulled together to help and support each other. I brought my family up on the estate and made many lifelong friends here who I am still in touch with today. I have so many happy memories of my time in Walcot. “We never locked our doors when we went out and I knew all of the local shopkeepers. Back then we had a chemist, greengrocers, hardware store, fish mongers and two drapers, as well as the local Coop. “Walcot was like its own little village. I remember when we had our own midwives on the estate and our own police officers who lived here in police houses. “There was also a council repairs’ office, which was in Bailey’s Farm House. I remember a local council plumber who everyone loved called Harry Edwards – Harry Edwards Court in Raleigh Avenue was named after him.”

Mavis, who became a councillor in 1996, was originally asked to stand in Chiseldon Ward.

“The party first asked me to stand in Chiseldon and then West Swindon but I declined and asked for Walcot. I knew so many of the Walcot people and my heart was here. I have now been serving Walcot for 14 years and I think that the people of Walcot East and West are fantastic,” she said.

l Sources for this article include British History Online and My Family History Annals by Alf Allen