A Man With A Stick

Last month Andy Binks gave a most unusual and entertaining talk at the monthly meeting of the Swindon Society. Intriguingly entitled ‘A Man With A Stick’ few were in on Andy’s secret mission. And on the night he made it all look deceptively easy, belying the leg work, not to mention the map reading and research involved in putting together this hour long presentation.

The basis of Andy’s talk was a set of 800 Ordnance Survey revision photographs deposited at Swindon Central Library. Each tiny photograph shows ‘a man with a stick’ at specific locations across Swindon.

Taken during the early 1950s these photographs are a unique record of Swindon’s architectural history – when the town stood at a crossroads (makes a change from a roundabout) still surrounded by buildings from the Victorian era. Landmarks long since gone are caught in the middle distance while new housing developments are caught on camera, sometimes before the mortar in the brickwork had properly dried.

Andy had travelled across Swindon on his trusty stead, otherwise known as his bike, attempting to capture the same scenes recorded by the man with a stick. Putting his own personal slant on the proceedings Andy had his audience laughing out loud. But there is a more serious side to the man with a stick.

These photos, which had once lain unviewed and unappreciated in a local government office, are now available on request in the Swindon Collection, Central Library and eventually will join the growing archive of online images on the Local Studies flickr website.

What is the Local Studies flickr website? I can’t believe you just said that. Log on to www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal/, but be warned – it is compulsive viewing.

If you have any photographs you think might be of local interest why not contact the Local Studies department at Central Library who will scan and return them to you.

And if you think the Swindon Society might be just up your street come along to next week’s meeting on Wednesday February 9th at the Broad Green Centre, 7.30 pm - for more details log on to http://swindonsociety.co.uk/contact.htm.

Sadly you’ve missed the premiere of A Man with a Stick, but watch this space for further details of the next performance.

all photographs are courtesy of the Swindon Collection, Central Library.

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