A local artist has transformed a prominent Old Town wall by creating a mural encapsulating parts of Swindon's history.

Sarah Harris was commissioned by the landlord to paint a mural on the wall of his Belle Vue Road building after he became fed up of tagging.

The scene she designed and painted features pigs being taken to the old livestock market, a tram running up Victoria Hill, a moonraker from the Swindon legend, Christ Church and the Domesday Book of 1086 which mentions Swindon.

Sarah completed her first paid commission in five days. She has already had a lot of encouragement from residents and people approaching her for further work.

The statistician, who has lived in Swindon for 21 years, said: "I've had great feedback. It's a busy junction so people waiting to turn wind their windows down to speak to me, beep their horns and put their thumbs up.

"I've not had a single negative comment and it's all been positive so far which is brilliant.

"Someone stopped me and said "thank you for doing this".

"The local residents seem so happy and someone who owned a cafe said she would give me a free coffee which was lovely.

"The kids like the pigs and I've had two local historians come down.

"It's a real challenge being paid to paint a particular theme and getting the list of what the client wanted but that was the fun part.

"Designing it into a cohesive full pictures was the bit I really enjoyed the most and just planning it all out."

The Doomsday Book of 1086 records Swindon as a settlement and Swindon's tramways operated in the 1900s.

The artwork includes a nod to the Moonrakers legend with a smuggler raking the water in the moon's reflection.

According to the legend, the moonrakers, who were smuggling brandy, were caught by excisemen. The smugglers told them they were raking the water because they thought the moon's reflection was cheese.

Sarah said: "They pretended they were stupid which shows how Swindon people think on their feet."

The boy chasing the pigs is inspired by Sarah's neighbour who is now in his seventies. He used to live on Drove Road where there was a slaughterhouse so if any of the pigs escaped, the children would chase them and get a shilling for bringing them back.

She added: "I tried to make sure the pigs are happy even though they're on their way to the market because I'm a vegetarian."