Cheers Raver. I mailed out an Annual Report from Dorcan and pretty sure it was GWC. Was the GPO there as well? It was a long time ago but it's frustrating that I can't remember the other place.
That was the Renault building on Thamesdown Drive I think you mean. It’s now an indoor golf centre with a bar. Edit: actually this is West Swindon, not North. Did you perhaps mean the Motorola building next to the A419? https://images.app.goo.gl/56NKHogaFDBzXG8N7
Well you all know my adopted neck of the woods really well! Dorcan is indeed where the Royal Mail Sorting Office is - it’s also where my football team used to train - on the Astro pitches at Dorcan Academy. I am genuinely impressed - I have to admit that until I moved here in 1997 I hadn’t even visited the town. I was 30 in 1997 and had never been here - not even to see City play.
Not sure if I’m understanding your conversation correctly, but a Royal Mail Sorting Office used to be at Hawksworth - near the Oasis leisure centre.
I like Swindon, especially the Old Town. Have stayed in the Marriott Hotel close to Pipers Way/Nationwide on several occasions for business and leisure and it's lovely. I also used to enjoy the Goddards Arms and the Thai restaurant on Victoria St and the slightly rougher Victoria and Longs Bar.
R&W, Raver and ROD. Thanks, I can now sleep at night - it was the Motorola Building and the GPO mailed the AR from Dorcan. PS, does anyone know the mailing house within 500 yards of the Motorola building ? Probably gone now.
You are one of a very rare breed of non-Swindonians who actually LIKE the place! I’ve grown to like it over the years - but I only came here for work and it’s an architectural monstrosity of a place mainly - and the local authorities are trying their best to destroy the few remaining nice structures that remain. It’s a very convenient for getting to other places though - and the surrounding countryside is breathtaking.
It's strange, but I was lucky enough to travel the world (and most of the UK) with work in my slightly younger days and I always tried to make the best of everywhere I went and stayed. I also went back to most places I'd been, (especially abroad), where I'd worked in my leisure time, often taking my long suffering Wife with me She actually likes Swindon too, along with Inverness, Nairn, Bruges, Paris & Grenoble in France, Krakow in Poland, and Delaware and Pennsylvania in the USA. I could never persuade her to go to India (which I'd absolutely loved when I was there), but I can see why a western woman finds some things there difficult to deal with.
Ahh OK as I was born in Bishopsworth (Highridge) 1960 but moved myself to Norwich for 8 years in 1980..so you were after my time!!
I was born in Dundry in 1967. I moved to Bishopsworth when I got married in 1988. I do miss the old house - we did it up completely to our own taste and then moved! Typical!
Spent half of my childhood up on the 'Tump' as it was called at Maes Knoll. But blimey that lane up to the top was and still is both narrow and steep. Then the walk across a couple of fields to the 'Tump' itself before the final climb. But what a view it still gives people and I look at it every morning to see what the weather is doing there !
Hi RP, like you I am struggling to remember all the old print business and mailing houses that have come and gone. However I remember BCA ( Book Club Associates ) used to have a place in Swindon that closed probably at least 15 years ago. Just googled the address and it was Hargreaves Rd, Groundwell Industrial Estate, Swindon SN25 5AZ so not far from the Motorola building - could it be BCA you are trying to think of?
Ahh, the memories. I spent a lot of my childhood climbing up there. Sometimes we went on our bikes and attempted to ride down. Scary.
Raver, many thanks. It wasn't BCA, I've worked with them since, but it was definitely Groundwell Industrial Estate - that bit I can remember.
Think you have probably stumped me then RP, if you find out who it was i will almost certainly remember them, probably used them as well
