MY STREET CHALLENGE - QUEENS DRIVE

It was very foggy first thing this morning, so we decided to wait for some time before going out to take photographs today – sadly it still wasn’t that bright when we were out, but as we have a Blip friend visiting this afternoon, it had to be done. 
 
Not far from where we live is Queens Drive, a very busy dual carriagway about a mile long, which runs from the Magic Roundabout, on the outskirts of the town centre to Marlborough Road at the eastern end with houses set back from the road on both sides.  According to the book I have, this road was so named to celebrate the accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth II – once again for the eagle-eyed, I notice that this road sign does not have an apostrophe!
 
Travelling eastwards along this road, on the left hand side are Council properties, with private houses on the right hand side.  However, many of the Council houses are now privately owned, many of them will have been bought under the “Right To Buy Scheme”, a nationwide home ownership scheme that gave secure council tenants an opportunity to buy their home at a discounted price.  These houses can often be distinguished by the fact that they have brick facings on top of the former concrete panels, with which the houses were built in the 1950s and onwards.
 
When turning into Queens Drive from the town centre, you must first negotiate a large roundabout consisting of five mini-roundabouts arranged around a sixth central, anti-clockwise roundabout.  It is very near to the County Ground, the home of Swindon Town Football Club and it is named after the popular children’s television series, The Magic Roundabout.  The official name of the roundabout used to be County Islands, but it was changed in the late 1980s to match its popular name and has been called The Magic Roundabout ever since.  The same overall configuration has been in place for 44 years and in 2009, it was voted the fourth scariest junction in Britain.  Apparently, the roundabout is built over a section of the old Wilts and Berks Canal and there are plans to restore the canal through the town centre – I’m not quite sure how barges would negotiate this roundabout though and I’m not sure it will happen in my lifetime!
 
On the right hand side of the road, just past the Magic Roundabout are the premises of A.E. Smith & Son, Funeral Directors.  The original business was founded around 1880 by Henry Smith, a carpenter and joiner, and was situated in Gordon Road, Swindon.  In 1911, Henry lived in Clifton Street, close to the cemetery where he had spent so many hours of his working life.  He died in 1917 and one of his three sons, Albert Edward, took over the funeral business and in fact, when Henry was buried, the funeral was directed by his son.  A.E. Smith & Son moved to their present site in Queens Drive in the mid 1960s, where the premises have been expanded and refurbished as the business grew.  In 1976 it was acquired by Lodge Brothers, another family firm of funeral directors.  My claim to fame with regard to A.E. Smith & Son is that my cousin, Ian Hanks, is the Manager.  However, we have a friend, John Pearce, who is also a funeral director so I guess the best quote will win the business when my time (or Mr. HCB's) comes!  
 
A few years ago, St. Joseph’s Comprehensive School, which used to be in Queens Drive, was demolished and a new college was built on land owned by the Catholic Church on playing fields to the rear.  Since then a new ultra-modern school, Holy Cross Primary School, has been built in Queens Drive and opened its doors in 2014.  St. Joseph’s is now one of the first Catholic Academy Schools in the country to offer education from 4 years through to 19 years. 
 
The school is next to the South Western Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust Ambulance Station, which looks a rather run-down building, with the Fire Station being on the other side of the Magic Roundabout located in Drove Road.  The ambulance service now covers a very large area of 10,000 square miles and provides a wide range of emergency and urgent care services across a fifth of England, covering Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire, the former Avon area and Wiltshire, where Swindon is located.  The Trust employs more than 4,000 staff and has 96 ambulance stations, including the one in Queens Drive, three clinical control rooms, six air ambulance bases and two Hazardous Area Response Teams.  I must admit that until I did this research, I never realised what a large area the Trust covered.  As I was taking photographs, we saw the doors open and an ambulance, with its lights on and sirens blaring, came round travelling towards the Magic Roundabout – with a lot of traffic around at this time, it needed both and people do stop to let the ambulances into the flow of traffic.
 
The New College building in the photograph is not the same as the one our two sons attended in the 1980s.  The first college, a further and higher education institution, was built in about 1983 and both Mr. HCB and I remember that there was quite a lot of controversy at the time because it was a totally new concept.  Until then, young people aged 16 and over had stayed at their school in the Sixth Form, but when our older son was 16, he was able to go to New College, which meant that he could leave school - what joy!  There were, as far as we can remember only one or two schools in the area that retained their Sixth Forms, and some parents were anxious for their children to go to these schools so that their education would continue without the seeming disruption of changing.  However, our two sons were happy to go to college and as far as we can remember, enjoyed their time there – although we’re not sure they attended as much as they should have.  Our older son’s son now attends New College but because there are so many lectures taking place during the day, they don’t actually attend the same full-time hours nowadays.  How things change.
 
New College, which was rebuilt in 2003, 20 years after its formation, offers a wide range of full-time courses for about 3,000 16-18 year olds, 1,500 over 19s and has “enrichment programmes” for 14-16 year olds.  There are also a large number of courses for adults in all sorts of areas, and students can even study for a degree here.  The new building is much improved, with a larger library and computing area and many other additions including a Sports Centre.  Further extensions were added in 2005 and 2012, when a £10 million investment increased the capacity by a third.  In 2013, the College was awarded Grade 1 – Outstanding Status – by Ofsted - Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, the body which is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions including state schools and some independent schools. I never did know what that stood for – only that the very mention of the name strikes terror in the minds of teachers and pupils alike!
 
Just past the only petrol station in the area, and off the main road was Sussex Square and at its junction with Queens Drive there was once a public house, The Bulldog.  However, this and the area around was rather run-down so the pub was demolished along with the shops and the community centre that housed the library, with the result that the area has now been regenerated with a new supermarket and several other shops including a Community Shop and a library.  It looks very good and is a great improvement on what was there before.  Our claim to fame with regard to the community centre was that we had our wedding reception there in 1968 – the photograph showing us cutting our wedding cake was taken in the hall there.
 
Sadly in July of this year, the doors of Queens Drive Methodist Church closed, after 60 years of witness in the community of Parks and Walcot.  With an elderly congregation, the building was no longer suitable for their needs and was becoming difficult to maintain and would have been very expensive to modernise, so the decision was taken to close.  It has been used in the past for various community events including a Scout Troop, a place where people could give blood and an exam venue for students of New College, just along the road.
 
More than that, though, it was the base of the Christmas Care Centre, which every year provided a temporary shelter with warmth, food and a welcome over the Christmas period for lonely people and those living on the streets of Swindon and the surrounding area.  Over the festive period, about 100 volunteers give of their time and energy to provide a loving and welcoming place for many people who would otherwise have still been out on the streets.  It wasn’t just a spiritual place, but the hub of this community and although there is a thriving church, St. John’s, just along the road, it is always sad to see a church closing.  Fortunately, Christmas Care has found another home and hopefully the lonely and homeless people of Swindon will be well catered for again this coming Christmas.
 
“A people without the knowledge
     of their past history,
          origin and culture is like
               a tree without roots.”
Marcus Garvey
 
P.S.  Please click on this link to enable someone to have a free mammogram.  Thank you.