Local Studies, Floor 2, Swindon Central Library, Regent Circus, Swindon SN1 1QG

Email: localstudies@swindon.gov.uk

Follow us on Twitter (@SwindonLocal)

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/LocalStudiesSwindon

• Comprehensive collection of printed historical material for the whole Borough of Swindon and surrounding area.
• Covers Blunsdon, Chiseldon, Highworth, Inglesham, Liddington, Lydiard Tregoze, South Marston, Stanton Fitzwarren, Stratton St. Margaret, Wanborough and Wroughton.
• All formats: books, reports, pamphlets, scrapbooks, CDs, DVDs, VHS, ephemera.
• Genealogical resources, such as the GRO index of births, marriages & deaths in England & Wales (1837-1999), GRO Overseas Index, International Genealogical Index (LDS), and local census records with surname & street indexes.
• Local parish registers and Bishops Transcripts (from 1538).
• Free access to premium websites like Ancestry, Find My Past and the British Newspaper Archive.
• Local newsletters, parish magazines, and journals
• Newsletters for local firms like Austin Rover, British Rail, Garrard, Great Western Railway, Pressed Steel, Will’s, and Vickers.
• Complete bound runs of Link Magazine, Stratton Outlook, WAM and many more.
• Complete run of all local newspapers, notably the Swindon Evening Advertiser (from 1854), Football Pink (1929-1978), and the North Wilts Herald (from 1861)
• Microfiche and microfilm readers with printing facilities.
• Electoral rolls for Swindon and Thamesdown (1945 to date) and Poll Books from 1705.
• Street, trade & telephone directories (including Kelly’s 1848-1939.
• Every local phone book, Yellow Pages and Thomson’s Directory.
• Local author collection including Ralph Bates, Richard Jefferies and Alfred Williams.
• Local maps, including earliest Ordnance Survey, GOAD shopping maps, USSR “Red Army” maps, geological and political maps.
• Music CDs, cassette tapes and vinyl (LPs, 7” and 12”), posters and flyers from local bands, choirs and nightclubs.

We have built an extensive collection of local historic photographs, postcards, prints and slides. You can explore a selection of more than 9,500 here: www.flickr.com/swindonlocal

Includes photographs, portraits, and postcards from the 1840s to the 2020s. Our online gallery is free to view and fully searchable by name, date, place, street or other keyword.

Since 2010 we have hosted and run the Swindon & District History Network, an informal organisation connecting dozens of local history groups and societies, archives, museums, libraries and other heritage institutions. The S&DHN also includes numerous local authors, historians, and researchers. If your local heritage organization would like to find out more, please email localstudies@swindon.gov.uk