im just collecting the material and dont want to influence its outcome,..... but ive been looking up facts about swindon (well looked it up on wikipedia, so i can get a few ideas about the city).
its got some good claims to fame.....ive copy and pasted them down below. sorry if i have left any glaring ommissions...
It is referred to in the Domesday Book as Suindune, a name believed to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon words swine and dun meaning 'pig hill', or possibly 'Sweyn's hill' where Sweyn would be the local landlord.
In 1840, Isambard Kingdom Brunel chose Swindon as the site for the large Swindon railway works he planned for the Great Western Railway.
From 1871, GWR workers each week had a small amount deducted from their pay and put into a fund – its doctors could prescribe them or their family members free medicines or send them for medical treatments. ,From the opening in 1892 of the Health Centre, a doctor could also prescribe a hair cut – and even a bath – for a patient. The cradle-to-grave extent of this service was later used as a blueprint for the NHS.
In 1997 Swindon was named the fastest growing settlement in the world.
The town itself has a total area of approximately 40 km²
It offered the aspiring poor the UK's first lending library, and a range of improving lectures, access to a theatre and worthy pastimes from ambulance classes to xylophone lessons.
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Swindon include - Coate Water, Great Quarry, Haydon Meadow, Okus Quarry and Old Town Railway Cutting.
More people have joined the Hare Krishna movement in Swindon than in any other English town.
Swindon is considered to be an almost exact microcosm of the whole United Kingdom in its demographic make-up, to the extent that it has been used for market research purposes and trials of new products and services. One example was the ill-fated Mondex electronic money.
In May 2007, 65.3% of households in Swindon had broadband Internet access, the highest in the UK
A 2007 report by Endsleigh Insurance concluded that the town was the second safest place to live in the UK,
Major employers include the Honda , BMW/Mini,Motorola, Dolby Labs and retailer W H Smith, Intel has its European head office on the south side of the town and Lucent Technologies head office is on the west side. Nationwide Building Society and Zurich Financial Services, and pharmaceutical companies such as Canada's Patheon and the US-based Cardinal Health's . Several of the UK's Science Research Councils have their head office here. Swindon is also the location of two Tyco Electronics sites. Also household products division of consumer goods supplier Reckitt Benckiser – best known for dishwasher detergents, disinfectants and cold remedies.
The town is notable for its roundabouts, to the extent of selling yearly calendars featuring a different roundabout for each month] The best known roundabout is the 'Magic Roundabout' at the junction of Drove Road, Queens Drive and Fleming Way near the County Ground.
Between 1973 and June 2000 Swindon had its own cable television channel. At first, it was Swindon Viewpoint – a community television project run mainly by enthusiasts from the basement of a Radio Rentals branch on Victoria Road
Museum of Computing Oakfield Campus, University of Bath in Swindon, Marlowe Avenue.
swindon is twinned with Salzgitter, Germany (1975),Ocotal, Nicaragua (1990),ToruĊ, Poland (2006),Chattanooga, USA (2006)
TV detective series A Touch of Frost starring David Jason is often set in or around Swindon (called "Denton" in the series)
Noel Gallagher, the lead singer of the rock band Oasis chose the name of his band after visiting Swindon's Oasis swimming pool and leisure centre in 1993
The rock band XTC, the notable rock-pop group formed in 1977, are from Swindon. Also members of related act Shriekback. XTC's co-founder guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and graphic artist Andy Partridge still lives in the town.
Supertramp keyboard player and singer Rick Davies comes from Swindon. The sleeve art for Breakfast in America shows the band's members in an American diner reading their hometowns' newspapers, Davies is reading Swindon's Evening Advertiser (since renamed as the Swindon Advertiser).
Moody Blues' vocalist, lead guitarist and songwriter Justin Hayward is from Swindon. He wrote their signature song Nights in White Satin.
Electronic music outfit Meat Beat Manifesto, were formed in Swindon in 1987.
.........i already knew diana dors (or fluck as was her real name ) came from here, shes me favourite film star. i highly recommend her autobiography to any one, tis callled dors by diana....you can get it off ebay intermitantly. its a fantastic story, a proper greek tragidy full of characters,and realy seedy.....but in a good beating the odds type way. and she abosoluty refuses she could have been wrong at any stage.
desmond morris i knew about too. he appears in the diana dors book (and the other ,more trashier a-z guides...believe me when i say i know a lot about the dors....i also reccomend never on a sunday, but only if you have read dors by diana, and are prepared to use it as a factual guide to wether diana was telling the truth or not)...any way this is about desmond....
hes done a lot to bring us down to the level of the ape...which is a good thing......but thats all i know....
xtc i knew,tho never realy listened to a lot of their music, it is one of those bands (english psycedilia..ive been told)..ive been meaning to...could only name senses working over time,or making plans for nigel...and i know they've made about 100 albums with loads of bamds offshoots like the kings of the statusphere(???)....dave loves em and thats good enough for me.....i didnt know about justin hayworth out of the moody blues....tho i love his work on War of the Worlds....but Knights in white satin (which he wrote) is my least favourate piece of music ...it actualy makes me feel sick..it abosulutly terrorises me...that bit where it goes ..cos i love you (yahh ahhh)..horrible...
railways i sort of knew about...if i was asked about swindon i probly would use my knowlegde of the industrial revolution to half offer the fact it was a railway town.......
roundabouts...i saw a postcard with that roundabout in it.....
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