Report from Community Council Meeting 5th Nov. 2008

We are trying to research the history and heritage of the Broadgreen Area. There are a number of other strands to this.
1. Drove School, the year 5 pupils will be running a small research project to identify the history of the street names in the area. There are basically three groups, GWR railway engineers, senior Politicians, and West African names it is hoped that the young people will be able to discover how the names were allocated 100 years ago and if there were any reasons why these themes were chosen.
2. Our partnership with Swindon 105.5, Community Radio. John Taylor is going around interviewing people who live, work and visit the area and can tell a story about their life and experiences in Broadgreen. John thanked John Phillips, Stella Edwards and Cluniford Mason for their interviews, that have already been broadcast, Rebecca McIntosh and her friend Mavis who talked about the move from Jamaica to the UK and ultimately to the Broadgreen Area. We now have a very strong partnership with the station and if anyone has a topic they would like to be discussed, then please contact John, or Karen Leakey. We want to develop Broadgreen’s leadership in this radio project, which is called Swindon Voices. The interviews are broadcast on Tuesdays from around 4pm; you can also listen live on the Internet.
3. Some people recently took a trip to Liddington; there were 2 groups, a family and the Caribbean group. The family group went there to see if they could find out more about a newspaper report from 1919 about 3 lads from Medgbury Road who had been killed in an accident whilst out walking at Liddington. Unfortunately the Parish Council minutes that would record the details have been transferred to the Wilts. and Swindon Archive in Chippenham, but it is hoped a trip there will soon be organised. Some people in the village suggested that the accident might have actually occurred in Chiseldon, as there were ranges there from WW1.
We have now purchased a 3 in one scanner, copier and printer, from money raised from the sales of paint, so it is requested that once again that people search through their things, for photos and documents relating to this area, and we will be able to digitise them there and then. We do not want to keep your treasured possessions.
Some time towards the end of January, we hope to put on a small exhibition with what we have acquired.