Web Design Swindon Wiltshire
Approximate Population: 155,432
Swindon is a large town and unitary borough authority in the ceremonial county of Wiltshire in south west England. It is midway between Bristol, 40 miles (64 km) west and Reading, 40 miles (64 km) east. London is 81 miles (130 km) east.
In 1840, Isambard Kingdom Brunel chose Swindon as the site for the railway works he planned for the Great Western Railway. Eastwards towards London the line was gently graded, while westwards there was a steep descent towards Bath. Swindon was the junction for the proposed line to Gloucester.
Swindon Junction station opened in 1842 and until 1895 every train stopped for at least 10 minutes to change locomotives. As a result, the station hosted the first recorded railway refreshment rooms. There were three storeys to the station in 1842, with the refreshment rooms on the ground floor, the upper floors housing the station hotel and lounge. That building was demolished in 1972, and replaced by an office building with a single-storey modern station under it.
The town’s railway works were completed in 1842. The GWR built a small railway ‘village’ to house some of its workers. People still live in those houses and several of the buildings that made up the railway works remain, although many are vacant. The Steam Railway Museum now occupies part of the old works. In the village were the GWR Medical Fund Clinic at Park House and its hospital, both on Faringdon Road, and 1892’s Health Centre in Milton Road – which housed clinics, a pharmacy, laundries, baths, Turkish baths and swimming pools – was almost opposite.
Web Design Swindon Wiltshire
Web Design Manchester Greater Manchester
Approximate Population: 458,100
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester was granted city status in 1853. It has a population of 458,100, and lies at the centre of the wider Greater Manchester Urban Area, which has a population of 2,240,230, the United Kingdom’s third largest conurbation. Manchester has the second most populous Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) in the UK and the fourteenth most populated in Europe.
The name Manchester originates from the Ancient Roman name Mamucium, the name of the Roman fort and settlement, generally thought to be a Latinisation of an original Celtic name (possibly meaning “breast-like hill” from mamm- = “breast”), plus Old English ceaster = “town”, which is derived from Latin castra = “camp”. An alternative theory suggests that the origin is British Celtic mamma = “mother”, where the “mother” was a river-goddess of the River Medlock which flows below the fort. Mam means “female breast” in Irish Gaelic and “mother” in Welsh. Manchester is also the 10th most common place name in the United States.
Manchester has recently been regarded by the international press, British public, and government ministers as being the second city of the United Kingdom. A 2007 poll by the BBC placed it ahead of Birmingham and Liverpool in the category of second city of England, but also ahead in the category of third city. Neither categories are officially sanctioned, and criteria for determining what ’second city’ means are ill-defined.
Manchester is not the second largest city in size or population, but it is argued that cultural and historical criteria are more important. The BBC reports that redevelopment of recent years has heightened claims that Manchester is the second city of the UK. This title however, which is unofficial in the UK, has traditionally been held by Birmingham since the early 20th century.
Web Design Manchester Greater Manchester
Wiltshire | admin | 
March 11, 2010 1:15 pm | 
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