The South Swindon Parish covers a wide expanse of Swindon including the town centre, the popular Old Town area and as far as Coate Water and Badbury Wick to the east.
The Parish is home to three urban parks, Town Gardens, Queen’s Park and GWR Park.
Town Gardens is a traditional Victorian style park that remains at the very heart of the local community of Old Town and has a rich combination of historical and cultural heritage along with traditional landscape features.
The gardens have a secluded and peaceful atmosphere, largely due to the abundant tree canopy that screens the area from the surrounding residential streets and splits it into a series of discreet gardens. Regular concerts and open-air cinema events are held in the summer time in the art deco Bowl.
Queen’s Park is a place where cultivated plants and trees are grown in natural surroundings with an atmosphere of freedom and space characterised by glades and vistas created by the non-symmetrical planting of trees and shrubs.
The historic GWR Park played a big part in the social life of the Railway Villagers and now occupies a special place in the history of Swindon.
It was a natural leisure place for the people of the Railway Village and the surrounding area for both young and old. GWR Park was a place for local people to meet and pass the time, for children to play, to have a picnic or just to sit in the sun and watch a game of cricket or to enjoy the ornamental gardens. Today the 3.95-hectare park is still a well-used public open space.
The South Swindon Parish is also home to the historic Railway Village. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself, the terraced cottages were built to house the railway workers and although modernised inside are still as they appeared in his time.
Finally, for those who love to shop ‘til they drop, the Parish boasts the town-centre Brunel Shopping Centre and the very popular Designer Outlet, the latter housed in the beautifully conserved GWR works.