An Empire Rises and Falls. The GWR empire that is of course. When the GWR Works opened on 2nd January 1843 it employed over 400 men supporting locomotive service and repair. Later, many more worked in engine assembly. A few short years later, by 1847, GWR’s working population had jumped to 1,800 men.
Meanwhile, across the London-Bristol mainline, 1841-42 saw the completion of the western half of the GWR’s Railway Village. That came in time to house the first influx of skilled workers with their families. This section comprised six terraced rows and 131 cottages, made up Bristol, Bath, Exeter and Taunton Streets.
The eastern half of the Railway Village, six more rows, followed in 1845-47 by way of London, Oxford, Reading and Faringdon streets. That brought the total number of cottages to 241.
This unprecedented growth in GWR’s working population continued. Accommodation could not keep pace with worker demand, so speculative estates of terraced houses sprang up in New Swindon.
A 12-hour day ruled by a hooter’s wailing
From 1867, one could hear the GWR’s steam whistle or hooter (replacing a large bell) summoning those early Victorian workers to a 6am start and dismissing them at 6pm. The Work’s hooter also sounded breaks, a 45-minute breakfast break at 8.15am and an hour’s break for dinner at 1pm.
In more recent times, the hooter sounded a shorter day. It called workers for a 7.30am start and a finish at 4.30pm, with a shortened 45-minute lunch (or dinner, if you prefer) break.
We cannot be sure that Victorian and Edwardian workers left the factory for breakfast. But it’s possible given that, for many, their homes were literally only steps away across the rail track. There’s no doubt that many did leave for dinner because their women folk (wife, sister, daughter, or a housekeeper for the more senior people) would have a main meal of the day waiting on the table.
We can be sure though that once the Railway Village tunnel entrance opened in 1870 hundreds and later thousands of men passed through it several times a day. Increasingly the men used newer entrances created along an extended boundary, as GWR’s factory estate and New Swindon grew. Often these entrances were located at a convenient spot close to new housing developments surrounding the expanding Works.
With the coming of the tunnel, the men no longer needed to make the hazardous crossing of the passenger railway lines. Well in theory at least.
Europe’s largest industrial centre
The GWR Works was responsible for an influx of over 10,000 new residents (workers and their dependents) in its first 50 years of operations. The GWR continued to concentrate most of its manufacture, repair, and servicing operations in respect of engines, wagons and passenger carriages in one location, Swindon. In that, it was unique for a large railway company of the day. By the end of the 1800s, despite economic downturns, the mighty GWR Works was the largest industrial complex in all Europe.
And it did not end there, 1900 saw work start on a massive new Locomotive erecting shop. Expansion was only checked by World War One. 1921 represented the heyday for GWR whose workforce then numbered 14,000.
As an empire rises so it falls
There followed a rapid decline in the GWR’s, then British Rail’s, working population based in Swindon. With much sadness, the famous Work’s hooter sounded for a final time at 4.30pm on 26th March 1986.
Blog post researched and written by Trust volunteer Mary Thornton.
Information believed to be correct at September 2024, Mechanics Institution Trust/Swindon Heritage Preservation.
Sources:
https://www.swindonweb.com/index.asp?m=8&s=116&ss=338&t=THE+HOOTER
Cattrell, J and Falconer K, 1995, Swindon: The Legacy of a Railway Town. HMSO ISBN 0 11 300053 7
