The (1986) film charting the remarkable story of Swindon, from its “Wild West’ beginnings following Brunel and Gooch’s decision to site a factory in the open fields below the then tiny market town which back then was smaller than larger towns at the time like Highworth, to the fastest growing town in Europe.
The fascinating film is a comprehensive account of Swindon’s history from the coming of the Great Western Railway in 1841. This remarkable telling of Swindon’s history is interwoven with expert accounts and fascinating archive film as well as recent footage, much of it never seen before.
Martin Perry, a British Film Institute funded film-maker, hailing from Herefordshire came to Swindon in early 1980 where soon after he said he conceived the idea of Railway Town: “Even though Swindon had moved a long way from railways in the post-war period, the legacy of the works was deeply embedded in the town, yet there was a sense that closure was on the cards.
I started to document the railway heritage by interviewing scores of factory workers, filming inside the works and collecting archive material.”
After the BFI funding ended, The then Thamesdown Council appointed Perry as media arts officer where he set up Thamesdown Media Arts, later renamed Create Studios, and continued a leading role with pioneering community TV station Swindon Viewpoint.
Perry’s work on chronicling the Swindon Railway Works came together in the highly regarded DVD Fire & Steel, telling the story of life inside the railway works, but Perry to take this further and show how much the Swindon of today is underpinned by its history and how this frames the future saw that the seeds for a much more comprehensive account of the towns history that led to Railway Town.
View the Railway Town trailer: Click HERE.
Railway Town is screening as part of events commemorating the closure of the Swindon Railway Works in 1986.
Date: Friday 27th March
Time: 7pm
Tickets: £8 (Click HERE).
Entertainment Swindon 
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