Cambria Place - separated from the main Railway Village by the now busy Faringdon Road, it was once very much part of the railway community. A part of 'hidden' Swindon tucked away at the very heart of the town. See the entry on Chapels for more on the fascinating history of this little community of houses - originally named after the Cambrian Mountains of Wales.
Cambria Place was a later addition to the Railway Village built in the late 1860s - it is now in the part of a busy residential area in the centre of Swindon with a busy one-way traffic system running ajacent to it. Back in the 19th and early 20th century the long back gardens would have been used as small holdings for livestock, fruit-trees and vegetables. As can be seen in the foreground of the above picture, one of the gardens is still used to raise a few free range chickens. The gardens back onto what would have once been the Swindon canal. Although a small section remains, this part of the canal has now been filled in and is a footpath to the town's main shopping centre. This little community was the first in Swindon to have piped running water.
