Swindon Railway Works Hooter

One of the memories of growing up in Swindon in the 1960's was the sound of the Railway Works Hooter. This hooter sounded to call the men and women to work in the mornings and at the end of the lunch hour. It was heard all over Swindon partly because it was loud enough but mainly because in those days there just wasn't the background noise that is commonplace today.

I lived in North Street and it was easy to hear the sound of the Speedway Bikes racing at the Abbey Stadium about four miles as the crow flies. 

The Swindon Railway Works hooter blew for the last time at 4.30pm on 26 March 1986, for many Swindonians the fact that the hooter would not be heard again suddenly brought home the realisation that the historic works were dead. For over a century the hooter had been part of everyday life and it was sadly missed

The original hooter replaced the very first means of summoning the workers which was a large bell fixed to the roof of one of the Railway Shed. However by 1867 the works had grown and men lived further away so this was replaced by the first hooter. The GWR replaced this bell with the first hooter that was so loud that it could be heard for several miles and sounded for a whole ten minutes at 5:20am upsetting many local residents that were not connected to the Railway Works especially one that lived at Lydiard House Lydiard Tregoze. Viscount Bolingbroke complained to the GWR who promptly replaced the loud hooter with an even louder one, the one that survived to the works closure in 1986. The Hooter was in fact two Ships Horns that were powered by steam. 

 

I came across this sound file a few years ago and cannot remember where or whose copyright it is so it it is yours please let me know.