Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s decision to site his new railway works in Swindon was the single most important event in the town's history and without this it would have remained an unremarkable market town.

The Swindon Railway Works was built by the Great Western Railway in the 1840s to build steam locomotives and rolling stock and by 1866 the Works was building one locomotive a week. At the height of its success and around the time that the National Trust came into being, the Works covered over 300 acres and employed around 13,000 people.

The area, now known as Churchward, was named after George Jackson Churchward CBE, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the GWR and first mayor of the borough of Swindon (created when the towns of Old and New Swindon were amalgamated in 1900). Churchward, who designed the City of Truro, (arguably) the first steam locomotive to exceed 100mph was ironically run over by a train near the works in 1933.

During the First World War work turned to the production of field artillery and the Works produced Howitzers. Again throughout the Second World War Swindon was involved in work for the military producing turret rings for tanks (the giant wheel lathes were ideal), landing craft and parts for midget submarines.

Swindon produced the first British diesel-hydraulic main-line locomotive in 1957 and the last British steam locomotive, the Evening Star in 1960.

In 1962 the building of new locomotives finished at Swindon, but repairs and carriage and wagon work continued although part of the works was sold off.

The remaining works finally closed in 1986 after more than 140 years of work and much of the site fell into disrepair.

© National Trust / Adam Moore

In 2000 the shopping centre of the Great Western Outlet Designer Village opened on the old site and HRH the Prince of Wales opened ‘STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway’ giving the area a much needed boost.

Now the site also hosts the National Monuments Records Office, English Heritage and of course the National Trust. Once again the area is a thriving and vibrant part of the town.