Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 23/04/2020

EMLYN SQUARE
SU 1484 NE
SWINDON
6/83
No. 14 (Cricketers Public House)
17.2.70
GV II

In order to house the workforce for the new Great Western Railway works, IK Brunel designed a new village to the south of the railway line. Brunel’s early layout drawings of 1840 show a grid similar to the final plan of 12 terraces in six blocks on either side of the High Street (from 1893 Emlyn Square). Construction started in 1842, and by 1855 most of the buildings had been completed. Houses and cottages of different types were built, as well as lodging houses. Brunel himself designed only the first block of 1842 (4-25 Bristol Street); as it was visible from the railway line, this is in a more decorative style than the others.
The financial difficulties of the contractors JD & C Rigby, who undertook to build 300 cottages but only completed 130, delayed the completion of the village until the 1850s. The cottages to the west of Emlyn Square were built first (1842-1843), followed by those on the east side (1845-1847). The end blocks towards Emlyn Square, containing corner shops on the ground floor, were built in 1845-1847, and the remainder, mostly end blocks on the outer ends of the streets, were built in 1853-55. In 1966, the local authority acquired the cottages from British Rail and restored them. The village is one of Britain’s best-preserved and architecturally most ambitious railway settlements.

Public house, 1846 for Great Western Railway Company. Limestone ashlar quoins and coursed rubble. Slate roof. Three storey corner block, three bays to Exeter Street, corner splay and one bay to Emlyn Square with attached two-storey section with door. Ground floor C19 four-light window with columnar glazing bars and basket arches. Door in corner splay, now blocked. Four-pane sashes to first floor with label mould. Keyed oeil- de-boeuf in gables. Attached section of three-bays, perhaps originally built as dwelling, now part of public house. Chamfered plinth and windows with labels and four-pane sashes to ground floor, sixteen-pane sashes above.

Listing NGR: SU1455084748

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26274469

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)