About

More than fifteen years ago I began helping on guided cemetery walks alongside Great War authority, Mark Sutton and the Swindon Borough Rangers. The Rangers guided walkers through the then recently created Nature Reserve and talked about the work they were doing while Mark told the stories of the men who had served in the Great War and are buried in the cemetery.

In recent years I have been joined by Andy Binks, Chair of the Swindon Society and Noel Beauchamp, the man behind the Swindon Heritage Blue Plaques project. Together we continue to organise events at the cemetery including a Remembrance Day Service, exhibitions and our regular guided cemetery walks. We have even tried our hand at short video grave talks.

There is also a team of volunteer gardeners. This initiative began with a group of friends who had a special interest in the Commonwealth War Graves. The team has grown in number and they have extended their work and keep the area around other significant graves neat and tidy. You will notice mown paths across the cemetery linking the wargraves and making access easier.

My name is Frances Bevan and I have been researching and writing about Swindon for more than 30 years. Along with Graham Carter and Mark Sutton I co-founded a local history magazine Swindon Heritage published between 2013-2017. With the help of a network of local historians we published 20 quarterly editions and a Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary supplement – copies are still available at the cemetery chapel during our guided walks. I have written two books – Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon, the story of the role of women in the railway town from 1850-1950 published by Pen and Sword and The Ladies of Lydiard about the chatelaines who lived at Lydiard House, a Palladian mansion on the outskirts of Swindon, published by Hobnob Press. Both titles are available on Amazon.