Urban Sketchers - December meeting

Last Saturday's meeting was held in Swindon's Railway Village Museum.  This is a Great Western Railway worker's terraced cottage, one of 300 built in the 1840's for the employees of Brunel's railway works.  All the cottages were taken over by the local council and renovation started in 1966, but this particular building was retained intact as a "living museum".

Records show that early residents included a couple with 8 children in 1851, and a family with 5 children 10 years later.  It must have been quite crowded and it is believed cooking at that time would have been done over an open fire in the living room - the lean-to kitchen was a later addition (probably around 1890) in what was the back yard.  Currently, the house interior has been furnished to represent the 1900s.

I am not sure how many of us turned up, possibly 10 or 12 - we were squeezed into odd corners around the house, together with 3 or 4 museum volunteers who were preparing for next weekend's seasonally decorated opening.  It was just as well some of our members were otherwise engaged with Christmas markets, etc., I don't think there would have been space for any more.

I was perched on my 3-legged sketching stool in the doorway of this bedroom.

Pen and watercolour
The child's cast iron cot was definitely a Health and Safety nightmare!

If you are in the area this coming weekend, the cottage is open and will be decorated for a Victorian Christmas.  It is well worth a visit.  34 Faringdon Road, Swindon, Wiltshire - Saturday and Sunday, 8th and 9th December, from 10 am to 3 pm - entrance is free.