From boom to bust

3:18pm Thursday 22nd May 2008

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A snapshot of Chippenham's Victorian manufacturing history opens on June 20.

The exhibition, Made In Chippenham, will be held at at the town's Museum and Heritage Centre until September.

The railways came to Chippenham on May 31, 1841, with a line between Hay Lane in Swindon, and Chippenham.

The original station design was Brunel's but, with the opening of new lines to Salisbury and Weymouth, the building was not adequate to meet demand and the building was redesigned and finished in 1858.

The railway changed from broad to narrow gauge in 1892, the old rail can still be seen around the station, used as upright posts.

The coming of the railway resulted in an upsurge in industry and the display focusses on breweries, printers, engineering and Westinghouse, the only real manufacturers still in existence in the town.

The company was formed by George Westinghouse, who had founded a company in Pittsburgh, America, in the 1860s.

It merged with Saxby and Farmer and moved to Chippenham in the 1920s under the name of Westinghouse Brake and Saxby Signal Company Ltd.

Display organiser Mike Stone said: "We are trying to show the story of the rise of manufacturing, but also explain how and why it has now all but disappeared."

Samuel Spinke established a printing works in the Causeway in 1858, with a shop at 33 Market Place.

He advertised himself as being "thoroughly proficient in the Art of Printing". In the 1880s customers could purchase 100 business cards for about 1s 6d or 7.5p.

After moving to the former Wesleyan Church in 1909, Spinke's closed in 1978.

Waterford Cloth Mill, with its water wheel, steam engine, mill tackle, counting house, dye house, and drying stove was sold in 1815 for £460.

At the height of its production the factory was capable of producing 25 pieces or 50 ends of broadcloth a week.

Also featured is a history of breweries, including a Mr C.J Dowling based in the Causeway, and T.H Little from Slaughterford. Both began brewing in the 1860s, supplying the inns in and around Chippenham.