Chippenham is going
through a time of upheaval.
Much demolishment and rebuilding is happening simultaneously in the central
area, not all of it helpful.
Goldiggers has been demolished to make way for flats and
shops;
The incredibly-useful subway has been filled in,
to make way for the lighting of the recently repaired Arches, causing:
Trains to no longer wobble when they trundle along the top of it —
a great relief over such a busy road junction.
The council to sue the engineers responsible, for using "the wrong
colour bricks".
The original southern part of Westinghouse (railway engineers, hopefully
not the same ones,) being demolished for houses;
DR&B's (not
Viking Laminates'
-sorry-) factory being sold off for more housing; and
Wasteland on the outside of town being used for a giant building-supplies
retailer, which was where the housing would have gone under a sane
administration.
Undoubtably more housing is urgently needed, but not by evicting major
employers.
The photos have just been scanned-in, but are not yet fully commented,
so here are just the major ones for the moment:
Subway infill, including a nice picture of the
council pouring money into the ground.
Animated Sequence of photos showing Goldiggers
before, during, and after demolition.
There is also the letter I wrote to the local paper
about the impending doom. Since then, the doom has largely impended,
but it's nice to have accurately foretold: Now you can't say you haven't been
warned.
