Football is by its nature a game of ups and downs and Swindon has had their fair share of those. They changed the badge after the ups and downs of the 1989/90 season, to bring them a change of luck perhaps. You may remember, and I know Swindon fans will, that on Monday 28th May 1990 Swindon beat Sunderland 1-0 at Wembley in the Division Two playoffs, reaching top-flight football for the first time in their history, after climbing from the Fourth to First Division in five seasons, only to be stitched up 10 days later when they were demoted two divisions for illegal payments to players, which after an appeal was reduced to one. The real scandal here is the punishment of the innocent fans and players being deprived of First Division football, now known as the Premiership. While the guilty men in suits went mainly unpunished. The guilty being the men with the money, directors and the like, not the fans who work hard all week to provide that money, and then look foreword to a game of footy at the weekend to relax and support the local team. But that is the F bleeding A for ya. I am sorry, but such injustice makes me weep. But fair play to them, they changed the badge and put it all behind them by picking themselves up brushing themselves off and starting all over again. I seem to remember Forest doing the same thing and getting a slapped wrist and a fine.
So, a new badge was the beginning of a new start for Swindon. (PIC 1) More logo than a badge and more kite than a logo, and if you can’t make it out, or don’t want to spend hours trying then I shall explain. Many thanks, to Swindon FC for the following information, I don’t know who to thank personally as the ‘with compliments’ slip was unsigned. The information sent me said the following: “The logo is simple, dynamic and modern. We see a diamond shape in the clubs red and green colours with a superimposed S. Around the design speeds a stylised football, leaving its trail as it exits from behind the lozenge, does a nifty 180-degree turn and whistles off to the right”. That’s right, whistles off to the right. Marvellous description don’t you think? Now the whole badge has whistled off to the right. The football is, in fact, a pie chart and the red section shows how many fans thought the S stood for stupid, because that’s what the board must be to pay designers thousands to come up with that. Still, it has to be an improvement on the old 1980s badge which has been described as a very confusing traffic sign. (PIC 2)
It has been likened to the directions on the magic roundabout, which lies to one corner of the County Ground and you can see why. (PIC 3) Yes, it really is called the Magic Roundabout, after the children’s TV Programme, and I can only assume it was designed by Dylan the rabbit after smoking a very large and very good spliff, man. It’s right outside the ground, in fact, you can see the ground behind the sign in the picture. It must cause chaos, so much so that I am sure it has to be closed before and after matches or fans just would not make the games, even though they are just a couple of yards away from the ground. Councils and the FA are godlike inasmuch as they move in mysterious ways. The club has changed the badge again recently, and have finally come to their senses coming up with a more traditional-looking badge that I’m sure the fans love. (PIC 4) In the shape of a good old shield it is quartered in the club’s colours with no green this time. At the crest of the shield is a locomotive alluding to the town’s rise as having a very big train industry. Top left quarter has a robin, the club’s nickname, and the bottom right has the formation date. The Latin motto translates as, Health and Industry. The train and the motto are taken from the town’s coat of arms, as all the best badges do. (PIC 5)
The arms were officially granted in September 1901. The Great Western Railway engine ‘Lord of the Isles’ speaks for itself as alluding to the industry to which Swindon owes its rise. The three silver crescents are a feature in the arms of the Goddard family, who have held the Manor of Swindon since 1560, and indicate the connection of the Goddard Manor with the Borough of Swindon. The three castles are likewise a feature in the arms of the Vilett family who for a long period held the Manor, upon which a large portion of new Swindon was built. The mitre symbolise Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who after the Norman Conquest was granted the Manor of Swindon by his half-brother William the Conqueror. Bayeux is, the town in France where the tapestry of the Norman Conquest in 1066 is held on display. The winged wheel denotes motion or the swiftness of railway travelling. The hand holding hammers symbolise mechanical industry, to which modern Swindon owes its position. The hammers are golden to typify the prosperity which results from all well-applied industry. Like West Ham who are known as The Hammers, they and Swindon’s hammers represent the hammering of rivets into iron. In West Ham’s case, it was in building ships and in Swindon’s trains. The Latin motto in the scroll, “SALUBRITAS ET INDUSTRIA”, means as in the badge, Health and Industry.
Swindon Town were called Swindon Spartans when they were formed in 1881 by the Rev William Pitt, or so it is believed as there are no written records from the beginning of Swindon FC until the 1883/84 season. So why do they have 1879 on their badge I hear you ask? Well I will be honest and say I have no idea, as I mentioned no records exist to confirm that so it is either an honest mistake or somebody’s pants are seriously ablaze. In 1894 Swindon became a founder member of the Southern League. They played in the Rev Pitts colours which unsurprisingly were black and white. I don’t know for sure, but it just has to be a black shirt with a white-collar. These colours remained until 1904 when they adopted the red shirts and white shorts. This change gave birth to the nickname “The Robins”. Other nicknames have included “The Railwaymen’, dating back to the time when Swindon was a big railway centre with the Great Western Railway works in the mid-1960s. Another was “The Moonrakers”. Apparently Wiltshire people are sometimes called Moonrakers, and I was sent a lovely depiction as to why, along with all the other information sent to me, and it originates from an old legend. A couple of centuries ago on a moonlit night, two men from the village of Bishops Canning in Wiltshire were busy carrying home smuggled brandy or moonshine in the back of a hay cart. As they passed the village pond they heard the sound of an approaching Custom and Excise man. Thinking quickly they dumped the barrels into the pond and began raking the surface of the water with their hay rakes. “What in the world are you two up to”? Asked the Excise man. “We are raking for cheese”, replied one of the men. “Can’t you see one”? Added the other pointing to the reflection of the moon in the pond. The Excise man burst out laughing and hurried off to tell his mates that he had seen two country bumpkins who thought the reflection of the moon was a cheese. After he had gone the two men used their rakes to retrieve the brandy and continued on their way. Since then Wiltshire people have been known as Moonrakers. True or not it is a charming story.
The town of Swindon gets its name from bacon, ham, pork sausages, and chops, as the original name was the Anglo-Saxon suindune, meaning suin or swine = pigs and dune = hill. The area was built on a limestone hill for protection and pigs were a-plenty, although in Saxon times they were more likely to be wild boars, not in the Mark Lawrenson sense but in the wild pig sense. So, Swindon means Pig Hill. Swindon play at the County Ground and that has been the name of the ground since 1894. It is now, of course, a different ground that holds 15,700 all-seated. If you asked those 15,700 people to stand up if they hate Oxford most of them would as Oxford are Swindon’s main rivals. For more on Swindon FC then just go round and round the roundabout and ask Zebedee how to get to www.swindontownfc.co.uk
