Swindon, a town of Wiltshire, 77 miles W. of London and 29 ENE. of Bath, consists of Old Swindon (Swindune in Domesday), on an eminence mile S., and New Swindon, which originated in the transference hither in 1841 from Wootton-Bassett of the engineering works of the Great Western Railway. The former is rather a picturesque place, with a good Decorated parish church (rebuilt by Sir G. G. Scott in 1851), a town-hall (1852), assembly rooms (1850), and a corn exchange (1867); New Swindon has a mechanics' institute (1843), a theatre, &c. Pop. (1861) 6856; (1881) 22,374; (1891) 32,840 (5545 in Old Swindon).
See J. E. Jackson's Swindon and its Neighbourhood (1861), and the English Ill. Mag. for April 1892.