Absolutely no apology necessary William, I don't usually post here but this subject is, as you point out, close to home.

I left Swindon as a young person and only returned for family reasons. When I first came back it would be true to say I went in shock for a while, everything was so different to what I had been used to.

However, I have walked around Swindon quite a lot as I don't own a car and there is much to commend it if you look with open eyes. There are magnificent sarsen stones to be found in many parks and open spaces - so much so, that I am starting to believe the area around Swindon where the M4 now runs may have had its own sarsen drift valley. I have seen large sarsens at the side of the old railway track that goes through Old Town. A local person told me they have always been there so were probably cleared when the railway between Wootten Bassett and Marlborough was built.

Swindon is actually an amazing place, no great architecture its true but surrounded by an astonishing ancient landscape that we must all fight to protect and lots of hidden away delights such as the old canal at the bottom of Kingshill (quite near the town centre). Furthermore Swindon is populated by diverse and largely hardworking people - it turns no one away and gives everyone a chance for a reasonable life, from which ever corner of the world they arrive from.

Yes, I'm proud of my town (though I admit it grew on me slowly). And so should you be.