See photographs of  Inside  Kingshill House


This rather lovely Italianate villa was built mid 1800s and is located in the Old Town area of Swindon.  It is Grade II listed - please see the  Historic England  for details of the listing.

The building started life as a private house and in 1931 became Swindon's maternity home for over forty years.  It later became Seymour Clinic, a mental health unit then the NHS mental health services.  In 2011 the NHS vacated and the building became somewhat un‑cared for but was bought by the Kingshill Trust charity who set about renovating the building.  There was an open day in October 2016 so we went along to look over the building.  What a lovely job had been done.  It was being used as a community meeting place, sanctuary and place of peace as well as caring for spiritual as well as physical well‑being.  The different rooms reflected this outlook with a welcoming and pleasing decor.

During the open day the owners had some historic documents on display for visitors to read, including census and birth registers, and knowing how many babies had been born there, they had some wooden tags made to give out to any visitors who were born there.

Sadly this volunteer-led initiative failed and the building was put on the market (in 2019?).  At time of writing (April 2020) the building has been sold STC.

There is a glorious photograph dated 1905 by local photographer William Hooper of a Hunt gathering outside the building on  Flickr.com.