Hundreds of Swindon railway workers visited Oxford at the invitation of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) in 1848. They wouldn’t have known that this would be the origin of an annual workers ‘Trip’ which would continue for over a century, until the 1980s.

Swindon grew from a small Wiltshire market town to what it is today thanks to the building of the Wilts & Berks and North Wilts canals in the early 1800s, and subsequently the railway. By the 1840s the Great Western Railway (GWR) company needed a suitable location for a repair works. They chose Swindon and the first shed was built and fitted out during 1841 and 1842, with train repair work commencing in 1843. Soon to follow was the building of trains at the site in 1846. A railway village with houses for workers hired from outside the town had already been built.

For manual workers everywhere life was gruelling – long working weeks and few holidays were the norm. It wasn’t until 1850 when supplementary acts to the 1847 Factory Act (known as the Ten Hours Act) were passed, limiting all workers to ten hours per weekday, plus Saturday morning. Even so, that still meant a 55-hour week.

A detailed and unvarnished depiction of life in the factory was published by railway worker and poet Alfred Williams (1877–1930). Being a ‘local’ who lived in South Marston, his day, like that of other workers, was bookended by walking several miles whatever the weather. He’d left a job as a farm labourer for the railway since he was interested in mechanics and industrial pay was better.

Williams – who became known as the ‘Hammerman Poet’ – recounted conditions in the factory sheds which could be hideously cold in winter and baking in summer. A lack of concentration could be lethal. Injuries and deaths weren’t uncommon amid heavy machinery, tools and molten metal. The attitude of management was tough, and workers settled personal disputes through violence. Factory conditions were so harsh that men’s health was often ruined prematurely. Williams left the factory in 1914, his digestive system damaged by smoke from the furnaces.

In June 1848 the BAAS accepted an invitation from GWR to visit the Swindon works on a free train service. The following year they reciprocated by inviting railway workers and their families to Oxford. Over 500 people took up the invitation which included a cold dinner served at the Town Hall. From this one-off event an annual workers ‘Trip’ with free train travel began. Until nationalisation of the railways only workers who were also members of the Mechanics’ Institution were entitled to this perk.

For railway workers the year was broken into three phases: a few months from January to Easter, Easter to Trip in July, and then a long slog until Christmas. Trip was a much-longed-for time to get away with family and friends, typically to a seaside town in the hope of glorious summer weather. Torquay in Devon was the first holiday trip after the Oxford visit.

As GWR expanded their routes so too did the list of Trip destinations, particularly when GWR made agreements with other railway companies to use their trains. Trip’s heyday had around 350 destinations. Weymouth and Weston-super-Mare were especially popular – for many years they accounted for about a third of trippers.

Trip’s origin was as a one-day getaway but soon expanded to three days with the factory closing on Friday evening and reopening on Tuesday morning. Then in 1869 the closure increased by two and a half days, and by 1874 the works closed for a week allowing up to nine days on Trip. Many more trains had to be laid on to cope with the demand of ever more destinations and trippers. It became a massive logistical exercise requiring months of planning.

Places on Trip were requested by filling in special forms which included the destination, family members in the party etc. Tickets were then issued in due course. Those tempted to travel on a Trip pass belonging to someone else paid a high price if caught. The penalty was severe: a works notice from 1856 reports the dismissal of Timothy Hartley who took the risk.

Williams recounts that after the Whitsuntide holidays there would be posters in the railway sheds with provisional Trip information, and that ‘Roll on, Trip’ and ‘Five weeks to Trip’ could be found scrawled on walls. Yet, the excitement leading up to Trip wasn’t felt by everyone. Workers who weren’t members of the Mechanics’ Institution and weren’t required for maintenance tasks during factory closure had an enforced break. The first Friday back after Trip saw the ‘Grand March Past’ by the pay tables since workers wouldn’t be paid until the following Friday. Ninety years after Trip began, the Holiday Pay Act of 1938 entitled workers to one week’s holiday pay, but at the flat rate excluding extra pay from piecework and bonuses.

Not everyone could afford to go on Trip or had jobs they could take leave from, despite that the numbers going on Trip rose to well over 20,000. In 1892 two-thirds of Swindon’s new town population thronged to their destinations. The unfortunate ones left behind had to stock up on food for the week since shops closed due to the lack of customers when the town would be almost deserted.

A key ritual for Trippers was saving up for several months after Christmas. This was often done through savings clubs, and some men waited until a week before Trip to claim their overtime and bonus payments. Newly bought or handmade summer clothes were kept unused and given their first public wearing on Trip. Williams describes men in new suits of shoddy, women in cheap but fashionable finery and children in garments stiff from the warehouse. Eager anticipation finally turned to reality on Trip day when large crowds walked through Swindon in the early hours of the morning to catch their train.

Accommodation was typically at a bed and breakfast. Lucky trippers had an obliging landlady who would allow them to stay inside if the weather was bad, whereas others had to spend their day finding shelter during summer rain. Whatever the weather Swindon Week was a boon to the local economy. Even though trippers were on tight budgets some families enjoyed food in a cafe, fish and chips and ice-creams. Men sloped off to the pub saying they had someone to see.

A strong bond formed between Swindon and St Ives in Cornwall after a branch line to the resort opened in 1877. Since the Trip train departed at 10pm and arrived at 5am, local people would greet the incomers and guide them to their lodgings.

A cricket match between the St Ives Cricket Club and Trippers became a popular tradition, and ties between the towns became permanent for single Swindon men who met girls while on holiday and went on to marry them.

In the history of Britain’s worker holiday weeks, the Swindon Trip was one of the biggest. It became an almost mythical aspect of Swindon’s history which affected most of the town’s residents one way or another. It’s still remembered fondly by those old enough to have experienced it.