From
Strolling in SwindonThe Swindon, Marlborough & Andover Railway proposed to run a line directly from the GWR▸ line, under Old Swindon and began excavating in October 1875, despite fierce opposition from local inhabitants; who feared their wells would run dry. Instead, the ground proved to be too unstable; there were several collapses and flooding, and work was abandoned in 1876 which led to the route familiar to us as the River Ray Parkway, around the south side of Swindon Hill from Rushey Platt, and gradually rising up to Old Town Station, being built in 1881. Some subsidence had continued to occur here even into the modern era.
