Freshbrook is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

in the west of

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

, England, close to junction 16 of the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingdom, running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh ele ...

. Most houses in the area are found in culs-de-sac, except for those on the few main roads. The suburb is served by the shops of a small "village centre" and has a primary school. Adjacent areas are Grange Park to the north and west, Toothill to the east, Blagrove industrial estate to the south, and Windmill Hill business park to the west.

History

Freshbrook was built in the early 1980s as part of the 'West Swindon' urban extension of Swindon. A large housing development, Wichelstowe, was built southeast of Freshbrook, from 2009; it is separated from Freshbrook by Great Western Way and the main railway line.

Education

Freshbrook has one school, Millbrook Primary School, which had 329 pupils in July 2022. From 1988 a second primary school, Windmill Hill, was housed in a prefabricated building; as the local birth rate fell, in 2008 the building was closed and the school was merged with the school previously called Freshbrook School to form Millbrook. The Windmill Hill school building was destroyed by fire in 2011 in a suspected arson. A Church of England primary school, Oliver Tomkins, is nearby in Toothill. For secondary education, pupils from Freshbrook can attend

Lydiard Park Academy Lydiard Park Academy, formerly known as Greendown Community School, is a mixed sex Comprehensive school, comprehensive secondary school for students aged between 11 and 18 years in the Grange Park area of Swindon, England. , there were 1284 stud ...

(in nearby Grange Park), Bradon Forest School at Purton, or the Ridgeway School and Sixth Form College at Wroughton.

Leisure and recreation

The West Swindon district centre in Westlea is just north-east of Freshbrook. On the site are the

Link Centre The Link Centre is a leisure centre in Swindon, England. The building, owned by Swindon Borough Council and operated by Greenwich Leisure Limited, Greenwich Leisure under the brand "Better", is best known for its national-sized ice rink which h ...

which has a swimming pool, national-size ice rink, other sports facilities and a library; also an

Asda Asda Stores Limited (), trading as Asda and often styled as ASDA, is a British supermarket and petrol station chain. Its headquarters is in Leeds, England. The company was incorporated as Associated Dairies and Farm Stores in 1949. It expanded ...

supermarket and other retail outlets.

Governance

Freshbrook is within West Swindon parish. Along with Grange Park and part of Toothill, the area elects three councillors for the Lydiard and Freshbrook ward of

Swindon Borough Council Swindon Borough Council is the local authority of the Borough of Swindon in the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England. It was founded in 1974 as Thamesdown Borough Council, and was a lower-tier district council until 1997. In 1997 it was re ...

, a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

. Freshbrook forms part of the

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

constituency of South Swindon. At the 2011 census, the population of the electoral ward (then called Freshbrook and Grange Park, with slightly different boundaries) was 9,889.

References

{{coord, 51.556, N, 01.838, W, type:city(10000)_region:GB-SWD, display=title Geography of Swindon