William Morris: First with the News.

The man who founded the Swindon Advertiser was born 200 years ago this year. William Morris lived an extraordinary life in Swindon.

In his 65 years he saw the transformation of the town from a small market town to a booming railway town. Morris is known best as a newspaper man, but he was interested in everything about his town and its surrounding area. In his spare time, he was a keen amateur geologist, an antiquarian who amassed a collection of archaeological finds, and he researched the town’s history from its earliest times to his boyhood in the 1830s. As editor of Swindon’s main newspaper, he knew he was privileged to have a voice when many didn’t. He often used it to speak up for the many social justice issues in which he was involved.

This exhibition explores his life, his collections and the issues and works that engaged him through 37 years as editor of the Advertiser.