Grassroots tech community · Swindon, Wiltshire
Swindon is the UK’s most underrated tech town.
Nationwide’s home town. Intel’s former European base. Brunel’s railway works. The talent has always been here. We’re building the community that brings it together.
Free to join · Community-run · Backed by FortyTech
The receipts
The case for “underrated”.
It’s a bold claim — so here it is, figure by figure. Every one is sourced and checkable.
The world’s largest building society is headquartered here
Nationwide serves 16 million members from its Swindon HQ, with thousands of local staff and the technology teams that keep it running.
The town the railway built
Brunel’s Great Western Railway Works was once one of the largest railway engineering complexes in the world, with 12,000 people building locomotives here. Swindon has made things for a living for 180 years.
Intel ran its European HQ on Pipers Way
For four decades from 1982, one of the biggest names in computing chose Swindon as its European base. That headquarters didn’t land here by accident.
The nation’s science collection, on the doorstep
Around 80% of the Science Museum’s collection is stored at Wroughton, just south of town — over 300,000 objects, with the new Hawking Building the latest addition to the site.
A fast, direct line into London
Swindon is a straight run into Paddington on the Great Western main line, with Reading on the way in and Bristol a short hop the other way. City access, without city rent.
A community workshop that never closes
Since 2012, Swindon Makerspace has run a 24/7 space — laser cutters, 3D printers, a weekly computing and electronics night. The grassroots scene is already here, waiting for a front door.
And just up the road: Dyson’s global engineering HQ (17 miles, in Malmesbury), the Defence Academy at Shrivenham (7 miles), and the Harwell space and science cluster within reach. The Magic Roundabout has a far better safety record than its reputation suggests.
The gap
Swindon’s tech scene barely knows itself.
Thousands of people here write software, ship hardware, design products and run tech teams. Most do it in isolation. Heads-down in a corporate office, remote at the kitchen table, or commuting an hour each way to somewhere that takes all the credit.
There has never been a single place for Swindon’s tech people to find each other. That’s the one thing missing — so that’s what we’re building: somewhere to turn up and meet the rest.
Meetups and talks
Regular, low-pressure evenings to learn something, show what you’re building, and meet the people doing the same thing three streets away.
Collaboration and work
Somewhere to find collaborators, co-founders, contract leads and hires. Locally, without a recruiter or a London commute.
Get the town noticed
A shared banner loud enough that the rest of the country has to take Swindon’s tech scene seriously.
Who’s behind this
Run by locals, funded out of pocket.
Swindon.tech is run by the team at FortyTech, a Swindon tech company, and paid for out of our own pocket. There’s nothing to sell here, no product, no growth targets, no catch.
Just a belief that a town with this much talent deserves somewhere for its tech people to find each other. That’s the whole plan. We’re working out the first meetup now, and the people on this list get first say on when and where.
180 years of building things
Swindon built the machines that moved a nation, then quietly became the kind of town a global chip giant ran its European HQ from. The next chapter is the people building here now. It starts with them knowing each other.
Be part of the start
Get in early. Help shape the first meetups.
Add your name and we’ll email you the moment the first meetup has a date. You’ll be among the first through the door, with a say in what comes next.