A small market town in rural Wiltshire became a leading centre for manufacturing in the century after 1840. This is Swindon, a creation of the Great Western Railway which built its trains there. Behind Swindon's international reputation in engineering, there was the making of a company town. This began as a socially engineered industrial village, which thrived as factory workers created their own education, health and recreational services. This history is brought together for the first time in a single book, with contributions from six experienced writers of social history. It shifts the focus away from the trains and on to the people who made them. Made in Swindon is a book for general readers as much as for educational courses in social history.