Other places have their own version of Monopoly, so why not Chippenham? That was the puzzle facing attendees at December's Our Town get together at The Old Lane. Here we are having completed the task with plenty of fun, snippets of information and laughter along the way. The first step was to rename a couple of the outer squares - Jail became the Yelde Hall (which was Chippenham's jail in a previous life), and Free Parking became 'Bath Road Car Park on Sundays', with general agreement we'd love free car parking the rest of the week!
Chippenham Borough Lands Charity replaced Community Chest and our own Pewsham Belles logo graced Chance. We had plenty of choice for the replacement play pieces, so opted to replace the nine found in Jenny's Monopoly set. Westinghouse is such an iconic part of Chippenham's history we just had to have a railway signal. The pig, milk churn and Oxo cube represent the town's other nationally important products from The Wiltshire Bacon Company, Nestle's condensed milk, and of course that all important little cube. The crown is for King Alfred, the cow represents Chippenham as a market town, and the swan is for the river Avon. The game's hat is replaced by Brunel's stovepipe hat, and the ship by a narrowboat from the canal.
Key streets, places and companies were chosen to complete the board, keeping within the spirit of the original London streets. The utilities and train stations were easy to decide, with Wessex Water, Good Energy, Chippenham train and bus stations, Easy's Taxis and the canal at Pewsham Locks now gracing the board. The purple group is quite posh, so St Mary Street joined the existing Park Lane. The green group represents shopping and we chose Emery Gate, Methuen Park (Marks & Spencer's there linking it with their HQ on Oxford Street) and Borough Parade.
The crimson group represent government admin, consulates and gentleman's clubs, so Foghamshire (for the Consti Club), the council offices and Avenue La Fleche (representing the town's twinning activities) became this group. Iconic places and names form the red group and were replaced by Sheldon Manor (Wiltshire's oldest continuously inhabited manor house), Monkton House and Hardenhuish House. Yellow is arts and entertainment, so High Street (Neeld Hall), Marshfield Road (Astoria cinema) and New Road (which links the two roads like Coventry Street does on the board) were great choices.
For the blues, our host for the evening The Old Lane, was the obvious choice to replace The Angel Islington, joined by Station Hill and Bumpers Way. The orange group represents the law, so the choices were Pewsham Way (law courts), Wood Lane (old police station location) and The Market Place (Awdry, Bailey and Douglas solicitors). Finally we chose London Road (eastern Chippenham) and Hungerdown Lane (a long road in Chippenham) for the brown group. It was fun evening and we're pleased plenty of Pewsham related items were squeezed in alongside the most well-known streets and places. What would you choose for your version of Chippenham Monopoly?