Swindonians who want to get most of their 10,000 daily steps in and learn a lot about their town’s unique industrial heritage in the process now have the ideal solution.

Swindon Borough Council, along with Historic England and other partners has launched a new heritage walking trail taking in Railway Village, GWR Park and the Great Western Railway factories now used by STEAM, the Designer Outlet and the National Trust and Historic England.

The entire zone is now branded as The Works and starting at the railway station, the walking route goes through the narrow, densely packed streets of the Railway Village, around the park, through the tunnel to the main works area and back looping through the Railway Village again.

There’s no danger of getting lost, the way can be followed just by walking from one pavement roundel to another.

And the cabinet member for planning and placemaking councillor Marins Strinkovsky is hugely enthusiastic about them.

She said: “They might be my favourite thing about the whole project.

“They’re so beautiful, they’re made of bronze, and they have the GWR logo on them.”

The plaques also bear the motto: “community, industry, health” reflecting the three major themes of the area: industry for the railway works, community for the railway workers who lived in the Railway Village houses, and health for institutions like the Health Hydro and the former hospital which is now the Central Community Centre.

The design of the plaques, as well as the branding of the signs and insignia is the work of local designer Kate Parsons.

Another artist to work on the project is Luke Gray who painted a mural of a canal scene at one end of the previously unpleasant Sheppard Street underpass. The mural and the lighting inside the underpass, which changes from blue to green, evoke the canal which run along the course of the subway, which attracted the railway to Swindon, and which then saw the railways kill canals as a viable form of transport.

At the Sheppard Street entrance to the underpass is a small micropark featuring benches and planting and parking prevention bollards than can double as stepping stones for youngsters to play on.

Mr Gray also worked with A-level students at New College Swindon on murals inspired by the Mechanics’ Institute which have been placed on the hoardings around the famous building.

Cllr Strinkovsky said: “We’ve been waiting to launch the walking train for some time- but there were diggers in the roadways for a while, so it wasn’t the right time.

“We hope people use it to discover more of the history, and that it brings people to Swindon and they can see more of what’s going on here.

Jack Hayward, 91, has lived in Railway Village for more than 50 years when he was employed in the railway works.

He said: “That community has gone and its been replaced by much more of a diverse community.

“The improvements to the park are fantastic, I didn’t used to go there, but it’s so much more open and pleasant and it sees many more people from around using it.

“The community centre in the old hospital is a really good place and there are classes, and events – there’s bingo and table-top sales and it’s in use every day.

“There are the improvements to the Bakers Arms and also The Cricketers which is being brought back and will be a community asset. These are great improvements.

Mr Hayward is a keen  historian of the area and has helped the council’s restoration team and  even features on an information board where he calls the wall of  the Carriage Works “The Great Wall of Swindon... a river of masonry from west to east.”

Maps to the two-mile walk are available in local shops and cafes, libraries and at the Museum and Art Gallery at the council offices in Euclid Street.