The southern boundary of the parish is a short stretch of the M4 motorway, immediately east of junction 16.

[2] Before the 20th-century expansion of Swindon, the rural area immediately west of the town was in the civil parishes of Lydiard Millicent (to the north, including the hamlets of Roughmoor, Nine Elms and Shaw) and Lydiard Tregoze (to the south, including Toot Hill and the hamlet of Mannington).

[3] The main development of West Swindon began in the 1970s[4] and included the construction of the West Swindon Centre complex,[5] with a supermarket, shops, a public library, and a multi-sport building called the Link Centre with an ice rink and swimming pool.

[7] A community governance review in 2015–2016 led to the creation of West Swindon parish, effective from April 2017.

[8][9] Besides the modern housing area, the parish extends west to include Lydiard Park,[2] which had been bought by the Corporation of Swindon in 1943.