Swindon in the Past Lane

The Hemsley family have a fascinating theatrical history, soon to be featured in Swindon Heritage, but for the moment I am concentrating on George Hemsley, a fitter and turner and an early arrival at the GWR Works, Swindon.

George was born on January 17, 1822 in Gateshead the son of William and Anne Hemsley. At the time of the 1851 census George was living at Quarry Field, Gateshead with his wife Mary and their 10 month old son William. George most probably worked at The Quarry Field Works, a marine, locomotive and general engineering firm established by John Coulthard & Son in 1840.

By 1861 George and Mary were living at 6 Westcott Place with their six children, four of whom had been born in Gateshead. John Robert Hemsley, was the first to be born in Swindon in around 1858 which places the Hemsley family's move to Swindon sometime between 1854 and 1858.

Tracking the family through the census returns we find them at 22 Reading Street in 1871. William has followed his father into the Works where he is a fitter and younger brother John Robert's job description is boy in foundry.

Trevor Cockbill writes in A Drift of Steam, his book about the early residents of the Railway Village.
Mr Hemsley was a staunch supporter of the local Liberal and Radical Association, frequently appearing on the platform at public assemblies and often putting his signature to the Nomination Papers of Liberal candidates at Parliamentary elections. He played a prominent part in the election campaign of Mr B.F.C. Costello in 1886, when the latter gentleman was opposed from the right by a Liberal Unionist and from the radical wing of the party by the Independent Liberal Sir John Bennett.

George was also co-founder of the New Swindon Industrial Co-operative Society.

George died at his home 22 Reading Street on November 12, 1888 aged 66. He was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery and his funeral arrangements were performed by Richard Skerten, a carpenter and undertaker.

Mary remained in the family home following George's death, living with her widowed daughter Mary J. Rollins and her two daughters, plus Frederick Birch, a Grocer's Assistant who boarded with the family. Mary died on December 19, 1899 and is buried with George.

In 1941, fifty three years after George's death, his daughter, Elizabeth Watson Dixon was also buried in Radnor Street Cemetery. Her funeral was arranged by A.E. Smith and the paperwork survives in a large family archive.

Swindon's early railwaymen will be remembered on two GWR themed walks taking place during the Swindon Heritage History Day on July 10 (see below for more details).

And for cemetery followers you may like to join me on a guided churchyard walk at St Mary's, Lydiard Park this Sunday, June 24 between 2-4.30 pm.

Swindon solicitor Henry Fox Townsend was feeling as fit as a fiddle when he boarded the 3pm train for Paddington on Thursday December 13, 1894.

The purpose of his London visit was to bid farewell to his brother Charles, a tea planter, who was returning to India the following day.

The brothers had a table booked at the Holborn Restaurant on the Friday but Charles was to report that Henry failed to turn up.

'Upon the arrival of the train at Paddington it was noticed by one of the railway officials that Mr. Townsend was in an insensible condition, apparently suffering from a fit,' reported the Swindon Advertiser. 'He was at once removed and conveyed to St. Mary's Hospital, where he died shortly afterwards without regaining consciousness.

His death at the early age of 34 shocked all who knew him. His friends told how he had recently purchased a property called the Firs in Wroughton where he intended 'settling down and enjoying what appeared to be, in all probability, a long and prosperous career.'

The following week the Advertiser reported on the verdict of the inquest where coroner Dr. Danford Thomas heard how railway porter William Lovesey found Townsend lying on his face on the floor of one of the compartments.

Dr. Poynton told how Townsend was 'unconscious and breathing stertorously' upon arrival at St. Mary's Hospital. "Both pupils had become dilated and the unfortunate gentleman remained insensible till his death, which took place at a quarter past nine the same evening.'

'A post mortem examination showed that the cause of death was compression of the brain, the result of an apoplectic seizure,' continued the report.

The funeral took place the following Tuesday with the coffin covered in wreaths, and carried on a hand bier the short distance from Townsend's offices at 42 Cricklade Street to the parish church.

Chief mourners were the deceased's sister Annie Louise and brothers Southcote and Charles. Others present included Ambrose Goddard and his son Capt. Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, Henry's partner Edward Tudor Jones and rival solicitors Henry Kinneir and his son Walter.

Among the many wreaths was one with the sad message 'From his mother with tender love and unutterable sorrow.'

Unbelievably Annie Townsend had lost her husband James Copleston Townsend in identical circumstances when returning from London on the evening of March 26, 1885, he was 'noticed to totter and fall' as he alighted from the train.

He was carried to the Refreshment Rooms and then to one of the bedrooms, where he momentarily regained consciousness but died at around 10 pm.

A fallen cross on a pink granite plinth marks the grave of father and son in the churchyard at Christ Church.

photograph courtesy of Duncan and Mandy Ball see www.oodwooc.co.uk

On June 25, 2016 the recently created Lydiard Park Heritage Trust announced the names of the inaugural trustees.

Mike Bowden (Chair) - Former FTSE 100 Managing Director and Company Secretary and currently CEO Swindon Speedway

Per-Axel Warensjo (Vice-Chair) – Former Finance and HR Director within the technology sector and currently a local Parish chairman and CFO of Swindon Speedway.

Kevin Fisher - Swindon resident for 54 years, electronics engineer background and former employee of a multinational technology company where he held various European level management roles. Currently chair of the Shaw Residents' Association

Sarah Finch Crisp - Former Director of Chiswick House and Gardens Trust and previously Head of Heritage at Swindon Borough Council and led The Lydiard Park Restoration Project

Richard Howroyd - Chartered Accountant and procurement professional with significant public/private sector experience. He has lived in Swindon for over 15 years. He is currently Head of Strategic Procurement & Commissioning for local authority which is world renowned for its heritage expertise.

Gary Bond - Managing Director of McArthurGlen responsible for the development of retail space across Europe and Canada. Before that he was responsible for the Swindon Railway works redevelopment (one of the largest regeneration projects in the UK).This role and his work at McArthurGlen has involved extensive work with listed buildings.

Daniel Rose - Leads market research for the National Trust and is actively involved in Swindon's voluntary and community sector where he has been the vice chair of Voluntary Action Swindon, chair of Swindon Youth Partnership and has led many local heritage and culture related projects. Currently he is chair of The Mechanics' Institution Trust and sits on the Swindon Heritage board.

Mike Bowden said: 'We are in discussions with a number of people including Lydiard staff and members of various local organisations ( particularly schools, charities community groups and businesses) with a view to appointing additional trustees over the summer.

If any of our supporters would like to express an interest in becoming a trustee please leave a comment to that effect on the petition.

As ever my continued thanks for your outstanding support'

.
St Mary's Church, Lydiard Park is open to visitors this afternoon where the magnificent St John polyptych will be on display.

I will be continuing my series of guided churchyard walks (hopefully the rain will hold off) between 2 and 4.30 pm.

The St John polyptych

Reused headstone, mason's mark or elegant graffiti?

Margaret Whitmore, Lady Grobham, second wife of Sir John St John

William and Catherine Kinchin - photograph published courtesy of Duncan and Mandy Ball

In 1952 Swindon embarked upon an ambitious programme of expansion. One of the objectives was to encourage London based industries to relocate and thereby revitalise a town too dependent on a declining railway industry.

As central government made an attempt to tackle the chronic housing shortage in the post war capital, country towns were given incentives to develop and expand. But Swindon had first to address a few pressing housing problems of its own.

A memorandum from the Medical Officer of Health to the Town Clerk dated September 11, 1951 confirmed that Swindon had '138 sub-standard dwelling houses.' Some were considered to be 'in such a condition as to be a potential danger to life and limb, or to the health of the occupants'.

The state of Swindon' housing was already causing concern in the 1930s. Wilfred Moss with his wife and daughter lived in a bungalow at Lower Walcot Farm, described as having four small rooms with timber partitions, two of which had insufficient light and ventilation. There was no water supply and the corrugated iron roof let in rain.

The family was eventually rehoused and the building threatened with demolition however W.G. Partridge, dairy farmer and Goddard estate tenant said he would 'probably use it for a cattle food store.'

But it was not only the private landlords who needed to get their house in order. In 1947 eight Corporation owned properties in Byron Street racked up a long list of defects. Structural work such as attention to brickwork and roof repairs, along with the replacement of joists and floorboards, ill fitting windows with broken glass and defective ceiling plaster came in at an estimated £962 (more than £27,000 today) and this would only raise the accommodation to 'reasonably fit for human habitation.'

One tenant, fed up with trying to get results from her landlord, took her complaints to the Right Honourable T. Reid, Labour MP for Swindon in 1949.

Built around 1900 the houses in Beatrice Street were obviously in need of some renovation and Mrs Stevens living at number 129 described her house as being 'not damp but wet from top to bottom.'

'I pay 19/6 (97p about £85 today) per week for this place yet I can get nothing done. I am turning to you as my last hope,' she wrote. Her daughter lived with her and was shortly expecting a baby. 'I do not know what to do about bringing a new born baby here,' Mrs Stevens said.

The complaint was referred back to Swindon's Medical Officer of Health. The District Sanitary Inspector, who had previously been unable to gain access to the property, made an inspection and sent the owner a notice of essential repairs.

In June 1945 the local housing waiting list stood at 1,100. By 1947 the figure had risen to 3,685.

In 1951 construction work began on 200 acres at Stratton Cross Roads, When completed in mid 1955 the Penhill estate comprised 1,500 homes as work began on three neighbourhoods in the Walcot area. Park North, Park South and Walcot were completed in the early 1960s, each comprising between 1,500 - 1,950 new homes.

Commercial Road

Farnsby Street

Byron Street

Photographs taken during another town regeneration scheme - 1957 Byron Street 1957 Commercial Road and 1964 Farnsby Street see these and others on www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal/

During this turbulent week in British politics I look back on the career of Swindon's first Lady Mayor, May George.

Described as the most active and progressive member to occupy a seat on the Town Council, May George was the first woman to hold the office of Mayor of Swindon. And apparently no one knew quite how to address her with speakers at public meetings unsure whether to call her Mr or Mrs Mayor.

Sarah May Williams was born in 1883 in Craven Arms, Shropshire on the Welsh Borders, the daughter of George Williams, a railway guard and his wife Eliza. May grew up at 2, Tabernacle Terrace, Carmarthen, one of six daughters and two sons. No surprise that she championed the well being of mothers and children during her political career.

She served a pupil teacher apprenticeship in Carmarthen before marrying Charles Ferdinando George, a fellow teacher at Pentrepoeth Council School, in 1903. By 1911 May, Charles and their young son had moved to Swindon and were living at 85 Avenue Road.

Although not a native Swindonian, May’s connections with the town went back to her earliest childhood. Her mother’s sister had moved to Swindon with her husband Joseph Crockett, a foreman shunter. The couple never had any children but raised May’s elder sister Bertha as their own.

May’s political career began in 1921 when she was elected councillor for the South Ward. She became an Alderman in 1931 and Swindon’s first woman Mayor in 1935.

May worked tirelessly to improving the lives of women and children, and served on the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee. She was a tenacious and persistent campaigner and, unafraid of becoming unpopular with her fellow councillors, was famed for her fierce debating.

She was instrumental in establishing a standard of care at Swindon’s Kingshill Maternity Home that made it an example for the whole country. May also served on the Guardians’ Committee, the local Employment Committee and the Pensions Committee and raised funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

May collapsed at her home at ‘Lynwood,’ Croft Road after attending a Council Committee meeting. She died the following day, April 21, 1943 aged 60 years old. Speaking at a later Council Meeting the Mayor, Alderman A.J.B. Selwood paid tribute to Mrs May George and said he was afraid her premature death was due to overwork.

A large congregation, including representatives from all the civic and social organisations with which May had been associated, attended a memorial service at Christ Church. Her funeral took place at the English Congregational Church, Lammas Street in her home town of Carmarthen, where she was buried.

“Mrs George died as she would have wished, working,” her obituary in the Advertiser read. “No woman – or man – put so much into public work as she did. Her whole life was bound up in it.”

Civic Offices pictured today

The members of Swindon WI put their best foot forward on Saturday evening when they were among 700 people who took part in the Prospect Hospice fund raising Starlight Walk. The WI members braved torrential rain to complete the 10k walk as part of their 2016 Walking Challenge.

Conditions were marginally better yesterday when I joined them for a guided walk around Old Town following in the footsteps of Swindon Suffragette Edith New and other Old Town women.

First stop was Apsley House, which today houses the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery but was once home to the Toomer family.

In the 1870s Apsley House was an L shaped property with land stretching back as far as the cottages on Prospect Place and boasted not only a coal yard but formal gardens and a paddock. A photograph on display in the museum shows one of the Toomer daughters on her pony at the back of the house, giving some idea of the the extent of the property.

Following John Toomer's death in 1882 five of his sons took advantage of the terms of their father's will and sold their shares in the business to their mother Mary Ann.

In 1914 more than 30 years later, the mother of all legal arguments broke out in the family as the remaining Toomer siblings claimed there had been an injury done to their inheritance. It was proved that although Mary Ann had paid an excessive amount for these shares, she had gained no advantage and at the time she gave her sons all the information she herself had.

Poor Mary Ann was 77 years old when all this legal wrangling took place. She died in 1926 aged 90 and is buried with her husband and two of their children in Christ Church churchyard.

She left £18,762 17s - presumably for her family to fight over.

We then crossed the road to Wood Street where we paused outside Balula's Delicatessen.

The highly decorative oak woodwork frontage is evidence of a much older shop and in the mid 19th century it was the home and business premises of William Frampton, Edith New's maternal grandfather.

This is where Edith's mother Isabella and her seven siblings grew up. William was a carpenter and builder and owned a number of properties in Old Town, however in the 1850s he was declared bankrupt.

Isabella married Frederic New on 1872 and the couple had five children; Ellen Mary born in 1873; Frederick William Westmacott in 1874; Annie Isabella born in 1876 who died in infancy and Edith Bessie born in 1877. In that same year Frederic died, struck by a train when he was walking along the railway line to visit his friend at Toothill Farm. Isabella was pregnant at the time, a son Henry James Earnshaw was born in 1878 but died in infancy.

Recent research has revealed that Frederic, his brothers and step father were all Freemasons and it is believed that Isabella and the children received some support from that organisation.

Isabella died on December 2, 1922 aged 72 at her home 4 St Margarets Road. she is buried in a large family grave in Christ Church.

We arrived at The Lawns - along with the rain - the former home of the Goddard family.

Here I pondered on the day to day lives of Charlotte Sanford Goddard, wife of Ambrose, Lord of the Manor and her only daughter Jessie Henrietta.

Ambrose and Charlotte's first home was at 58 Chester Square, Westminster but by 1861 they had moved into the Lawns and in the census of that year they were in residence with three of their children and Ambrose's sister Ada.

This reasonably small family unit was looked after by 13 servants, a butler, housekeeper, footman, lady's maid, a governess and a school room maid, a nurse, a cook, two housemaids and a kitchen maid. A coachman lived above the stables in Mill Lane and there must have been several gardeners to attend to the pleasure gardens and Italian sunken feature.

You might, therefore, wonder why I feel a bit sorry for Jessie. Jessie obviously led a very comfortable life. Never had any money worries, never had to work for a living but it seems to me that perhaps one thing she lacked was choice.

Comparing her to Edith who worked all her life, starting as a pupil teacher at the age of 12, to her time as an Organiser for the WSPU and then back into teaching, I wonder if Jessie would have been able to strike out like that. She might never have wanted to, but it seems to me that Jessie was forever trailing after her mother. She never married and consequently never had a family of her own, but was that because she didn't want one or was it because her mother needed her.

Our guided walk ended at 24 North Street and the beginning of Edith's story. The house where she was born now boasts a Swindon Heritage blue plaque.

The weather could have been kinder but the thanks from the Swindon WI members couldn't have been warmer.

Members of the Swindon WI setting off on the Prospect Hospice fundraising Starlight Walk (photo courtesy of Swindon Advertiser)

Balula's Delicatessen once the home of William Frampton, Edith New's maternal grandfather

Apsley House once home to the Toomer family

The Goddard family (photo courtesy of Swindon Local Studies)

The Lawn (photo courtesy of Swindon Local Studies)

Swindon Suffragette Edith New

Edith's great niece unveils blue plaque at 24 North Street

Many words have been written about this day, July 1, 1916, the first day of what would later be called the Battle of the Somme.

As we remember the fallen at the centenary of that battle, I am going to let these photographs of one man's memorial to those who died speak for themselves.

The Sword of Damocles

Mike Pringle,

Director,

Richard Jefferies Museum

The land at Kingshill, which later became the site of Radnor Street Cemetery, once belonged to James Bradford and appears on the Tithe Map details of 1840.

It is described as a coppice ground formerly called Wibley’s but later known as Howses Coppice. A coppice ground is an area of woodland where the trees are cut down close to ground level the resulting growth was then used to make hurdles, in wattle and daub house building and also to make charcoal.

James Bradford was a solicitor who lived and worked at a property in the High Street close to what was then The King of Prussia public house. He married into the Goddard family. His wife’s name was Annica Werden Goddard and she came from a branch of the family living in Cliffe Pypard.

James died in August 1861 and the following year Annica sold this 4 acre plus plot of land to John Harding Sheppard for £559 14s.

John Harding Sheppard owned most of the land on Kingshill. He was a farmer and a brewer and he also owned Kingshill Villa and various other properties across Swindon.

Sheppard died in 1868 which is when a lot of the Kingshill land came up for sale and development began. But for some reason the land seemed to be unpopular and sales took place periodically throughout the 1870s.

In 1871 the executors of Sheppard’s will – his sons John Harding Sheppard (jnr) and William Sheppard sold Howses Coppice by then described as a Close of land, to James Edward Goddard Bradford, so it came back into the Bradford family’s possession.

Then in 1878 James Edward Goddard Bradford sold Howses Coppice to James Hinton. If you compare maps of the piece of land Hinton bought with a map of the cemetery today it looks a very similar shape although considerably smaller in 1878 than when the cemetery was laid out three years later.

Now I’d always been led to believe James Hinton was a bit of a wheeler and dealer. In his time he was a butcher, an auctioneer, a builder and brick maker, a railway entrepreneur, a Freemason and Forester, New Swindon Local Board member, Alderman and Mayor of Swindon in 1903. In 1878 James Hinton paid almost £1,900 pounds for the 4 acre + Howses Coppice Ground.

With this land James gained ‘right of ingress egress and regress at all times with or without horses carts and carriages’. This means he had right of way across this piece of land and as he was by then engaged in building at various plots across Kingshill that must have made life much easier for him.

Hinton obviously bought a further 6 acres plus around the Coppice Ground as when he offered the land for sale at £3,907 to the Burial Board it measured 10 acres plus.

My foray into the records yielded yet more information. I found details of a stone wall built in 1890 to protect the bank at the rear of Nos 30-38 Clifton Street. You can’t help but wonder if building a cemetery on the side of a hill was a good idea?

I also found plans dated 1907 to extend the existing greenhouses at the back of the Lodge.

On early photographs of the cemetery you will see flowers under a glass dome on many of the graves. Maybe these were produced in-house by the cemetery staff in the greenhouses.

It took a long time for the Local Boards of Old and New Swindon to come to an agreement on where to site a municipal cemetery. Talks began in 1868 but the cemetery wasn’t laid out until 1881.

The contract for laying out the cemetery and completing the necessary buildings went to Messrs Phillips, Powell and Wiltshire.

The architect was W.H. Read who designed the buildings, that is the Chapel, the mortuary and the Lodge, in the popular Gothic revivalist style. He is buried here with his wife so he must have liked what they did with the place.

The churchyard at St Mark’s closed on August 1^st 1881 and the first burials at Radnor Street took place on August 6.

The cemetery closed to new burials in the 1970s but burials still take place in family plots.

There are 33,000 people buried here – and members of the Swindon Heritage team are telling their stories one at a time!

Conveyance dated November 6, 1871 between John Harding Sheppard of Stoke, William Sheppard of Ashford to J.E.G. Bradford

Plans for new greenhouse at cemetery

William Hooper photograph published courtesy of Paul Williams

Calling the good people of North Swindon and Wichelstowe and anyone newly moved to Swindon.

How much do you know about our town's fascinating and varied history?

Have you seen a copy of the Swindon Heritage magazine? The latest edition includes the story of Swindon soldiers who served in the Battle of the Somme.

Find out about the Swindon Heritage blue plaque project. Our first blue plaque commemorates Swindon Suffragette Edith New born at 24 North Street on March 17, 1877.

Read about the Great Western Railway's first loco driver and visit his grave at Radnor Street Cemetery, this Sunday July 10.

So, what's happening this Sunday, July 10? Only the first Swindon Heritage History Day with guided cemetery walks and a local history exhibition. The Swindon Society will be there and the Wiltshire Family History Society and ... well anyone who is anyone on the local history scene (see details below).

How to find Radnor Street Cemetery

Come and find out more about where you live. We look forward to meeting you too.

Here in Swindon we are so very fortunate. We have historic countryside on our doorstep with more national monuments than you can shake a stick at and within the borough boundaries more green spaces than many towns and cities twice its size.

When the desperately needed Swindon cemetery was on the drawing board in 1881, planners were already looking forward to a time when it would have to close.

The 11 and a half acre cemetery was designed on the principle of a country estate with the chapel situated where the house might be. Pathways radiate out to a serpentine perimeter walk where local residents would be able to enjoy some gentle exercise long after the cemetery had closed.

In 2005 the cemetery was declared a Local Nature Reserve and described as:

Mostly ancient semi-natural woodland, with oak dominating canopy and hazel dominating understorey. Some parts managed as coppice with standards. Many large old coppice stools, especially field maple and oak. Good range of woodland flowers and animals. Bechstein's bat is proven to breed on site. Open wayleaves under powerlines are important for invertebrates. Small adjacent species rich meadow.

Unfortunately local government spending cuts in recent years have led to reduced staffing and the team of Rangers who once held so many events have long gone while council groundsmen do the minimum amount of maintenance.

Now if you are a glass half empty kind of person you may be unhappy at the state of affairs at the cemetery, complaining that it is abandoned and neglected and shows a lack of respect for those buried there.

But if you are a glass half full person - ah, then you will see the beauty and perhaps the vision of those early town planners. Perhaps they would have cut the grass more regularly and trimmed the hedges occasionally; kept the pesky brambles at bay and perhaps even have replaced the lost benches.

As for respect and remembrance members of the Swindon Heritage team have spent many years doing just that. Military historian and Swindon Heritage co-founder Mark Sutton has been arranging a Remembrance Day Service at the chapel for more than ten years and guided cemetery walks take place every second Sunday in the month between March and October while research continues throughout the year. And this year marks the first Swindon Heritage History Day to celebrate the fascinating history of our town.

Today Radnor Street Cemetery is a beautiful green space between the original Old Swindon and its industrial neighbour New Swindon.

Come along on Sunday and join us on a guided walk. Learn about the early railway settlers who made our town and the soldiers of the Great War who died defending its freedom.

The first Swindon Heritage History Day takes place this Sunday, 10am - 4pm. Guided walks are at 11am, 12.30pm and 2pm. For further details see below.

Cemetery followers on a guided walk

Remembrance Day Service

photograph published courtesy of Andy Preston

photograph published courtesy of Neil Lover

The average cost of a funeral today is in the region of £3,700 and increasing. When the Swindon Cemetery at Kingshill opened in 1881 a funeral could cost a pretty penny back then too.

On Monday, August 8, 1881 the North Wilts Herald published a break down of funeral costs, by the order of the Burial Board.

For a Vault in perpetuity, to contain four corpses abreast, not exceeding 9ft deep the cost was £4 4s about £380 today.

If more than 9ft deep you had to pay an additional £1 1s (£95 today) per foot and if you wanted to choose a selected position in the cemetery, well that would be another £1 1s.

Permission to erect a headstone cost another £2 2s (£190 today) while even an entry in the burial registers cost half a crown (£11)

Then there were the charges for the Sexton's labour, which could cost anything from 3s (£13 today) for digging and filling in a common grave for any resident, his wife, or child to £2 2s (£190 today) for digging, excavating and levelling ground over a vault for two corpses, 9ft deep, and attending burial. And if you wanted him to toll the Chapel bell that would be 1s (about a fiver today) and for every one hour period beyond that, another 1s.

The costs are mounting up, and this is without a headstone, where even the inscriptions and plans for any such memorial had to go before the Burial Board for approval.

And if you didn't live in Swindon all the fees were doubled.

This list of fees was signed by James Copleston Townsend, Clerk to the Burial Board with an invitation that any objection to the above mentioned Board Fees were to be communicated to him at 42 Cricklade Street, Swindon, on or before Saturday, the 20th August.

We won't be charging you to search the Burial Registers at the Swindon Heritage History Day this Sunday July 10 10am - 4pm. The guided walks are also free. And if you want to discover further details about your ancestors funeral, staff from AE Smith Funeral Directors will be there as well.

On a beautiful summer's day in 1884 George Brooks stood at the graveside as his fourteen year old daughter Adelaide was laid to rest. He was one of few mourners at his daughter's funeral.

It was a different story when, more than 20 years later, he stood at the same grave in Radnor Street Cemetery at the interment of his 96 year old mother.

George was born in Bristol in 1846 the son of stonemason Joseph Brooks and his wife Anne. At the time of the 1861 census 15 year old George was working as a Pupil Teacher and living in a house in Berkley Square, Bedminster with his parents and his two younger sisters Elizabeth and Charlotte.

George married Elizabeth Smith on March 29, 1869 and two years later they were living at 20 Fleet Street, Swindon with their baby daughter Adelaide. George was employed in the railway factory as a railway clerk.

During the following ten years the couple would have three more children but Elizabeth died shortly after the birth of a son Frederick. At the time of the 1881 census George was living at 33 Carfax Street with his sister Charlotte and his four children, Adelaide 10, Albert H. 9, Mary 6 and three year old Frederick. The following year he married Harriett Dean.

Sadly young Adelaide didn't have the strong constitution of her paternal grandmother who died at the age of 96. When Anne Brooks died in 1907 the following account of her life was published in the Gloucester Citizen.

There were laid to rest in Swindon Cemetery this week the mortal remains of the late Mrs Anne Brooks, mother of Mr George Brooks, a Great Western Railway Official, of Park Lane Swindon who passed away at her son's residence at the ripe age of 96 years. It is interesting to recall the fact that the deceased old lady's mother died at the advanced age of 98 years, that that lady's mother, Mrs Brooks's grandmother, lived to be 105 years old, so that the united ages of mother, daughter and granddaughter totalled 298 years.

There are 33,000 burials in Radnor Street Cemetery - 33,000 stories waiting to be told. Come and visit the Swindon Heritage History Day tomorrow and tell us your story.

Today we have not one, not even two but three guided walks taking place at Radnor Street Cemetery, each one taking a different route and visiting different graves.

Noel Beauchamp, Andy Binks, Noel Ponting and I will be taking you on two different GWR themed guided walks around the cemetery at 11 am and 2 pm while at 12.30 Phil Comley will be conducting a guided walk of the military graves.

Working in partnership with Swindon175 we have a growing number of exhibitors joining us for the first ever Swindon Heritage History Day.

Want to know where your ancestor is buried in Radnor Street Cemetery? We will have volunteers who can search the burial registers for you. And if you'd like to know more about your ancestor's funeral, visit the staff at the A.E. Smith stand who will be bringing copies of their ledgers with them.

Cemetery follower Maggie says:

"Bring photos and information about your ancestors who are buried at Radnor Street cemetery. We'll have temporary markers that you can place on their graves - providing fascinating details about the personalities who created Swindon. Share your love and pride in their contribution. If you don't know the location of the grave, we'll help you locate it. Bring the name and, if possible, the month as well as the year of death."

Do you have any seldom seen photographs of Swindon and the surrounding villages? The Swindon Society, the Broadgreen History Group and the Rodbourne Community History Group would love to see them.

Are you researching your family history? Have you hit a brick wall? Come and talk to members of the Wiltshire Family History Society (Swindon Branch) they will be happy to help.

And Mark Sutton from Swindon in the Great War will be there to help you with your military research.

Have you visited the Richard Jefferies Museum recently? Come and see what the hard working volunteers have been up to in recent months.

All this and much more at the Swindon Heritage History Day, Sunday July 10 10am-4pm.

Robert Laxon - pioneer railwayman

Jason Johnson - pioneer railwayman

The weather was kind to us (just a few spit spots of rain) and the heritage fans turned out in force.

Here are a few photos from our first ever Swindon Heritage History Day. We hope you had a good time. We certainly did!

Graham and Brian Carter were busy all day with burial register look ups

The lovely Diane

Ian and Jan from A.E. Smith

Rodbourne Community History Group

Dave Woods from Swindon 105.5

Maggie Brunger

Caroline Davies Khan and the Savernake Street Social Hall

Andy Binks talking about William Steward

Noel Ponting talking about Jimmy Thomas

Andy Binks talking about Samuel Carlton

Noel Ponting talking about John Hudson Read

A packed chapel for the Swindon Heritage History Day

Mural man Ken White and movie man Martin Parry

Noel Beauchamp talking about George French (Hooty) and Jim Hurst

Darryl Moody from Local Studies and the Book Pedlar

Yesterday we were pleased to host Swindon Pulse Wholefood co-op's 40th anniversary celebration. If you haven't yet discovered this Swindon gem, go along to the great little shop in Curtis street. (You can now park opposite) writes Andrea Hirsch on the Friends of Lower Shaw Farm facebook page.

So in view of this auspicious occasion I am publishing an article written in March 2013.

The premises at 27 Curtis Street has a long history of retail. In 1971 Jack Trueman ran the long time family butchers shop. Before the Trueman family butchery Thomas H. Cave was a greengrocer at this address and today it is the home of Swindon Pulse Wholefood Co-operative.

Co-operative member Cath talked to me from her Bond villain chair in the office behind the shop where Madeline James was busy weighing out and pricing lentils.

Swindon Pulse Wholefood Co-operative began in 1976 out of the back of a Morris Minor van pitched up in Swindon’s old market. The initiative of residents from Lower Shaw Farm grew out of a demand for vegetarian foods and an increasing interest in healthy eating.

“In 1976 vegetarianism was a bit alternative, a bit radical,” said Cath. “It’s totally different now, vegetarianism is pretty mainstream but in those days it wasn’t and you couldn’t get as much stuff for it.” This was the heyday of the worker’s co-operative, Cath explains with several of Pulse suppliers founded during this time.

Pulse was soon up and running at a short term let property near the Town Hall. In 1977, with seven members and a growing consumer base the co-operative moved to 105 Curtis Street. Trading continued at this address for the next ten years until a demolition order was placed on the property and they relocated to number 27.

Today the co-operative is run by five members. “Because we are a limited company your input is a pound, when you leave you take your pound with you,” explained Cath. “Whilst you’re here you are running the business, you make the decisions – what we’re going to do. We all get paid the same.”

Cath has been involved with Pulse since moving to Swindon in the late 1980s, first as a customer, then a volunteer and now a member of the co-operative.

“You see a lot of changes in what people buy,” said Cath. “Products that come and go; products that become more mainstream. At the moment it’s gluten free things, special diets, all that sort of thing.”

Over the years people have also come and gone and the link with Lower Shaw Farm no longer exists, although Matt Holland and Andrea Hirsch are still regular customers.

The shop bell tinkled and within a few minutes customers were browsing the shelves.

“Here we are, Swindon Pulse, going strong and I hope we’ll still be here in ten years time,” said Cath as it was back to business.

If you would like to know more about Swindon Pulse Wholefood Co-operative visit the website on www.swindon-pulse.co.uk– or better still, pop in the shop and have a look for yourself.

Cath in her Bond villain chair

The shop in Curtis Street waiting for it's second coat of paint

photograph published courtesy of Madeline James.

Nicki Western, Marketing, Events and Premises Manager at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, arrived at the Swindon Heritage History Day weighed down with some extremely heavy bags. Among the museum artefacts she had brought with her was a selection of the ever popular Alfred Beaney photographs. Here's a blogpost I published in December 2012 about the Beaney archive.

Swindon Museum and Art Gallery has possibly the largest family album ever - and they want to know the names of everyone pictured in it.

The albums contain 40,000 photographs taken in the 1940s-70s by local man Albert Beaney. Alongside his commissioned work Albert would travel the streets of Swindon on his motorbike, taking photographs of the children at play. He would then return with his prints in the hope of selling them to the childrens' parents. Consequently only addresses and street names were recorded in his notebooks - the names of those pictured remain unknown.

In 1998 the collection, a priceless piece of Swindon's social history, was purchased by the Museum with help from the Swindon Society, and last year formed the basis of the Back to Black ...and White project.

Meanwhile the Museum and the Swindon Society continue their quest to reveal the names of those pictured, and last night the museum opened its doors to visitors to do just that. For some there were surprises - Maggie felt sure she had discovered a photo of her niece - but for others the search continued. One former Penhill resident remembered having his photograph taken in front of the block of flats where he and some friends were playing football - no luck last night though.

For more information on the Beaney collection contact the Swindon Society.

18 & 23 Wilcot Avenue 1959

25 Oxford Street, Railway Village 1951

42 The Circle, Pinehurst 1951

You might also like to read

Albert Beaney's Photographs

Today we will see him move out of 10 Downing Street ...

while she moves in ...

but someone much closer to home had a very close connection with this most famous of London residences.

Unfortunately there are no depictions of Sir Walter St John walking through this very same door, but there is some paperwork to prove that he probably did.

So what is the connection between the St John family, Lydiard House and 10 Downing Street?

Edward Lee 1st Earl of Lichfield was the grandson of Anne St John, the daughter of Sir John St John 1st Baronet and his wife Anne Leighton who owned Lydiard House and Park in the 17th century. Charlotte Fitzroy, Edward's wife, was the illegitimate daughter of Charles II and Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine, the granddaughter of Barbara St John, Sir John's sister. This brother and sister are represented on the St John polyptych in St Mary's Church.

Young Edward Lee was created Earl of Lichfield, Viscount Quarrendon and Baron Spelsbury upon his betrothal to the King's much loved illegitimate daughter Charlotte. The couple were married in February 1677 when Charlotte was just 12 years old.

When in London the newly weds home was a property granted by the King to Sir Walter St. John (Edward’s great uncle), Sir Ralph Verney, Sir Richard Howe and John Cary on a 99 year lease. Described as “all that peice …of Ground with the Buildings thereupon Within our Parke called St James Parke – bounded Eastward with the Buildings of the Cockpitt, Southward with the Wall of Hampden Garden, Northward one hundred and forty foote in length to the said Parke, Westward eighty five foote in length to the Parke.”

Today the property is the impressive building on Horse Guards Parade designed by Sir Christopher Wren and fronted by an undistinguished row of terraced houses called Downing Street.

You might like to read the full story on Good Gentlewoman.

Lydiard House and Park

Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine

Charlotte Fitzroy

Charles II

Barbara St John

Anne St John

Sir John St John, 1st Baronet

St John Polyptych

As Theresa May settles into her new job the expectation is that she will include a significant number of women in her cabinet.

Today I am publishing a blog post written in April 2012 about one of Swindon's own political women.

"Don't just say, what a world, change the world," is the advice Edith Stevens would give to a disaffected electorate who complain there is no point in voting.

Born in Swindon in 1884, Edith Stevens was the eldest of railwayman George and his wife Harriet’s six children. The 1901 census finds the family living at 11 Theobald Street where Welsh born George is described as an iron turner in the engine shop. His 15 year old son Stanley worked alongside him as an apprentice turner, Edith, aged 17, was a pupil teacher; the four younger daughters were Elsie 14, Olive 12, Winifred 8 and five year old Edna.

Edith grew up against a backdrop of political awareness and activity. Her father George was secretary of No 3 branch of the AEU and served as a Labour Councillor for eighteen years and Edith, a women’s rights campaigner, was one of the first women to record her vote in Swindon.

In 1903-05 Edith attended Southlands College, Battersea where she gained her certificated teacher qualification, after which she returned to Swindon to teach at Clarence Street School. Throughout the interwar years Edith worked with families battling against unemployment and poverty, organising food for the children in her care that frequently came to school hungry.

Edith served as president of the Swindon National Union of Teachers and was a member of the Retired Teachers Association. She was also an active member of the Swindon branch of the National Federation of Old Age Pensions Associations.

During the 1930s Edith became involved in the Friends of the Soviet Union organisation. A former member of the Independent Labour Party, Edith nailed her colours firmly to the mast, and subsequently joined the Communist Party. She became one of the founder members of the Swindon branch and in 1942 along with Bill Sargent and Ike Gradwell, Edith secured party headquarters at 1 Bridge Street. The house was named in her honour and when the party moved across the road in 1970 to 77/78 Bridge Street the new property was named Edith Stevens House.

Edith’s lifelong involvement with the former Soviet Union included fund raising efforts during WWII when she became secretary of the Swindon Anglo-Soviet Friendship Committee. In 1968, aged 84, Edith took part in a peace tour organised by the British Peace Committee, attending a peace conference in Helsinki and making her sixth and final visit to Russia.

Edith died at Stratton St Margaret Hospital on September 10, 1970 aged 86. She remained president of the Swindon Communist Party until her death.

At a subsequent memorial meeting held for Edith in the Les Bates Hall at the AEU House in Swindon, Dick Pearce, one of the founder members of the Swindon Communist Party, led the tributes.

"Throughout my life, he said, "I learned that anywhere in Swindon in working class and progressive movements you would find Edith Stevens in the thick of the struggle."

Photographs are published courtesy of Swindon Local Studies Collection.

The stunning St John polyptych at St Mary’s Church, Lydiard Park, will be open next weekend 22 – 24 July to celebrate the 401^st anniversary of its installation.

At the centre of this multi panelled genealogical masterpiece is a family portrait. Believed to have been painted by William Larkin (portraitist at the court of James I and known as ‘The Curtain Master’ for his predilection for including draped curtains and oriental carpets in his paintings) the St John portrait pays homage to the parents of Sir John St John, 1^st Baronet.

Sir John and Lady Lucy St John kneel in prayer on a sarcophagus beneath which lie three coffins representing three of their children who died before the painting of the portrait.

Their son, Sir John (1^st Baronet) and his wife, Anne Leighton stand on the left of the portrait and on the right are their six daughters.

The 17^th century St John family lived through turbulent times about which a vast amount of academic and populist historical works exist. The life of Sir John (1585-1648) is also well documented but what do we know about his six sisters?

As Brian Carne writes in the recently reprinted Curiously Painted: “Little has been discovered about the lives of the six sisters: they existed in the shadows of their husbands.”

Lucy St John was born in 1589. She married Sir Allen Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, at the church of St Ann’s, Blackfriars on October 23, 1615. Following his death she had a second, short lived marriage to Sir Leventhorpe Francke and she died in 1659 aged 70 years.

The little that is known about youngest sister Lucy, comes from the writings of her daughter Lucy Apsley.

Not a lot to be going on with for the historical biographer, but for the historical novelist an absolute gift! It was from this position that Elizabeth St John began writing The Lady of the Tower.

Elizabeth St John is a direct descendant of the senior Bletsoe branch of the St John family and the 13^th great granddaughter of Margaret Beauchamp (Henry VII’s grandmother).

Elizabeth, who grew up in England but now lives in California, first visited Lydiard about thirty-five years ago, and has returned almost every year since.

‘I remember the first time I visited, walking through the house and seeing all the portraits. It was as if part of me had come home - perhaps it's because I inherited the St. John nose, and there was a sense of familiarity!’

Elizabeth’s novel has been a long time in the writing and began as an article published in The Friends of Lydiard Tregoz Report 1987 as The Influence of the Villiers Connection on the First Baronet and his Sisters.

‘The story stayed with me, and it's been a lifetime dream to write a book about them.’

Elizabeth has undertaken extensive research and skilfully interweaves fact and fiction, including authentic 17^th century cures and recipes borrowed from her kinswoman Lady Johanna St John’s Booke.

Elizabeth’s novel has received critical acclaim:

Few authors tackle this period, opting for the more popular eras, but Elizabeth St John has brought the early Stuart Court in the years before the English Civil War vividly to life. She weaves together the known facts of Lucy’s life with colourful scenes of fictional imagination, drawing on innocent romance and bleak deception to create a believable heroine, and an intriguing plot.

Historical Novel Society

But perhaps one of the greatest endorsements is that The Lady of the Tower is now on sale in the Tower of London bookshop.

But if you can’t pop into the Tower, the book is available online from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle (where it is now in the Kindle Best Sellers for Historical Fiction in both the US and UK).

The Lady of the Tower leaves the story in 1630 with Lucy recently widowed and homeless. Elizabeth is currently writing a second book, which has the working title ‘By Love Divided’ and follows the story of Lucy’s two children.

‘Lucy Hutchinson and Allen Apsley, fought on opposing sides of the Civil War. This book explores their lives, and those of their extended family, through their eyes. The conflict that drove their beliefs was often blurred and confused, and throughout the wars they remained extremely close. It's a fascinating time in our history, and one that not much is written about.’

Elizabeth St John

Lucy St John stands closest to her mother in the St John polyptych family portrait

Margaret Beauchamp Henry VII's grandmother (and Elizabeth St John's 13x great grandmother).

Sadly Swindon has a poor record for preserving its heritage. So many fine buildings have been lost over the years with the Mechanics' Institute and the Corn Exchange just about hanging on in there.

And it would seem that it was ever thus.

A church had stood on the site in the Lawn since 1154 and was dedicated to St Mary until the mid 16th century. It was partially restored in 1736 but by the mid 19th century was fast becoming too small for the town's growing population.

Christ Church, the new parish church in Old Town, was consecrated in 1851, leaving the old church of Holy Rood abandoned.

The Vestry, the seat of local government back in the day, met in March 1853 and after thanking the re-elected Churchwardens Robert Reynolds and Richard Read for their work during the previous year, it was announced that the old parish church would be demolished asap. Did they discuss an alternative use for the building? Did they consider preserving more than 700 years of history? Doesn't look like it.

It will be seen by an advertisement in this paper, that the building materials are to be disposed of by tender. An excellent opportunity will be afforded to persons about to build to procure a large quantity of well seasoned stone. A large quantity of well seasoned oak panelling will be sold as part of the materials reported the Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette on Thursday 31 March 1853

The Chancel was to be left intact and the floor and steps were not included. Well thank goodness for that!

Prospective customers had to get in quickly. Notice of the Lots was published on March 29 and bids had to be in by April 11. Methinks maybe a deal had already been brokered.

So what was up for grabs. Well, pretty much everything.

All the internal fittings of the nave and aisles, including the galleries, with the iron pillars, and the doors of the building.

All the lead, lead-work, and solder on the roofs, and all the glass and lead of the windows, and all the water spouting and fixtures.

All the tiles on the roofs of the nave, aisles, tower and vestry room.

All the timber and joists of the nave, aisles, tower and vestry room and the floor of the latter.

All the stones of the north, south and west walls of the tower and vestry room.

All the stones of the north aisle, and of the walls and arches separating it from the nave; but not to include any part of the walls at the east and west ends of the nave.

All the stones of the south aisle, and of the walls and arches separating it from the nave, and also the stones of the west wall of the nave, separating it from the tower.

The walls were to be taken down to the level of the floor or pavement of the interior of the church, but no stone forming any part of the floor or pavement, and no stone steps to be removed.

If you live in Old Town and your house dates from the 1850s, who knows, you might have a piece of the old church in the foundations. It is believed that the ice house in the Lawn was built from reused church materials and pieces of stone were used in the farmhouse at Church Farm.