In 1950 John Betjeman (Poet Laureate 1972-84) famously wrote in Studies in the History of Swindon that ‘there is very little architecture in Swindon and a great deal of building’. He did however add ‘but Swindon is more interesting than many towns which are more beautiful’. And it is the rows of red brick terrace houses that I’m interested in; more especially the people who lived in them.
For instance, how did Ernesto Poletti, born in Milan, arrive in Swindon and a job in the Works? How was Henry Kirby, a farm labourer, who at the time of his marriage was unable to sign his own name, end up living off a private income in 1911? And who was Mrs Griffin?
In 1906 Mrs Griffin engaged auctioneers Dore, Fielder & Matthews to sell four houses she owned on Kingshill Road.
The properties were to be sold in two lots and were described as follows:
Lot 1 – A pair of substantially erected dwelling houses, beings Nos. 55 and 56 Kingshill Road, Swindon, each containing entrance passage, sitting room, kitchen, washhouse and 2 bedrooms, together with w.c. and large garden at rear (with back entrance) in the respective occupations of Messrs Darling and Pellotti [sic] at weekly rentals producing £28 12s per annum, owner paying outgoings.
Lot 2 – A pair of similar dwelling houses adjoining Lot 1, being Nos 57 and 58 Kingshill Road, Swindon, in the respective occupations of Messrs Waite and Kirby at weekly rentals producing £28 12s per annum owner paying outgoings.
The Poletti’s must have liked Kingshill Road. From 1906-1918 they lived in three different properties, numbers 56, 64 and 188.
Ernesto Cesare Poletti was born in Milan, Italy in 1870. In the December quarter of 1896 he married Bessie Daymond in the Newton Abbot registration district, Devon and the first time I find him in Swindon is on the 1901 census. Then the couple lived at 34 Clifton Street with their two young sons, both born in Torquay, and Ernesto was employed as a carpenter in the railway factory. Ernesto became a naturalised British Subject in 1923. He died at his home in William Street in 1952 aged 83 and is buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.
Henry Kirby was born in Stratton in 1833 and spent most of his life working as an agricultural labourer. He married Eliza Cavey at St Margaret’s Church, Stratton St Margaret on October 20, 1860 when both bride and groom signed the marriage register by making their mark, indicating neither of them could write sufficiently well to sign their names.
In 1911 Henry 78 and Eliza 71 were living at 58 Kingshill Road with their unmarried son William George 41. Eliza states that they had been married 51 years and had ten children, one of whom had died by 1911. William worked as a boiler smith’s driller in the Works while Henry was living off ‘private means.’
But how does the street numbering system work on Kingshill Road. The 1899 Ordnance Survey map reveals the road was barely built up at the turn of the twentieth century. The canal side was allotment gardens and on the opposite side there was a large gap in the housing, just before the steep incline begins.
So, as I stand in front of the present-day numbers 55 – 58, looking extremely suspicious (while taking photographs recently I was asked if I was a spy!) I’m left wondering if these houses were the homes of Ernesto Poletti and Henry Kirby and who was Mrs Griffin?
