An armchair guided cemetery walk

Perfect weather conditions for a guided cemetery walk, but today we have to make do with an armchair visit. But that's not so bad, is it?

Sadly, some of the gravestones in Radnor Street Cemetery are in a perilous condition, but with the wealth of online genealogy resources now available it is possible to piece together disappearing family histories.

The Dadge Family

As you will see the front of the headstone with all the family details on it is gradually coming away. This is caused by frost getting into the stone and you will see many headstones like this in the cemetery. Sometimes the whole front comes away in one sheet.

Elizabeth Mary Dadge was born in 1871 the daughter of William Dadge, a Smith’s striker, and his wife Martha.

From 1881 to at least 1901 the family lived at No 3 Brunel Street, a town centre street that has long since vanished. For most of that time William had his brother Albert and George lodging with the family. As young men they worked as Iron Dressers in the Works, then labourers until in 1901 Albert, then aged 41, was working as a Storekeepers Assistant. William meanwhile worked as a striker into his 60s.

Sadly little is known about Elizabeth who died very young. As an unmarried young woman we can safely assume she didn’t die in childbirth, but without ordering her death certificate her cause of death is unknown. My guess would probably be TB.

Next on the headstone is her sister Jane who died four years later at the age of 26, again unmarried. The same sort of guesswork applies to Jane’s cause of death.

The last name on the headstone is William George Dadge the girls’ brother. At 15 years old he followed his father into the railway works to begin a 6½ year boilermaker’s apprenticeship. However the UK Railway Employment Records show that he absconded in January 1888.

I can’t find him on the 1891 census records. This may be due to a transcribing error. Perhaps he called himself George. That and a spelling mistake would make it very difficult to find him.

Anyway, by 1901 he is back home with his parents living at No 3 Brunel Street where he is working as a joiner. In 1905 he married Agnes Brown and by the time of the 1911 census they were living with their baby daughter Winifred on the Hursley Park estate, Winchester where William was employed as estate carpenter.

In the last years of his life William was back in Swindon living at 74 William Street. He died on January 21, 1936.

Sadly I don’t think this headstone will weather many more winters and then the names and of this Swindon family will be lost, making research more difficult.

Sometimes a relative will tell us family stories, such as this one of Fred and Mary Winchcombe. Their granddaughter Mary joined us on one of our walks and kindly sent me the following information about her grandparents.

Fred and Mary Winchombe

This is the last resting place of Fred and Mary Winchcombe who married in 1911 and had a family of six sons and two daughters. Mary died in 1951 and Fred in 1962.

Fred was born July 25, 1884 at Draycott Cottage4s, Chiseldon, the son of farm labourer Jesse Winchcombe and his wife Harriet.

Fred Winchcombe worked in the GWR and walked in from his home in Chiseldon each day. He and the men he walked in with had the habit of taking a quick pint in the Patriots Arms on the way in, and one day met up with recruitment men from Kings Troop.

Fred enlisted with the Royal Regiment of Artillery Horse and Field Artillery in 1906 aged 19. He was posted to Ireland and was stationed just outside Kilkenny. The only public house deemed safe for the English troops to drink in was Mastersons Hotel in Kilkenny High Street. This was owned by Mary Morrisey's uncle, and she worked there. Mary was Roman Catholic.

Mary Morrissey was born on July 8, 1884 at Dungarvan, a coastal town in County Waterford.

They met, fell in love and Fred asked her to marry him. Her family were not opposed as long as Fred changed religion. He did, they were married in Holy Rood Church Swindon.

They started married life in Chiseldon, but as Mary insisted on walking into Swindon every day to attend mass, Fred moved them to 10 Union Street, Old Town where they lived until their deaths. They raised their large family in a two up two down terrace house with outside toilet and no bathroom.

Mary very much wanted to go back to Ireland to see her own parents and siblings, but sadly, both parents died before they ever managed to save enough money for her fare.

And sometimes relatives tell us about their family member where there is no gravestone. Mandy was even able to provide some fantastic photographs of her 2x great uncle, Bill Gladwin.

William Henry Gladwin

William Henry Gladwin (known as Bill) was born in Malmesbury in 1883, the eldest of three children.

His father died when Bill was a child and his mother married two years after she was widowed. Her second husband was Albert Lea and they went on to have six children.

Bill served in France during the Great War and took his accordion with him which he played in the trenches. One of the family stories is that along with entertaining his fellow soldiers, the German soldiers could also be heard singing along to his accordion. Apparently Bill’s trench was shelled and fortunately he survived, but his accordion didn't.

After the war he worked as both a builder and a driver. Bill never married or had any children, but was much loved by his large family, close to brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces.

Bill was struck by a bus and killed after coming out of Bright Street Club in Gorse Hill on February 19, 1954. His burial took place a few days later, attended by members of his family.

Bill was buried in a pauper or public grave. This happens when a person has insufficient funds to pay for the cost of their funeral and the expense is met by the local authority. The funeral is very basic and interment takes place in a public grave.

Members of his family still find the circumstances of Bill’s burial upsetting and surprising, and have numerous questions that remain unanswered. They wonder why the large extended family didn’t club together to cover the cost of a funeral.

Bill left a will in which his effects were valued at £32 14s 9d. The family would like to place a memorial to Bill, but unfortunately this is not possible when several, unrelated persons are interred in a public grave.