Usually I would be posting online a few reminders for the advertised guided walk due to take place at Radnor Street Cemetery this Sunday, April 26. Sadly the continuing Coronavirus crisis and lockdown prevent us from conducting our walk, but we can always have a virtual potter round the cemetery on this blog. Hope you enjoy the photos of bluebells from a bygone Spring.
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So what’s so interesting about Joah and Albert Sykes?
The brothers were born in Leeds – Albert in 1823 and Joah in 1824. On the 1841 census we find them living in Hunslet where their father John worked as a surveyor of roads. Albert was working as a mechanics’ apprentice while Joah was a potter’s apprentice.
Albert began work as a fitter and turner in the GWR factory in September 1847 later working as a shop clerk while the 1851 census shows Joah still living in Hunslet with his wife and baby daughter. He is employed as a whitesmith (that is someone who works with tin).
Joah joined his brother in New Swindon around 1853 where he worked as a blacksmith in the railway factory. At the time of the 1861 census he is living with his wife and their five children at 1 East Place in a property they share with Peter Vizard, his wife and two daughters; Thomas Toombs, his wife and their three children and a lodger by the name of Jeremiah Walker. And the house wasn't that big! By 1871 Joah and his family are living at 25 Reading Street which remained his home until his death in 1910.
On first coming to New Swindon Albert lived in Westcott Place. Then he spent 20 years living in Fleet Street before moving to Victoria Road where he and his wife opened a music school. Both Joah and Albert were talented musicians. Joah played the oboe and both brothers were involved with musical events at the Mechanics’ Institute where Albert conducted the Mechanics’ Institutes’ Choral and Orchestral Union.
I think the two Sykes brothers are typical of those early settlers in New Swindon. At a time when we tend to think, (although incorrectly), that people didn’t move about much they left their home, their family and friends in Yorkshire, to move to Wiltshire. And once here they immersed themselves in the life of the community.
Joah was elected to the Council of the Mechanics’ Institution in 1870. He was a member of the Liberal Association with a reputation for being a radical and he was a member of the Methodist Chapel in Faringdon Road.
Albert died February 27, 1894. His wife Mary Hannah died in 1897 and is buried with him.
As you can see from this headstone, Joah died February 17, 1910. He is buried close to where his brother lies, with his wife Ellen and two of their daughters. Emily is described on the 1901 census returns as being an ‘imbecile from birth’. Of course we have no idea what her disability might have been but how difficult must it have been for Joah and his wife with their large family and none of the help and resources we have available to us today?
I have so much respect and admiration for how these people managed more than 100 years ago.
