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Comrades of the Great War
Today marked what should have been the first in our 2020 season of guided Radnor Street Cemetery walks, but sadly due to the current coronavirus crisis these have been cancelled for the foreseeable...
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An eighteenth century tour of Swindon
When Ambrose Goddard married Sarah Williams it involved a lot of legal man hours and a very large document.The Marriage Settlement dated 12 August 1776 reads like a tour of eighteenth century Swindon...
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So, who were they all?
A church has stood in the Lawn, the site of the former Goddard family home, since the 12th century. All that remains standing today is the chancel and three pairs of piers which once flanked the...
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Lost on a lads' night out
How's it going for all of you out there in lockdown land? Is it getting any easier or are you fast losing the plot? Good days and bad ones? I think it's the same for most of us.So, fancy joining me for...
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Charlotte Wilsdon - Crimea nurse
Good morning cemetery followers. A beautiful day, but I hope you are all staying home and staying safe. You can always join me on a virtual guided cemetery walk.As our NHS staff respond to a modern day...
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The Cemetery Problem
By the 1880s the burial of the dead had become a controversial issue. Various forces were in operation. A rapidly increasing population saw a demand on burial space, which in turn became a public...
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Lady's Nightcap and Witches' Thimbles
The current Covid 19 crisis has made many take stock of their lives, the things they appreciate and the things they take for granted. On my regular daily walk I stop and celebrate the beauty around me...
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Joah and Albert Sykes
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...
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Studley Grange Farms
Studley Grange Garden and Leisure Park is situated just off the M4 at junction 16. A popular destination for young families, Studley Grange boasts a craft village, garden centre plus a farm park and...
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The past is a foreign country ...
Lady Johanna St John's 1680 book of pills, potions and plasters is a rare survivor of the type of manual every well to do 17th century woman compiled. A collection of recipes recorded for their...
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A portrait of Mary Tuckey
Mary Tuckey, spinster, died in 1837, before the advent of photography, and how I wish there was an image of her.I can imagine her seated at her dressing table beside the carved worked bed with the...
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#MyFavouriteMemorial - William Miles
There is a new hashtag promotion taking place on Twitter called #MyFavouriteMemorial. Now here's my dilemma. I don't have just the one.This is ONE of my favourite memorials in Radnor Street Cemetery....
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#MyFavouriteMemorial - Arthur and Sarah Ashfield
This is another of my favourite memorials at Radnor Street Cemetery - it's too difficult to choose just one.The angel is probably one of the monuments most associated with Victorian and Edwardian...
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VE Day 75th Anniversary
Among the 103 Commonwealth War Graves in Radnor Street Cemetery is that of Kenneth W. Scott Browne who died on April 4, 1944 aged 23.Scott-Browne was a member of the King's Own Scottish Borderers 7th...
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#MyFavouriteMemorial - Ernest Henry Cousens
I think this is a quite beautiful and very unusual headstone and one I had not seen before - that is until I visited the churchyard at St Andrew's Church in Wanborough. Here there is exactly the same...
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Lydiard Wildlife
Nature, red in tooth and claw is very much in evidence on the lakes at Lydiard, and I'm grateful I am not a mother of chicks. During the Coronavirus lockdown it has been my habit to take an early...
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St John Hollow
Lydiard Park looked very different when I moved to West Swindon with my young family thirty years ago. For one thing the restored 18th century lake wasn't there. Created by John (Jack) Viscount St John...
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Lydiard House and Park c1808
I thought it would be relatively easy to recreate the scene captured by Frederick Nash in c1808 but it has turned out to be quite tricky.Between 1801 and 1809 Nash was among a number of artists who...
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A House Through Time
Are you watching A House Through Time written and presented by historian David Olusoga? Have you been inspired to research the history of your own house?My home in West Swindon was built in the 1980s...
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Bessie Symons Sparkes
This week I made my first visit to Radnor Street Cemetery since lockdown. Swindon Borough Council are mid way through mowing the cemetery so one half was neat and tidy while the other half was wild and...
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