Florence Martha Hinton

What job opportunities would have been available to the young Florence Hinton? Unlike the daughters of the railway workers, she would hardly have joined the growing female workforce in the Carriage and Wagon Works. Of course, she might have been employed in one of her father’s several businesses but it seems more likely that she devoted her time to voluntary work with the Wesleyan Methodist community in Gorse Hill.

Florence Martha Hinton was born on December 21, 1872, the elder daughter of James Hinton and his second wife Sarah. Florence was baptised on January 9, 1879 with her sister Mary Ann at a Wesleyan Methodist church in nearby Farringdon.

James Hinton was a typical Victorian entrepreneur. During his lifetime he had several successful careers and was a prosperous landowner, a local politician and served as Mayor of Swindon in 1903/4. When he died in 1907 James Hinton left £18,910 worth approximately £2m today. But what kind of life did his daughter Florrie lead?

We discover most about Florrie’s life from a detailed obituary published in the Swindon Advertiser at the time of her death.

Florrie married Benjamin Harding, another business man and local politician, at the Presbyterian Church, Swindon on October 30, 1895. At the time of the 1901 census the couple were living at 35 Cricklade Road, Gorse Hill. Benjamin describes himself as a corn dealer and the couple employed 19-year-old Jane Gage as a servant.

At the time of her death in 1905 Florrie and Benjamin were at “Parkfield,” St Brannocks Road, Ilfracombe in Devon but her body was returned to Swindon for burial. The funeral took place from her parent’s home, The Brow, Victoria Road on what was described as a beautiful day where “a very large number of people attended the funeral on foot” and proceeded to Radnor Street Cemetery. The funeral service took place in the cemetery chapel which was filled with some of the mourners having to stand outside. The funeral report continued:

“At the graveside the ceremony was even more impressive, since the large crowd waiting patiently without was able to participate in the service.”

Among the mourners were members of the Gorse Hill Wesleyan Choir and the Wesleyan Sewing Meeting along with many Gorse Hill residents “the scene of so many of the deceased lady’s ungrudging labours, and where she was held in such loving esteem by all who knew her.”

Florrie was buried in plot E8278, close to the cemetery chapel. Her father James died two years later and is buried in the adjacent plot E8279 where her mother was also buried when she died in 1926.

Within four years Benjamin had remarried and was living in Gorse Hill with his second wife Ethel and their two children. He died in 1934 and was buried with Florrie.

The elaborate, black marble monument has an engraving of towers and rooftops and an inscription that reads “In my Father’s House are many mansions.” Florrie is also remembered in Gorse Hill in the naming of a street built by her father – Florence Street.