And then there were those who came back – to a home fit for heroes.
Ernest Abraham Rivers was born in 1882 the second youngest child of James and Elizabeth Rivers’ large family. Ernest worked as a bricklayer and builder and married Eliza Painter on August 5, 1903. Eliza was born in 1882, the middle child of John Painter and his wife Hannah. Ernest and Eliza went on to have their own large family; their eldest son George Rivers (sometimes known as Painter) was born on October 13 1902, ten months before they married.
The family lived at 23 Prospect Hill when the 1911 census reveals they had five children, George 8, Raymond 7, Lancelot 5, Avis 3 and six months old Edna. They would go on to have another four children – Eileen born in 1913, Myrtle in 1915, Winifred in 1916 and Eric who was born in the summer of 1918.
On August 4, 1914 Britain declared war on Germany and at the end of 1915 Ernest joined the Royal Engineers leaving a wife and seven children behind in Swindon. Unfortunately, his service records are incomplete but it seems unlikely that he ever saw service overseas. Following his attestation he was sent to the army reserve before being mobilised to the Royal Engineers Depot W. Lancs. It was here that he served for 1 year 108 days before being discharged as no longer physically fit for War Service, suffering from a prolapse rectum, apparently a pre-existing condition that dated back to 1913.
Ernest returned to Swindon and his job as a bricklayer but in 1918 tragedy hit the family with the death of Eliza aged just 37. She left behind nine children including a baby just a few months old. There was no money for a private grave plot and Eliza was buried on November 13 in a public grave in Radnor Street Cemetery with four other unrelated people.
In 1939 war loomed large again. Ernest was living at 23 Prospect Hill with his two unmarried daughters. He had never remarried. That same year, youngest son Eric married Emily F. Gadd but sadly they would not have a happy ever after ending either. Gunner Eric Rivers, a member of the Field Rgt Royal Artillery, was killed on February 21, 1945. He was buried in Jonkerbos War Cemetery, Nijmegen Part 2, Belgium.
Ernest Abraham Rivers died in February 1951 aged 68. His last address was 23 Prospect Hill, the home he had shared with Eliza all those years ago. He was buried on February 24, 1951 in a public grave plot B1940, with four other unrelated people.
We continue to gather around the Cross of Sacrifice in Radnor Street Cemetery each Remembrance Day to remember those who sacrificed their lives in two world wars and those who died in more recent conflicts. And we remember those who returned but whose lives were never the same again – Tell Them of Us.
William Dorling Bavin wrote the definitive book recording the story of Swindon during the First World War. Commissioned by Swindon Borough Council and published in 1922 Bavin compiled a complete record of local activities, charitable and otherwise, in connection with the war. It is a book which has been the source material for so many others and to mark the centenary of the First World War a facsimile copy was published by Local Studies, Swindon Central Library and is available from the Library Shop.
W.D. Bavin was born in Lincoln in 1871 and spent his early career as an assistant tutor at Westminster Training College, London and later as an instructor of pupil teachers at Bath Technical College. In 1897 he was appointed the first head of the Swindon Pupil Teacher Centre for teachers at Swindon Board Schools.
His other appointments included head of Swindon Higher Grade Elementary School and headmaster of Sanford Street Boys School.
William D. Bavin married twice. His first wife Jessie died in 1915 and his second wife Helen in 1959. Bavin died in 1948 and is buried with both his wives.
Swindon J.P.
Death of Mr W.D. Bavin
After a short illness the death occurred in the Victoria Hospital this morning of Mr W.D. Bavin, aged 76, of 160 Goddard-avenue, Swindon a retired headmaster of Sanford-street Boys’ School.
Starting his career as a pupil teacher in 1889 at Lincoln he completed his training at Westminster Training College and was then engaged as a resident tutor.
Two and a half years later he took up an appointment at Bath Technical College as head of the pupil teachers’ centre department and was then appointed head of the Pupil Teachers’ Centre which opened in Swindon in 1897.
In 1903 he became head of the Swindon Higher Elementary School and in 1919 was transferred to the headmastership of Sanford-street Boys’ School when his elementary school was converted into a secondary school.
For some years he was the National Union of Teachers’ representative on the Education Committee and was vice-chairman of the Swindon Juvenile Employment Sub-Committee. He was also founder and chairman of the After-Care Committee.
His activities for youth had not been confined to school service however. He was founder and treasurer of the Swindon Triangle Boys’ Club, and for many years was the president of the local Sunday School Union.
Mr Bavin was also the author of various works on mathematics and local history and his record of Swindon’s part in the 1914-1918 war received compliments from universities in America, France, Scotland and Wales. He wrote two volumes on teaching for Sunday School teachers and since 1918 had written the annual Sunday School Union handbook.
The late Autumn sunshine glances across the cemetery. Everyone says how unseasonably warm it is this year. The Scouts who stood around the Cross of Sacrifice on Remembrance Day struggled in their uniforms. One little chap fainted. He hit the ground with such a thud. Never seen that happen before. November is usually a bleak month; the weather bitter, the memories more so.
I’ve walked past this grave so many times over the years, but do you know what, I can’t remember what once stood atop the memorial. Perhaps they placed an angel here after Isabel died. I wonder if her father ever got to meet his little daughter. Most probably it would have been a cross though, I think. What happened to it? Did it topple over during a winter storm?
The cemetery volunteers will be around in a little while. I see them most Thursdays. They do a fantastic job keeping the war graves clear. And not only the official ones but the monuments like this one, too. Today the distinctive feature about the dilapidated memorial is the inscription:
In Loving Memory of Private Alfred George Richman 5th Wilts Rgt Husband of F.E. Richman Died in Mesopotamia Feb 19, 1917 Aged 32.
Private Archibald David Richman Machine Gun Corps Died in France Feb 4th 1918 Aged 21 sons of D. & S.J. Richman.
I remember the Richman family like it was only yesterday. But can I remember what stood on the top of this monument? Perhaps it will come to me later.
The facts …
When David Richman completed the 1911 census returns he recorded that he and his wife Sarah Jane had been married 28 years. They had five children, all of whom were living. By the time of the next census in 1921 they had lost two sons.
In 1911 Alfred George Richman lived at 18 Plymouth Street. He was 26 years old and worked as a branch manager in a grocery store. He had been married to Frances Edith just under a year. They would go on to have three children, Kenneth and Raymond and little Isabel who was born in 1916 and died in 1917. In 1911 Archibald David was just 14 years old. He lived with his parents and his elder brother and younger sister at 10 St Margarets Road, working as a grocery apprentice alongside his father. Another elder brother Frank was also married. He worked as a railway clerk in the GWR Works and was married to Annie Mary. They lived at 86 Kent Road with their baby daughter Phyllis Irene.
Archibald David Richman is buried in the Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, one of 877 Commonwealth burials of the First World War (17 of them unidentified).
Alfred George Richman is buried in Amara War Cemetery in modern day Iraq where his name is recorded on Panel No. 39 XXVII E.
Those buried in grave C1575E are Fanny Withey, Sarah Jane Richman’s sister. She died in January 1910 and her burial took place in Radnor Street Cemetery on January 31, 1910. Isabel Annie Richman is buried in the same plot. She was buried on March 14, 1917 the daughter of Alfred George and Frances Edith Richman. She was just 15 months old.
The graves around the chapel area include some well-known names in Swindon’s history, but I must admit I had never heard of Cyril Hammond Montague Jones.
Cyril was the son of William Jones and Jane Moss. William was born in Gloucester in around 1854. He married Jane Moss at St. Luke’s, Gloucester on July 10, 1882 when he described himself as ‘Lay Clerk St Andrew’s, Bristol.’ William and Jane’s two children were both born in Bristol, Edith Hammond Jones born in 1883 and Cyril Hammond Montague Jones in 1885.
By 1891 William and Jane were living in Churcham, Glos with their two young children and a 10 year old nephew. William now states that he is ‘Living on own means’ suggesting he has a private income or inheritance.
The family eventually made their appearance in Swindon at the time of the 1901 census when they were living at 27 Regent Street where William describes his occupation as ‘Draper.’
In 1917 Regent Street was the centre of a busy and vibrant shopping area. Morses department store occupied premises at numbers 10, 11 & 12. The 1,000 seater Arcadia Cinema had opened in 1912 on the site of a former shopping arcade. W.W. Hunter’s furniture shop stood on the corner of Edgware Road and Regent Street (look up and you can still see the name in the brickwork). The County Electric Pavilion picture house opened in 1910 and was in operation for more than 20 years. The site was later occupied by F.W. Woolworth and today is home to the One Below Discount Store and Peacocks. Then there was the Artillery Arms at No. 25; F.E. Cottell, jewellers and watchmakers at No 26 and in 1917 Mrs J. Jones, Milliner was at No. 27. Perhaps the nature of their business had changed. There was some fierce competition with Morses at one end of Regent Street and McIlroys at the other.
Cyril trained as an architect but on April 1, 1915 he enlisted with the Royal Navy serving on the President before transferring to the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). Lieutenant A Captain Cyril Hammond Montague Jones died on November 14, 1918 at the 2nd Eastern General Hospital, Brighton. He was 33 years old. He was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery on November 20 in plot D15A.
This now a large double family plot where Cyril lies with his mother Jane who died in 1924, his father William who died in 1949 and his sister Edith who died in 1965.
Dixon Street published courtesy of Local Studies, Swindon Central Library.
What brought brothers Harry and Lazarus Goldstein to Swindon at the end of the 19th century – and it wasn’t a job in the Works?
The brothers were born in Mlawa, a town in north eastern Poland, Harry in about 1848 and Lazarus in 1858, two of the six children of Isaac Goldstein, a Hebrew teacher and his first wife. Mlawa was annexed by Russia as part of the Congress Poland and remained Russian territory until the independence of Poland was declared in 1918. By the 1860s the Goldstein family were among the Jewish immigrants living in London’s East End where both brothers worked in the tailoring trade.
Harry’s first marriage was to Julia Hyams and had taken place in the Great Synagogue in Dukes Place in the City of London in 1868. In 1886 Harry petitioned for a divorce on the grounds of his wife’s adulterous behaviour. At the time of the 1891 census Harry was living at 49 Cannon Street Road with his three daughters Deborah, Jane and Rachel who had all followed him into the tailoring trade.
Harry arrived in Swindon after 1893 following his second marriage to Sophia Ashby, a woman half his age and by 1899 Harry and Sophia were living at 7 Dixon Street where their daughter Lilian Beatrice was born. The baby was baptised at St Marks Church on February 4, 1900. Sadly her mother died just three years later. Sophia Goldstein was buried on September 11, 1903 in Radnor Street Cemetery in plot E7025, a public grave. Harry died in the March quarter of 1909 but does not appear to have been buried in Radnor Street Cemetery. Following the death of her parents the couple’s daughter Lilian was adopted by William Smith, a warehouse man and his wife Alice, a family who had lived at 7 Dixon Street with the Goldsteins. In 1911 aged 11 years old Lilian was living with the Smith family at 20 Shelley Street.
The private life of Lazarus Goldstein is more difficult to circumnavigate. He married Sophia Davis in about 1879. The couple lived at various addresses in the East End but their long term home was at 38 Pereira Street in Bethnal Green where they were living in 1891 with their five children.
However, by 1906 Lazarus had also found his way to Swindon having followed a woman with whom he obviously had a long term relationship. The couple already had two children, Leonora and George, both born in the West Ham district of North London in 1901 and 1902 respectively. A third child, Esther Alice Goldstein was born in 1906 at the family home in Bright Street, Gorse Hill. It was here that Lazarus was taken suddenly ill and died in 1909.
Inquest and Verdict
An inquest was held on Monday last by Mr. A.L. Forrester (Coroner for North Wilts) on the body of Lazarus Goldstein, a tailor of 109 Bright Street, Gorse Hill, Swindon who was taken ill on Saturday afternoon at 1.30, and died the same night at 9.30.
The inquiry was held at the Frome Hotel, Hythe Road, Swindon, in consequence of the body having been brought to the mortuary.
Evidence of identification, and also as to the deceased being taken suddenly ill, was given. Dr. Reid, who conducted a post mortem, attributed death to valvular disease of the heart, and a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence was returned.
Swindon Advertiser Friday April 16, 1909.
Lazarus Goldstein was buried on April 14, 1909 in Radnor Street Cemetery, plot A931, a public grave. He was 49 years old.
While trying to find more about the Goldstein brothers before they left London and moved to Swindon I came across the work of a Lazarus Goldstein, a union activist in the East End tailoring trade.
The summer of 1889 saw extensive strike action in the East End of London, including a five week long shut down of the tailoring industry called by the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and two small pressers’ and machinists’ unions. The unions called for improvement in the working conditions of the small tailoring workshops, including a 12 hour day with a dinner and tea break, regulated overtime and trade union rates of pay with an end to ‘sweated’ labour.
The two names that live on in trade union history are William Wess, Secretary of the Tailors’ Strike Committee and Lewis Lyons, the Chair. In 1889 Lazarus represented the smaller London Tailors’ and Pressers’ Union.
[The following has been issued in the form of a large placard by the East End Tailors.]
Manifesto!
To The Tailoring Trade.
Fellow Workers, – On October 2nd, 1889, there was signed by representatives of the Employers and Employed, and counter signed by S. Montague, Esq., M.P., a document, in which it was agreed that the hours of labour should be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with an interval of 1 hour for Dinner, and half-an-hour for Tea, and four hours’ Overtime only to be worked in a week. You are well aware how by one mean subterfuge and another the above regulations are being evaded. After the late strike the Employers’ Committee issued a large poster announcing that had they known what we required they would willingly have conceded our just demands; they have now had over 6 months to know what our just demands are, and we who work for them know how unjustly they have conceded them.
Fellow Workers,- Before we go any further into the Summer months, consider whether you would not be justified in dropping your work and refusing to work on any other terms than those gained after so hard a struggle in the late Strike. We hear around us the cry we have so long laboured for “the abolition of the Sweating System and Middlemen,” and it would be as well for those in our trade who employ us to be just to their workmen, lest we take up the cry and refuse to work for them on any terms, but compel them to be fellow workers side by side with us in workshops supplied by the manufacturer direct. We, in consequence, feel ourselves justified in calling upon you to show your determination not to work for those employers who work you the sweaters’ hours of 14 to 18 per day, but come out on the 4th of May, and strike against them shoulder to shoulder, and by combination show them you are not the willing tools they unfair sweaters say you are. That they will not give way to us unless forced is a foregone conclusion; they have surely had more than enough time already had they any intention of being fair. Long hours is the sweater’s first weapon, and that must once and for all times be wrested from them. So combine and tell them you will no longer be their slaves, let no worker in the trade be false to the others, and remember that unity is strength!
By Order of the Chairman and Committee,
Lazarus Goldstein, Secretary,
“The Hall,” 20, Booth Street, E.
No more Long Hours! Don’t forget 4th May!
The Tailor and Cutter May 1, 1890.
East London Tailors
To “The Evening News and Post.”
Sir – In your issue of Wednesday you have inserted a letter from Mr. Lewis Lyons, also a leaderette, as to the probable renewal of the strike. Mr Lyons writes to defend the action of the Machinists’ Union, and says we called a strike, and the managing committee remained at work, only 50 men out of 1,000 members responding to the call.
Mr Lyons must surely know that he is inaccurate, 92 employers having signed individually on the documents which we issued, and 92 employers surely employ more than 50 men.
The strike was not one of principle, but one calling out those only who worked the long hours. Again, Mr. Lyons states that the object of the Machinists’ Union is to abolish the sweater; but he is again wandering from the truth, their rules being in effect the same as ours, the objects of our Union as registered being to maintain the normal day’s work from 8 to 8 (subject to alteration), and obtain by the best legitimate means for its members clean and healthy workshops. Those should be their objects. In your leaderette you state under these circumstances, Mr. Lyons does not think the machinists are to blame for sticking to their original programme from which they have never varied. I am sorry to see they have not. It is the misfortune of the trade that they did not come out on strike against the long hours with us. By the majority of them working long hours and piecework they make the sweater worse than he is. While other clamour for a eight hours’ working day they are sticking to their programme and working long hours for the sweater, whom they wish to abolish, and yet do nothing to further it. I would like to see them do something myself; but we have to exhaust all peaceable means first, and if we cannot get short hours then I say away with the sweaters, but not till we give them the last trial by combination for better prices. – I am, etc.
Lazarus Goldstein
Sec London Tailors and Pressers Union
The Hall, 20 Booth street, E.C.
Evening News (London) – Thursday 29 May 1890
In 1893 Lazarus was the General Secretary of the London Tailor’s Federation. He also served as Secretary of The “German” City Branch of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and in 1898 he was Secretary of the Jewish Branch of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors.
The compelling evidence would suggest that the union activist Lazarus Goldstein is the same man who came to Swindon in around 1906 and died here three years later. I am presently in contact with a descendant of the family living in the USA who is trying to establish if they are one and the same person.
A 1960s photo of Bright Street, Gorse Hill published courtesy of Local Studies, Swindon Central Library.
This gravestone was erected by the children of Sarah Ann Shulze who died on January 2, 1964 at the Victoria Hospital, Swindon.
This beautiful heart shaped headstone displays a dove, symbolic of peace and I can’t help but wonder if perhaps Sarah had a life lacking in peace.
Sarah Schulze was born in Avon near Chippenham in 1884, the daughter of George Poulton and his wife Emma. In 1903 she married George William Schulze, the son of Albert Gustav Schulze, a military tailor and cap maker born in Germany.
Albert was living in Aldershot at the time of his marriage in 1876, but the family obviously moved around a fair bit. George was born in 1879 in Norwich while his sister Clara was born in Ireland. In 1881 the family were living in Scotland and by 1891 they were back in Aldershot.
By 1911 George, now married to Sarah Ann, was living at 16 Gordon Gardens here in Swindon where he worked as a Traffic arranger in the Rolling Mills in the GWR Works. The couple had seven children, including little Freda Saturnia who died at the age of 5 on December 23 1914 at the family home, 30 Reading Street.
George died in 1955, a patient at Roundway Hospital, the psychiatric hospital near Devizes. Sarah survived her husband by almost ten years.
I can’t help but wonder how this family with such an obvious German sounding name had coped with living through a period of two world wars.
Walter William Palmer was born in 1878, the son of Stephen Palmer, a general labourer, and his wife Selena, and he grew up at 70 Gooch Street.
He first enlisted with the Coldstream Guards, later transferring to the Grenadier Guards, on September 4, 1894 as an 18 year old when he gave his occupation as an engine cleaner. His height is recorded as 5ft 11¼ inches.
His military records remain largely intact and we can learn all about his service and his medical history.
He served for 12 years and along with periods at home he served in Gibraltar, Egypt and South Africa. He was awarded the Queen’s Soudan Medal for service in the Soudan Campaign 1896-1897 and the Khedives Sudan Medal with Khartoum clasp for action in the Mahdist War in Sudan in 1897. He also received the South Africa Medal with Cape Colony clasp for service in the Second Boer War 1902.
He married Jessie Duprey at St. Mark’s Church on December 21, 1901 and they had one son, Frederick Walter Palmer. On the 1911 census Walter, Jessie and their 7-year-old son were living at 24 Deburgh Street, Rodbourne. Walter was employed as a boilerman in the GWR Works.
As a former soldier Walter was called up as a reservist at the outbreak of the Great War. He enlisted with his old regiment on September 12, 1914 and left for France as part of the Expeditionary Force on November 11.
His medical record is long and detailed. He was treated for a wound to his leg, which is described as an accident but by February 1916 his medical records reveal that he was suffering from Tubercle of lung (tuberculosis). His appearance was described as very wasted and that he was a tired and depressed looking man who was always hungry and thirsty. He was so ill that not only was he declared unfit for military service it was thought he would be unable to get any kind of job. He was discharged with a pension of 25/- (£1.25) a week with an additional 2/6 (12½p) as he had a child to support.
He was home for less than three months when he died. He was 38 years old. His cause of death was attributable to his military service as recognised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and he was entitled to an official headstone.
As fans of Time Team and Digging for Britain will know, grave goods are essential for dating pre-historic burials. From jewellery found recently in a Bronze Age tomb in the sand dunes at Cape Trafalgar on the Cadiz coast to the unpublished book of poetry Dante G. Rossetti buried with his wife Lizzie in Highgate Cemetery (he later exhumed her body to retrieve the book), we have buried significant and sentimental items with our loved ones. And in 1905 Hannah West was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery with her collection of class tickets* collected over more than 70 years.
Hannah Ride was born on October 14, 1815 the daughter of John Ride and his wife Martha. As a young child Hannah left for a brief stay in America with her family where her mother died of a fever. John returned to England and dedicated his life to the work of God after meeting Hugh Bourne and William Clowes, co-founders of Primitive Methodism.
Hannah converted to Primitive Methodism at the age of 17 and pursued a lifetime of devoted service to the cause. In 1842 she married the Rev Samuel West and the couple had eight children. Hannah and Samuel’s last home together was in Kingswood, Bristol where Hannah remained following the death of her husband in 1867. In 1903, by then aged 88, Hannah moved to Swindon to live with her eldest daughter Mary Williamson, the wife of a draper with a shop at 24 Regent Street.
The obituary written by W. Scruby and published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine describes Hannah as follows:
‘When visited she was always bright and quietly confident of her acceptance with God. Her trust was beautiful in its simplicity. Although so far advanced in life her memory was most tenacious; she would recall events of the last eighty years with the greatest accuracy. To the last she retained an intelligent interest in all that was passing, and would converse on social, political, and religious events with great zest. Her Bible and Hymnal were her daily companions, and the daily paper was carefully read. She had her political preferences, and with the condition of the working classes previous to the abolition of the Corn Laws vividly before her mind, she concluded that Mr. Chamberlain was a very bad man. Until within a short time of her death she hoped to get to services again, and desired to attend another old fashioned Camp Meeting.’
Hannah West died at her daughter’s home in August 1905 and was buried with her class tickets in plot E7652 on August 15. Her youngest daughter Emma was buried with her on August 31, 1932.
*A class ticket was a certificate of membership of the Methodist Church, and was first issued by John Wesley in 1742. Hugh Bourne revived this tradition when he issued the first Primitive Methodist class ticket in May 1811.
When Alice Fairclough married Thomas Arman in 1896 the couple joined together two families. Alice had two children by her first husband William Fairclough – William and Mary while Thomas had five children by his first wife Elizabeth Jane Webb – Elizabeth, William Thomas, Alfred Richard, Mabel Alice and Rose Mary.
In his definitive book ‘Tell Them of Us’ about the Swindon men who served in the Great War, Mark Sutton records that Sapper W. Arman served with ‘B’ Coy 6th Batn Royal Berkshire Regiment, attached to the Royal Engineers.
Mark reproduces a letter written by William Arman in France dated September 1915, to his father and stepmother at 15 Lowestoft Street, Swindon.
‘Dear Father and Mother,
I am writing you a few lines hoping you are in the best of health. It is grand weather out here at present, though rather cold nights and mornings. We have been in action. Last Wednesday night, our battalion, the Royal Berks had it pretty warm for a lot of the Germans started shelling us in all directions for about an hour. The Germans, thinking we were all done in, started to advance towards our trenches in massed formation. They came within 20 yards of our trenches and they had it hot from our rifles, machine guns and artillery. You ought to have seen them falling down like chaff before the wind. There were not many that escaped. It was like hell for a short time. We had a few casualties, but the Germans lost nearly a battalion of men. We called them the Saxons. They were half German and half English. They have been very quiet since that night. They thought they had a soft job on, but they were mistaken for once.
I am getting used to bully beef and biscuits now. I am getting short of a razor. I can’t get one for love or money. You ought to see my face! I have not had a shave for three weeks. We get a pay this week – 15 francs, that is about 4s 2d to a franc. If God spares me, I will send it home because I can’t spend it out here. Could you send me a razor out? It looks so bad asking everyone for the loan of a razor. It would not cost much for postage.
We are sleeping in old dug-outs what the French used to sleep in. We never have our clothes off, but always sleep in them. I have not much more to say at present. I wish you all good luck and good-bye for the present.
Remember me to *Will and tell him I wish him a safe and speedy passage across the water.’
*Will is William Fairclough, his stepbrother.
William Thomas Arman survived the war. He died in 1943 in the Bridgend district of Wales in 1943. You can read more about Alice Arman here.
‘Churchyards and cemeteries are scenes not only calculated to improve the morals and the taste, and by their botanical riches to cultivate the intellect but they serve as historical records.’
J.C. Loudon – On the Laying Out, Planting and Managing of Cemeteries and on the Improvement of Churchyards1843
I wonder how many times you’ve walked past this notice without reading it.
The sign displays some important information about the status of the cemetery as a Local Nature Reserve and outlines some dos and don’ts.
During Covid we all came to recognise the importance of nature and green spaces to both our physical and mental well-being. (Well, some of us knew this already). In lock-down, when we were only allowed a limited amount of time outdoors, everyone went in search of beautiful places to walk and suddenly people discovered cemeteries (well, some of us had already).
Is there a conflict between respecting an historic burial ground and creating a Local Nature Area?
Mr Loudon had something to say about the continued function of burial grounds.
‘All burial grounds whatever within the precincts of towns, when once filled, that is, when the whole ground has been buried in, even if with only one body in a grave, should be shut up as burygrounds, and a few years afterwards opened as public walks or gardens …’
Many local residents gain a great deal of pleasure from walking through the cemetery, especially, as we have mentioned, during the difficult two to three years we have all experienced. A small team of volunteers at Radnor Street Cemetery preserve and promote the stories of those buried in the cemetery while our gardening volunteers maintain the Commonwealth War Graves (and others with a military reference) as well as helping people find family graves, so I think we pretty much have it covered!
Radnor Street Cemetery 