It wasn’t that unusual in Victorian Britain for a woman to head a family firm, which is exactly what Susannah Phillips did after the death of her husband John.
Susannah was born in Chatham, Kent on January 21, 1816, the daughter of George Reynolds and his wife Zipporah. Susannah married John Phillips, a carpenter, on December 25, 1845 at St Nicholas’ Church, Rochester. By the time of the 1851 census the couple were living in a house next door to the Victoria Inn on Victoria Street, Swindon with their two young daughters.
John’s building projects in Swindon date from about 1852 and the census of 1861 records him as employing 27 men, so a not inconsiderable size business.
As well as houses in the Quarries and King Street, John’s firm built some significant and now sadly lost buildings. In 1866 he built not only the Congregational Church on the corner of Bath Road and Victoria Street, demolished in the 1940s for road widening purposes, but also the now derelict Corn Exchange in The Square, Old Town. In 1873 John built the Belmont Brewery, thankfully still standing, just behind his former home.
On June 18, 1874 John announced in the Swindon Advertiser that due to failing health he was retiring from business, leaving it in the capable hands of Mr Powell and Charles Phillips (his son). Just weeks later John died and was buried at Christ Church churchyard on July 28. Susannah carried a regular advertisement for her business in the Swindon Advertiser and then in the newspaper dated November 8, 1880 she announced her retirement.
Susannah Phillips,
Builder, Contractor, Marble Mason, etc.,
Devizes Road and Swindon Quarry,
In retiring from the old established Business for so many years carried on by herself and late husband, begs to return her sincere thanks to customers and friends for the kind patronage which has been bestowed upon her, and to inform them that in future the business will be carried on by her Son, in conjunction with Mr James Powell, who has for a long time successfully acted as her manager.
S.P. Trusts that her successors will meet with the same support which has hitherto been conferred upon her.
In 1881 Phillips and Powell along with George Wiltshire put in a successful tender to lay out the new Swindon Cemetery, better known today as Radnor Street Cemetery.
Swindon
The Cemetery works – In reply to advertisements six tenders were sent in for laying out, draining, fencing, and doing the necessary work for the Swindon Cemetery. The Cemetery Committee met on Thursday evening to open these. The tender of Messrs Phillips and Powell and Mr George Wiltshire, who sent in a joint tender was accepted. The tenders were as follow: John Richings (Faringdon) £5,647; John Webb (New Swindon) £5,510; Thomas Barrett (Swindon) £5,562; W. Maxwell (London) £5,450; A.J. Beaven (Bristol) £5,442; Phillips and Powell and George Wiltshire (Swindon) £5,393 10s.
Western Daily Press April 7, 1881.
Susannah died at her home, Clarendon House, Devizes Road on April 24, 1894. The announcement of her death appeared in the Swindon Advertiser on April 28, the day of her funeral. She had decided to be buried in the churchyard at Christ Church, with her husband, and not in the cemetery her family firm had built.
Clarendon House, the Phillips’ family home. The lane way alongside was named Phillips Lane in the 1970s.
The Phillips family grave in Christ Church churchyard
Aerial view of the town centre as demolition begins
The re-imagined story …
Can you remember the town centre as it used to be? I can. All those rows of old Victorian terrace houses, empty and boarded up. What a sight that was. What a disgrace.
Then at last our old fashioned railway town, for so many years stuck in the 19th century, was entering the 20th. There were even plans to demolish the railway village in the 1960s. Knock the lot down, I said.
We were so excited when we saw the new plans for the town centre. We were to have a ‘shopping mall.’ I’d never heard of such a thing – a shopping mall. Swindon was going to become like something out of the American films.
How excited we had been to see the new college rise out of the demolition waste from Horsell Street, all gone at last. And most of Rolleston Street and Byron Street as well.
I don’t get out much these days but this week my granddaughter took me into town to have my Covid booster jab. I thought we were to go to the old railway museum along Faringdon Road until she told me we were to go to STEAM – the museum they built in one of the original railway buildings.
I suggested we had tea in McIlroys afterwards but apparently it was closed more than twenty years ago and demolished soon after. That beautiful store, I couldn’t believe that. I asked her to drive down Regent Street so I could see the changes, but she said its pedestrian only these days.
The town centre has changed out of all recognition. All those terrace houses gone, Brunel Street, Davis Street and most of Havelock Street.
But the old railway village is still there. All tidied up and smart, apart from that dreadful old Mechancis’ Institute building, derelict for more than 35 years now. Knock it down I say.
David Murray John Tower built in 1974-6 on the site of the old gas works.
The facts …
The Rolleston Estate, a large land holding that originally belonged to the Vilett family, was crucial to the development of New Swindon. In the 1880s the vast area of prime building land was held in chancery following the bankruptcy of its then owner Colonel William Vilett Rolleston, and was actively holding up the expansion of the town.
But by February 1885 it looked like things might be moving. At a meeting of the New Swindon Local Board it was announced that plans had been submitted by Messrs Maxwell and Tuke of Manchester, surveyors to the Bury Union Building and Investment company, for the development of laying out the Rolleston Estate for building purposes.
Construction began in 1890 when builders William Crombey, a former engine driver from Durham, and John Horsell, who lived in neighbouring Commercial Road, got the ball rolling. They soon began work on streets that would eventually be named Curtis, Crombey and Deacon Streets.
John Horsell was born in 1848 the second son of Charles Horsell, a slater and plasterer and his wife Ann. He married Mary Jane Godwin at Christ Church on 10th February 1872. His address at the time of his marriage was 61 Newport Street and his occupation was that of Surveyor’s Clerk. The couple went on to have eight children.
His obituary published in the North Wilts Herald provides details of his career and his involvement in the development of the town centre at the end of the 19th century.
The Rolleston Estate – Horsell Street now lies beneath the Regent Circus development built in 2014.
Death of Mr John Horsell
The announcement will be received with sincere regret by his many friends of the death of Mr John Horsell, which took place at his residence in Rayfield Grove, Ferndale Road, Swindon, about 10 o’clock on Sunday morning. For the past 20 years the deceased had been a sufferer from gout, which became acute some six years since, and he had been practically an invalid during the last twelve months. His end, however, came somewhat unexpectedly.
The late Mr Horsell would have been 60 years of age had he lived until next May. He was born in what was then Old Swindon. Having left school he went into the office of Messrs Bradford & Foote, solicitors, and afterwards into that of Mr William Read, assistant overseer. After his marriage Mr Horsell became the landlord of the Cold Harbor Inn, Broad Blunsdon, where he remained about a couple of years. He then took the Ely Inn, Wroughton, and was there something like 18 months. Returning to Swindon, he received the appointment of assistant overseer, which he retained for 13 years. For some time after this he carried on the duties of tax collector duties which he had also discharged for some little time prior to his securing the assistant overseership. Then he went into the building business, and took a no mean part in the development of the town. He erected the Rolleston Arms Hotel in Commercial Road, and was proprietor there for eleven years. He has since carried on building operations in the Ferndale Road area, where he resided until his death.
In his time Mr Horsell had interested himself in many friendly and other kindred societies. He was a prominent Odd-Fellow and Forestry, and was a member of the former society for 36 years. He was also a Buffalo, and his enthusiasm for angling was remarkable. Altogether his career has been a varied and many respects a useful one.
A widow and seven children – fours sons and three daughters – are left to mourn a severe loss. Mr Horsell’s two youngest daughters left for Canada a few months ago, one to be married.
Funeral
Many manifestations of regret were in evidence at the funeral, which took place yesterday afternoon. The cortege left Rayfield Grove at 2 o’clock, and proceeded to St. Barnabas’ Church, where the first part of the service was conducted by the Rev. P. Maddocks (vicar). The same gentleman performed the last rites at the graveside in the Cemetery, where a respectful crowd of onlookers had assembled…
Deceased was for 20 years an enthusiastic member of the local Fire Brigade, and to show their last respects to a former comrade the following members attended in uniform and headed the cortege – Ex-Deputy Capt. T. Munday, Lieut. E.R. Bowering, Foreman Selby, Engineer Eden, and Fireman F. Reeve, C. Greenaway, R. Hinton, W. Ludlow and W.H. Gill. There also followed Mr W.H. Smith (secretary of the Swindon and District Licensed Victuallers’ Association of which the deceased was a former secretary). The coffin was of polished elm, with brass fittings, and the breast-plate was inscribed as follows:-
John Horsell,
Died January 13th, 1907
Aged 59 years
List of floral tributes …
The undertakers were Messrs. H. Smith & Son, of Gordon Road, Swindon.
The North Wilts Herald, Friday, January 18, 1907
John was buried in plot D30 in Radnor Street Cemetery on January 17, 1907. His grave is next to that of his son Albert John Horsell Licensed Victualler at the Rifleman’s Arms Hotel. His funeral took place on March 25, 1903. He was just 30 years old. He is buried in plot D29 with his infant son William who died aged 1 year old.
Under construction – the Regent Circus development in Swindon opened in October 2014.
I recently took part in the hugely popular Cakes and Tales event at Hook Village Hall, Lydiard Tregoze. Held by the Friends of Lydiard Park this popular occasion has become an annual event as part of the Lydiard Tregoze Local History Project.
A general invitation was extended to all past and present residents of Hook village and the surrounding area to bring along their photos and share their memories. My involvement as a Friend of Lydiard Park is in transcribing the diaries of Hook farmer Elliot Woolford who kept a meticulous account of life on Hook Farm for more than 40 years.
I have a few ‘favourite’ families among the former residents of the Lydiards, most especially the Ody family. For me it began with discovering the grave of Noah and Sarah Ody in St. Mary’s churchyard.
Noah was baptised on November 14, 1790 at St Mary’s Church along with his sister Ann, the children of George and Mary Ody. He married Sarah Clark on November 25, 1811 at the parish church of Brinkworth.
Noah and Sarah raised a large family and along with their sons were tenants at Hayes Knoll and Bagbury Farms in Purton; Haxmoor in Purton Stoke; Braydon, Marsh, Flaxlands and Glebe Farms in Lydiard Tregoze and Lower Shaw Farm in the parish of Lydiard Millicent, at various times during the 19th century.
As Oaksey resident Harold Ody proudly told Elspeth Huxley when she was writing her book Gallipot Eyes – a Wiltshire Diary in 1975 – “There’ve been Odys farming in North Wilts for five hundred years,” – and I quite believe him.
At the recent Cakes and Tales event I was delighted to meet Liza and Marilyn who both trace their ancestry back to the three times married Richard Ody (1775-1840) one time gamekeeper to Lord Bolingbroke at Lydiard Park and the elder brother of my Noah (of course he’s not exactly ‘my’ Noah, but you know what I mean).
It was a busy afternoon with lots of people to talk to and not enough time to do it in – but I have Liza and Marilyn’s contact details and will be in touch.
Skip on another couple of weeks …
I received an enquiry on the Radnor Street Cemetery Facebook page concerning the death of Eliza Ody on April 9, 1921 who was buried in the cemetery.
Imagine my disappointment when I was unable to locate the burial! But wait – there had been an error. This was the lady’s maiden name and not the one she was buried with. It transpired that Eliza is buried in a public grave so sadly there will be no headstone to mark the spot, but I was determined to trace this member of the Ody family. And would you believe it – she was a descendant of the aforementioned Richard Ody and his 3rd wife Sarah Beasant.
I thought the days of families going short of food and unable to heat their homes was a thing of the past. I’m glad dad isn’t alive to see how low his country has sunk. Was this the future he fought for in two world wars?
I’ve got a battered old biscuit tin full of election pamphlets and newspaper cuttings he kept along with meticulously copied letters he had written in the 1920s and 30s. There were replies he had received from local politicians and national ones as well and a whole batch written by Jimmy Thomas. Every railwayman in Swindon knew of Jimmy Thomas, a former engine driver who became the youngest ever president of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and went on to become Labour MP for Derby.
There was even a Christmas card sent to dad in 1921 from Swindon Mayor Reuben George. I remember dad saying it was a travesty that Reuben George had never been elected an MP.
“Reuben George was a champion of the under dog,” dad used to say. I’m sure this isn’t the future he worked for.
The facts …
“It was the greatest public demonstration of spontaneous affection for a public figure that the town of Swindon had seen for very many years,” reported the Advertiser on the funeral of Alderman Reuben George, one of the forgotten political heroes of the town.
Born on September 11, 1864 the son of Stephen George, a bootmaker and his wife Elizabeth, Reuben grew up at Highfield Cottages in the hamlet of Barton St. Mary, Gloucester.
Reuben George moved to Swindon where he worked as an agent for the Wesleyan & General Insurance Company and by 1891 he lived with his wife Clara and their son, two year old Herbert Gladstone George, in two rooms in a shared house at 97 Princes Street. The rest of the house was occupied by Albert Bick, an iron turner at the GWR Works, his wife and her sister.
Socialist, pacifist, member of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, an authority on Wiltshire local history, one of the founder members of the Worker’s Educational Association and supporter of the Richard Jefferies Society, George’s list of interests and achievements is a long one.
Elected to both Swindon Town and Wiltshire County Councils, he served on numerous committees, including the education committee of both authorities. His lifelong interest in education stemmed from his own humble beginnings and early lack of opportunities.
Reuben George stood as Labour Candidate for Chippenham in 1918, the first Labour Candidate to stand in that town, with the slogan – ‘You have King George, you have had Lloyd George, and all you want is Reuben George’. …
During his lengthy political career George served as Mayor of Swindon 1921-22. George inaugurated the original wooden diving stage at Coate Water opened in 1921 and celebrated the occasion by being the first to dive off.
Reuben George died in the Victoria Hospital on June 4, 1936. Described as a champion of the under dog he was a socialist reformer inspired by William Morris, the 19th century artist, poet and political activist. George’s fame was not confined to Swindon.
“The news of the passing of Ald. Reuben George was broadcast to the nation in the second news bulletin of the National programme on Friday night,” the report of his death continuedin the Swindon Advertiser.
During a funeral service attended by not only local dignitaries but also the ordinary people to whom George had devoted his life, it was reported that ‘men and women sobbed audibly.’
A letter of condolence was sent by May Morris, daughter of the aforementioned William Morris and among the floral tributes were wreaths from the employees from local firms and Swindon schools. The pall bearers were six members of the Swindon WEA Executive Committee.
Among the family mourners were Reuben’s widow who attended her husband’s funeral against her doctor’s advice, his three surviving brothers John, Alfred and Walter and his two sons, Granville and Stanley (eldest son Herbert had died whilst on military service in India).
Bareheaded crowds lined the streets and blinds were drawn everywhere along the route as the funeral cortege made its way from Christ Church to the Radnor Street Cemetery.
Today Reuben and Clara George’s modest grave has been adopted by Radnor Street Cemetery volunteer Jo, who has lined the grave with a membrane to reduce the weeds and added new chippings. Jo has also planted daffodil bulbs, which will bloom again for years to come.
In the mid-Victorian period there were few career opportunities for an ambitious, working class girl. But perhaps attitudes were different in the Wright family home.
Susan Ann Wright was born on November 10, 1858 the second child and eldest daughter of Joseph Fletcher Wright and his wife Elizabeth. The family appear on the 1861 census living at 41, Exeter Street. Joseph was a Turner in the GWR Works, a skilled, well paid job. Perhaps he had a progressive attitude towards education and was pleased to see his daughter advance in her chosen career.
By 1891 Susan, 32 was living with her widowed father and her sister Emily, 30 and brother Alfred, 25 at 35 Wellington Street, which would be her home for the rest of her life.
Susan died on February 18, 1940 aged 81. She was buried in plot E8178 on February 23, a grave she shares with her brother Alfred who died in 1897 and his wife Esther Goodship (remarried surname) who died in 1932.
A snowy cemetery view
Swindon Funeral of Miss S.A. Wright
The funeral service took place on Friday at Wesley Church, Faringdon road, Swindon, of Miss Susan Ann Wright of Wellington street, Swindon, who for many years was a prominent figure in the educational and religious life of Swindon. Born in 1858, the eldest daughter of the late Joseph Fletcher Wright, she commenced her teaching career in the Wesleyan Day School at Eastbury. Later she took appointments in the Swindon schools, and for upwards of thirty years was headmistress of the Clifton Street Girls’ School. Her retirement in 1923 was made the occasion of a tribute of appreciation in which hundreds of pupils past and present took part.
For more than sixty years she was a valued and honoured member of Wesley Church, Faringdon Road, where she exercised an active ministry in many spheres, particularly among the young. Her intimate friends were few, but many will remember her generosity to the needy and her thoughtfulness for others.
Extract from North Wilts Herald, Friday, 1 March, 1940
Image published courtesy of Local Studies, Swindon Central Library
Clifton Street, of three departments, built at a cost of about £6,457, & opened in January, 1885; for 300 boys, 220 girls & 315 infants; average attendance, 282 boys, 211 girls & 302 infants; J. Dutton, headmaster; Miss S. Wright, headmistress; Mrs Le Manquais, infants’ headmistress.
Today we buried Mary Ann Krempowiecki. I would not have known who she was had Mr. Bremner not been at the funeral.
I had worked for many years under Mr Bremner, one of the senior foremen in the Works, before I took the job of gravedigger. Maybe you think it a macabre occupation and an unusual one to choose, but I think it is an occupation that chooses the person – not everyone has the character to be a gravedigger. A man has to be physically strong, but more then that a man has to be respectful.
It was a bitterly cold day with a keening north easterly wind and dark clouds closing in, threatening snow. Not for the first time that day I reflected on the bleak situation of the cemetery high on Kingshill, quite forgetting its beauty during the other three seasons of the year.
There had been four burials in the cemetery that day. John Cottle, a machineman whose wife had chosen a grave plot in Section E close to the Kent Road gate. Amelia Schofield, a young mother who had died in the Royal United Hospital in Bath. And then there was an infant, there was always a child. This morning it had been a little girl barely eight weeks old.
There had been little enough labour to ward off the cold that late December day. I eagerly looked forward to the warm fire and cooked meal that awaited me at home. At least this last funeral of the day was close to the chapel affording some shelter for the mourners and the gravedigger.
And then I saw Mr Bremner and the young woman who stood at his arm and supported him. The funeral party was small, the elderly man and the young woman stood apart from the other mourners. It was obvious that Mary Ann Krempowiecki, daughter to one, mother to the other, was greatly mourned. I would not have known who she was had I not seen Mr Bremner at the graveside.
The facts …
The lengthy inscription on this headstone is all about William David James, but there is a brief mention of his wife and mother-in-lawon the surrounding kerbstone.So, what do we know about Mary Ann Krempowiecki and her daughter Anne Bremner James?
Mary Ann Bremner was born in 1841 in Hawkhill Dundee, the eldest daughter of railwayman Peter Bremner and his wife Ann. The family arrived in New Swindon in about 1848 and a home at 5 Taunton Street, one of the properties demolished in the 1970s.
Mary Ann Bremner was just 18 years old when she married James Thomas Atkinson, a fitter in the GWR Works. The wedding took place on September 4,1858 at St. Mark’s Church. At the time of the 1861 census Mary Ann is living at her parents home in Taunton Street with her one year old son Henry. A daughter was born later that year and baptised Annie Bremner Atkinson at St Mark’s Church on October 20th.
By 1871 James Thomas Atkinson was dead. Eleven year old Henry and Annie aged 9 are living with their grandparents in Taunton Street. Their mother was living in London where on August 21, 1868 she had married Charles Stanislas Krempowiecki, the son of a Polish refugee. Mary Ann’s father-in-law Thaddeus Krempowiecki had stated that his occupation was Commission of Police in Poland, on his own marriage certificate, but was dead by the time of his son’s wedding.
Mary Ann Krempowiecki was back in Swindon and living with her parents at 5 Taunton Street when she died in December 1883. She was just 43 years old. Her funeral took place on December 29, 1883 when she was buried in plot A1091.
Annie Bremner Atkinson married William David James at St. Mark’s Church, Swindon on September 5, 1881. Ten years later, at the time of the 1891 census she is recorded as living at 27 Read Street with her husband and two sons William, 7 and Frank 1 years old. Another son Frederick was born in 1894 and a daughter Amy was born in 1896.
Annie died in St. Thomas’ Hospital London aged 37 in March 1899, following the birth of her son Wilfred. She was buried with her mother on March 13, 1899 in plot A1091.
William David James died on June 19, 1914 and was buried in plot A1091 with his wife and her mother. When his family erected the headstone they chose to mention their father in great detail, and rather less about their mother and grandmother.
The Ruins of the British Residency, Lucknow attribution Vyom.Y.
Joshua Jackson’s obituary published in the Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser Saturday 29 April, 1911 might be brief, but it provides a lot of information about the extraordinary life he led as a young man (see below).
Joshua was born in at Manchester on January 7, 1836, the second of James Jackson, an inn keeper, and his wife Hannah’s 8 children.
At the age of 19 Joshua joined the army and within two years he was serving in India with the 60th Rifles during the Indian Mutiny. As with most wars, the causes were several but a flashpoint came when the Sepoy soldiers of the Bengal Army were issued with the new Enfield rifle. The Enfield used cartridges that had to be bitten open, which both the Muslim and Hindu soldiers believed had been greased with animal fats, contravening their religious observances. This however was just one cause in a complicated situation which signalled a significant turning point in the relationship between Britain and India. Joshua was also involved in the Siege of Lucknow*, defending the garrison and the British Residency in that city from the Indian soldiers.
The outcome of the Mutiny was an end to the East India Company’s right to rule India. Britain made India a part of the British empire and instated a British Governor General. Twenty years after the war Queen Victoria became Empress of India and the Viceroy of India ruled in that country on her behalf.
From India, Joshua went to serve in China during the Second Opium War where in 1859 he saw action at the Battle of the Taku Forts.
Battle of Taku Forts 1859
But by 1865 he was back in England where on May 4 he married Sarah Ann Potts at St John’s Church, Frome in Somerset.
The 1871 census records the couple living in Frome with three children, Henry 5, Percy 3 and one-year-old Henrietta. By 1881 they had arrived in Swindon. The census of that year lists them as living at 47 Haydon Street. Joshua worked as an Engine Fitter in the GWR Works while Sarah raised their large family already numbering 7 children.
In 1891 the family were living at 28 Guppy Street, Rodbourne. Three sons had followed Joshua into the Works as apprentice fitters and turners while another three sons had been born in the intervening ten years. Guppy Street remained the Jackson’s family home where Joshua died in 1911 and Sarah in 1928. The couple are buried together in plot C301 with their only surviving daughter Henrietta who died in 1920.
It appears that the Jackson family were buried in a reused grave. The first person buried in this plot was John Meek who at the time of his death in 1897 was an inmate of the Stratton Workhouse. The grave was no doubt a public plot but purchased by the Jackson family at the time of Joshua’s death.
Death of a Mutiny Veteran
Funeral at Swindon
There was buried in Swindon Cemetery last Monday afternoon the mortal remains of Mr Joshua Jackson, an Indian Mutiny veteran. He was born at Manchester in 1836, and at the age of 19 years he enlisted in the old 60th Rifles, and two years later was drafted to India, seeing much active service in the Mutiny, but fortunately he escaped without a scratch. He also fought later in the China War, and was present at the taking of the Taku Forts. When he returned to England he left the Army in 1867 and settled down at Frome. Then he removed to Swindon and worked at his trade for many years in the GWR Works. He joined the Freemasons while at Frome 45 years ago, and when he came to Swindon he joined the Gooch Lodge, 34 years ago, becoming Tyler, a post he held till the time of his death, at the age of 75 years.
Deceased leaves a widow and ten children – eight sons and two daughters.
Besides the family mourners, a large number of Freemasons attended.
Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser Saturday 29 April 1911.
*As you walk along Rodbourne Road past Ron’s Stores, look up and above the terrace of houses you will notice in the brickwork an inscription that reads Lucknow Terrace.
We were promised a company house when we moved to New Swindon but when we arrived we discovered they were still being built!
So we ended up in one of twelve wooden cottages built in the back of beyond.
New Swindon was referred to as a pioneer town and out at Hay Lane we certainly felt we were living on the frontier. It would never have surprised me to see a herd of buffalo come bounding across the fields with Red Indians whooping and yelling behind them.
When the young Fairbairn couple moved into the empty cottage next to ours Margaret was heavily pregnant. It was her first child, but she was remarkably calm about giving birth in such primitive conditions.
Margaret’s pains came on in the middle of the night. We could hear her moans through the thin wooden partition that separated our homes. I left my own children in their beds and went next door to see what I could do to help. The poor girl laboured for many hours and I feared for her life and that of her baby. And at the end of her travails there was not just one, but two babies. They were small and I didn’t hold out much hope for either of them, but they thrived and survived.
And those draughty wooden cottages, well they were moved to Eastcott and survived as well. The GWR hated waste!
The facts …
James Fairbairn was born in c1816 in Dundee in Scotland and was one of the early railway men to settle in Swindon. James moved first to Newcastle and then to London working for Daniel Gooch and Archibald Sturrock. He married Margaret Armstrong at St Mary, Newington on 2nd October 1841.
James Fairbairn worked as an Engine Erector and later became one of the most senior Foremen in the Works. He was one of the first subscribers to the Sick Fund in 1843 and an early member of the Mechanics’ Institution, elected to its ruling Council in 1855. He was also one of the first subscribers to the Medical Fund.
James and Margaret Fairbairn arrived in Swindon in 1842 at the very beginning of the railway transformation, before the company houses were completed. Like so many other newcomers, James and his pregnant wife Margaret were accommodated in temporary housing. In their case they were housed in buildings at the Hay Lane Station (Wootton Bassett Road).
Brunel had first considered siting the GWR workshops at Hay Lane and designed for employees a row of twelve, single storey wooden cottages erected by building contractor J.H. Gandall. However, Daniel Gooch considered that the Swindon location was more suitable and that is where the workshops were eventually built.
Conditions at the Hay Lane cottages were basic and it was there that Margaret Fairbairn gave birth to twins George and Elizabeth Ann in the Spring of 1842. The babies were baptised at Wroughton parish church on June 5, perhaps they were not expected to survive. George followed his father into the railway works as an engine fitter. He married Catherine Gosling and the couple had one daughter. George died at his home in Havelock Terrace in 1892 aged 49. He is buried in Radnor Street cemetery in plot B2070. His sister Elizabeth Ann married and moved away. Her husband, Charles While, a roll turner, moved to Swindon with the opening of the Rolling Mills in the 1860s. The couple lived at addresses in Workington and Sheffield before settling in Lancashire where Elizabeth died in 1912.
James and Margaret Fairbairn lived at various addresses in New Swindon, including 12 Reading Street, No 2 Fleetway Terrace, 25 Fleet Street and finally at 20 Harding Street where they both died in 1895. Margaret died in March aged 78 and James three months later in June aged 80.
If you lived in Taunton Street you rubbed shoulders with royalty – railway royalty, that is. The first members of the Mechanics’ Institute Council Mr Grandison and Mr Fairbairn, lived in Taunton Street. Even old Mr Hurst, the first locomotive driver on the GWR, lived there although that was much later.
As a boy I was always in and out of the houses where so many of my friends lived. I used to play with James Bremner, his father was born in Scotland and was one of the first railwaymen to arrive in New Swindon.
But my best friend was Tom Hogarth and his twin brother George. Like my father theirs had moved down from the north-east in the early days of New Swindon.
Me and the Hogarth boys used to have a knock about in the park with an old cricket bat and ball. They were strict in those days, mind. The Works Manager Mr. Gooch published a notice warning parents to keep their children under control and to stop them damaging trees in the Cricket Ground. It was no idle threat either – if caught that boy would never be employed in the Works and his father could lose not only his job but his home as well.
Me and Tom never got up to any trouble though – or at least I don’t remember if we did. My mum would give me a clip round the ear for the slightest thing in those days. I was nimble on my feet, although that could make things worse and lead to a proper pasting when my father got home from work.
We were passionate about our cricket. I was a good little player as a boy, but not as good as Tom and George Hogarth. They went on to play for the GWR team and became famous when they played against the legendary W.G. Grace. Grace was having an unusually bad day and accused the GWR team of foul play and that they had fielded the same player twice. Tom and George had to be brought forward and stood side by side until the great man was convinced there was a pair of identical twins on the GWR team.
I liked James Bremner but Tom Hogarth was always my best friend. We had some fun together, though we never got into any trouble – well, not that I can remember.
The facts …
Thomas Oswald Hogarth was one of twin sons born in a house in Taunton Street on September 10, 1850, the children of William and Isabel[la] Hogarth.
Thomas entered the GWR Works in February 1865 and during a long career served in many roles, firstly as a draughtsman. He then went on to become Timber Inspector in 1883, Assistant Manager of the Saw Mill in 1887, Assistant Manager in the Carriage and Wagon Works in 1895 and in 1901 the Manager. In 1902 he moved to the Saltney & Colcham Carriage Works, Cheshire where he worked until his retirement in 1911.
Thomas led a varied and active life in Swindon, serving on the newly incorporated Swindon Borough Council.
Borough of Swindon
Election of Councillors 1901
To the Burgesses of the North Ward
Ladies and Gentleman – I thank you most sincerely for the honour you have done me in again returning me unopposed as one of your representatives on the above Council and I hope that by carefully guarding your interest, to maintain the confidence reposed in me.
I am, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Yours obediently,
Thomas Oswald Hogarth “Woodlands” Swindon
Swindon Advertiser Friday November 8, 1901
Among his other interests he served as a director of The Swindon Steam Laundry Co Ltd in 1891.
Thomas married Eliza Ann Morgan, a neighbour from Taunton Street, in 1874 in the Cookham, Berkshire registration area. They began married life back in Taunton Street where they had their four children. Eliza died on April 12, 1890 and at the time of the 1891 census the widowed Thomas was living at 1 Rolleston Crescent with their four children. In 1901, the year before Thomas left Swindon for Cheshire, he was living at Woodlands House, a property allocated to GWR managers.
Old Railway Servant
News was received at Swindon on Friday of the death at Chester of Mr Thomas Oswald Hogarth a prominent Great Western Railway official who retired two years ago. Mr Hogarth, who was 64 years old, was born at Swindon, and entered the service of the Great Western Company as an apprentice in 1866. He became a draughtsman and rose to the position of assistant manager in the carriage and wagon works, retiring two years ago. Mr. Hogarth was a prominent Freemason and his father was the first foreman in the smith’s shop of the company’s works at Swindon.
The Midland Daily Telegraph, Saturday, January 10, 1914
Mr Thomas Oswald Hogarth of The Groves, Chester, engineer, manager of the Great Western Carriage and Waggon Works at Saltney for ten years £1,794.
The Manchester Courier Thursday February 19, 1914.
Hogarth Thomas Oswald of 20 the Groves Chester died 7 January 1914 Probate Chester 6 February to Ethel Pearman (wife of Thomas Edward Alliman Pearman) and William John Hogarth clerk in the Great Western Railway Company. Effects £1794 6s 1d. Resworn £1874 18s 10d.
Thomas died at his home in Chester. The family returned his body to Swindon where he was buried on January 10, 1914 in plot E8245 joining his wife Eliza. Their daughter Beatrice, her husband Henry and two of their children John Robert and Harriet Elizabeth Pease are buried in the neighbouring plot E8246.
My grandson is moving to Bristol next week. I shall miss him. He’s very good to me. But he says he’s bored with Swindon, says he needs a challenge.
I miss the old days though, and I miss men like William Hogarth. We worked together in the boilermakers’ shop. He came to New Swindon in the very early years, I came from the same neck of the woods in 1856, a young married man with two small bairns. We had a lot in common.
Everything about the new town was challenging then; hard, but exciting at the same time. Everyone had arrived from somewhere else, had different accents, different ways of doing things, yet we all came together to create a community.
And after we built the Mechanics’ Institute, well there was always something going on there. Some weeks I was out every night at events and meetings and talks.
But now the youngsters say Swindon is boring. I suppose that’s the way of the young; looking for new challenges, new adventures.
I miss the old days though, and I still miss William Hogarth.
The facts …
William Hogarth was born on May 13, 1811 at Bywell, Northumberland the son of Robert and his wife Anne White Hogarth.
He married Isabel[la] Johnson at St John’s Church, Newcastle upon Tyne on June 6, 1835. The couple’s eldest two daughters were born in Northumberland and a son, William, inDurham before the family moved south to Swindon and a home in Taunton Street. They had a further seven children, including a set of twins Thomas Oswald and George White Hogarth.
William became the first foreman in the smith’s shop at the Swindon Works and by 1861 the family were living at 7 Faringdon Street in one of the larger properties reserved for foremen.
Isabel(la) died on March 25, 1882 aged 65 and William died on August 17, 1885. They are buried together in plot A1082.
We are sorry to notice the death of another old and highly-esteemed New Swindon man in the person of Mr William Hogarth. We believe we are correct in saying Mr Hogarth came to Swindon some forty years ago, shortly after the starting of the railway works, and that for very many years past he had filled with perfect satisfaction to the railway officials the important position of foreman or superintendent of the smiths’ and boiler makers’ department. Up to the recent Trip holidays Mr Hogarth was in the enjoyment of his usual good health, but he was then seized with illness, which proved fatal on Monday last. The funeral of deceased took place on Thursday last, and was very largely attended, the department over which he had so long presided being closed in the afternoon to enable the workmen to attend and pay their respects to the memory of one with whom they had been for so many years on such close terms of intimacy.
The Swindon Advertiser, Saturday August 22, 1885.
Hogarth William 24 October 1885 Personal Estate £3,230 10s
The Will of William Hogarth late of 7 Faringdon Street New Swindon in the County of Wilts Mechanic who died 17 August 1885 at New Swindon was proved at the Principal Registry by William Hogarth of 27 Buckingham Street Brighton in the County of Sussex Proprietor of an Opera Company and Robert Hogarth of 5 Merton Street, New Swindon Mechanic the sons and Joseph Robinson of 9 Faringdon Street Mechanic the Executors.
Faringdon Street was later renamed Faringdon Road and the numbering was re-ordered.
The re-imagined story …
Radnor Street Cemetery 