The strapline for this blog is ‘Remembering the ordinary people of Swindon.’ This grave story is about one such ordinary family. George worked as a platelayer with the Great Western Railway, a job described by Will Thorne, a platelayer during this period as The most neglected man in the service. The poorest of any railway employee with little or no opportunity for promotion or advancement.
In 1870 George married Martha Robinson at the parish church in Wroughton where they had both grown up. George and Martha would have 10 children but sadly four of them died young. In 1881 they were living at 13 Oxford Buildings, Rodbourne with three of their children, George’s mother and an unnamed lodger described on the census returns as having “left house.”
By 1891 they were living a 21 Jennings Street where they would remain for more than 20 years. It was where Martha died in 1918.
How many meals did the family sit down to eat in the kitchen? How many Mondays had Martha toiled over the boiler in the scullery, pegging out washing on a line that stretched the length of the garden. Did she dust and polish or was there little furniture to fuss over in the house at No 21 Jennings Street?
Was George a keen gardener, when all that washing wasn’t hanging in the way? Or was he too exhausted after a day’s work to do yet more digging and shifting earth? Was he a member of the Even Swindon Working Men’s Club and Institute, cutting along the backsies for a swift half? Or did he prefer to drink in the Dolphin? But then again, perhaps as a Methodist he didn’t partake of Mr Arkell’s finest.
And what about Hilda, the daughter who was buried with George and Martha. She never married and worked as a domestic servant, that much we know. She died on July 6, 1936 at 30 Twickenham Road, Isleworth, not at her home in Maze Road, Kew, nor at 49 Paxton Road, Chiswick, the address recorded in the burial registers.
So many unanswered questions about one ordinary Rodbourne family.
Martha Coster died at her home in Jennings Street in May 1918 aged 70 years old. She was buried in grave plot C1952 on May 9. Her husband George Coster died at 92 Beaufort Terrace, Rodbourne Road on January 31, 1922. He left effects valued at £266 18s 8d to his daughter Kate Fisher. He was buried on February 4 with Martha. Hilda Coster died on July 6, 1936 aged 53. She was buried with her parents on July 10.
Radnor Street Cemetery 