What better place to rest for all eternity than in the shade of a tree in Radnor Street Cemetery?
Thomas had spent a lifetime working as an engine fitter, a skilled job but hardly a glamorous one, except in nostalgic retrospect. Ann had given birth to at least 8 children – there may have been others who were born and died in between the ten yearly census count.
Thomas Barefoot was born in about 1835 in Maidenhead, Berkshire, the son of James and Elizabeth Barefoot. On census returns James is recorded as a ‘policeman’ with the GWR. During this period this means that he was a guard, according to railway historian Trevor Cockbill.
Like many railway employees the Barefoot family moved around a lot but by 1851 both James and his younger son Thomas were living in Swindon. His eldest son George was living in Boston, Lincolnshire where he worked as a coppersmith, although he too later returned to Swindon.
Thomas married Louisa Bizley at Christ Church in 1857. They were both very young, Thomas was 21 and Louisa only 18. Sadly, she died in 1859 and was buried in the churchyard at the church where she married.
During the 1860s Thomas married for a second time and appears to have lived in London for several years where five of his children were born. By 1871 the family were back in Swindon and living at 22 Tabernacle Terrace, Stratton St. Margaret.
Thomas’s brother George was a member of the Mechanics’ Institute Council but so far I have not discovered whether Thomas took such an active role in the civic life of the town. Perhaps it was enough for him that he paid his way and raised his family.
Both Ann and Thomas spent their last years living at 9 St Paul’s Street, Swindon with their daughter Florence Hatter and her family.
Ann died on January 15, 1909 aged 69 and was buried in this shady spot on January 19. Thomas died 20 years later at the age of 92. He was buried with Ann on March 14, 1929 in grave plot B3032.
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Radnor Street Cemetery 