Edward Henry Sammes of Swindon

This is the last resting place of Edward Henry Sammes.  It’s interesting that his family should make a point of adding ‘of Swindon’ to the inscription because Edward was not Swindon born.

Edward was born in Lambeth in January 1842, the son of William and Sarah Sammes.

The first reference to Edward being in Swindon is in the 1871 census when he is 29 years old and living a 1 Belle Vue Road where he describes himself as a grocer.  That same year he married Sarah Anne Spackman from Wootton Bassett and the couple had two children William and Millicent, who are both buried here as well.

By 1889 he was a member of the Old Swindon Local Board, so well placed to know plans for development in the town.  The family were by then living at Wycliffe House in Devizes Road.

In 1892 Edward submitted a planning application to build 8 houses on the corner of Kent Road and Maidstone Road. The building specifications for Edward’s houses describe three bedrooms, a parlour, sitting room, kitchen, conservatory, scullery, WC, coals and pantry.

This area of Kingshill was pretty much one big building site during the 1890s.  The land had originally come on the market in the 1870s with the death of John Harding Sheppard but development was slow to take off. However, by the 1890s numerous speculative builders had snapped up the building plots and were busy at work. A map of Edward’s project shows an empty site next door on the corner of Kent Road and Ashford Road with another empty site opposite.  At the other end of the road rival builder William Chambers had a yard opposite his own development at Ashford Terrace. 

Edward died in 1897 aged 55. He left £5,814 18s 6d to his widow Sarah and son William, worth today somewhere in the region of £2.7 million.

I’m not sure if his son William ever worked or whether he lived off his inheritance.  In 1911 William 35, was living at 31 Devizes Road, with his sister Millicent 27. Both of them were living on ‘private means’.

Local historian David Lewis has been able to add a some further information.

Edward Sammes lived at 31 Devizes Road “Wycliffe” in 1895 according to the Kellys directory as a private residence. Millicent was still there in 1951. Sometime in the 1960/70s, it became the Spiritualist Centre.