Today many families live at opposite ends of the country (and the world) and we tend to think of this as a modern phenomenon brought about by improved methods of transport. But people have always travelled to where there was work and Radnor Street Cemetery has many residents who came to Swindon and a job in the Great Western Railway Works.
Tom Tindle, or to give him his full name Tom Henry William Tindle, was born in York on April 18, 1855, the eldest of six children. In 1871 the family were living in Ashford in Kent, but when you look at the birth places of Tom’s siblings you can see they had also lived in Scarborough and London before settling down in Ashford, Kent.
Tom married Phillis Sarah J. Alderton, an elementary school teacher, at St George the Martyr in Southwark on April 24, 1878 when they both lived in the Old Kent Road area.
By 1881 the young couple were living in Stratton St. Margaret. Tom worked as a Coach Body Maker. He joined the Great Western Railway on May 23, 1887 as a Carriage Body Maker later becoming a foreman. By 1891 they had moved to 37 Regent Street where Phillis describes herself as a postmistress. In 1901 they lived at 10 Victoria Road with their four children. Phillis 18 and Nellie 14 were both working as pupil teachers. The boys Stuart 12 and Tom 5 were still at school. The 1911 census provides us with the additional information that Tom and Phillis had 6 children and that sadly 2 had previously died.
Tom lived in Swindon until at least 1920 when his address was 166 Victoria Road. He died in 1933 by which time he was living in Luton. The family returned the body to Swindon where he was buried with his daughter Phillis who died in 1905.
His wife Phillis out-lived him by eleven years. When she died in 1944 she was living in Bournemouth.
Radnor Street Cemetery 