Skerten family undertakers

The Skerten family of undertakers had a presence in Swindon for more than 75 years. For most of that time they were busy in Radnor Street cemetery and the early burial registers reveal the many funerals they performed there.

Carpenter and joiner Richard Skerten married Ann Brown at St Paul’s Church, Bristol in 1844 and by 1851 they had moved to Swindon and a home at 32 Reading Street with their three young daughters.

By 1871 Richard was established as both a joiner and an undertaker but his business very nearly came to an end when a disastrous fire totally destroyed his Regent Street workshops. It happened on Friday June 15, 1877 when it was believed the heat of the sun ignited oils in the workshop. Neither the buildings, the stock-in-trade nor the workmen’s tools were insured.

However, Richard re-established his business at 1 Queen Street where his wife Ann and younger son Richard continued to run the family firm after his death in 1886.

Meanwhile, by 1881 elder son Arthur had established his own business at 5 King Street. On April 29, 1887 Arthur had the sad task of burying his twin baby sons Richard and Joseph just 3 and 4 days old respectively. Perhaps surprisingly the babies were buried in a public plot with three others – burial conventions were different then.

Probably the most extraordinary funeral Richard Skerten junior arranged was that of gipsy patriarch Timothy Buckland. For about a month the terminally ill Timothy camped in a field near the Wharf, Drove Road with some nine other vans and tents and 50 members of his family.

According to the Swindon Advertiser the funeral attracted several thousand spectators to the churchyard at Christ Church.

For the funeral the arrangements were placed in the hands of Mr Richard Skerten, undertaker, of New Swindon, and a hearse and eleven mourning coaches were engaged, the adult members of the family occupying the latter. The coffin was of French polished oak, with brass fittings, and bore the simple inscription on a brass plate “Timothy Buckland, died 8^th Nov. 1890, aged 70 years.

Extract from the Swindon Advertiser, Saturday Nov 15, 1890.

When their time came all three Skerten undertakers were buried in Radnor Street Cemetery, which seems very fitting.

Richard Skerten senior was buried on May 20, 1886 in grave plot E8434 where he was joined by his wife Ann who died in 1902.

His son Richard was buried on December 11, 1911 in grave plot D1319 where his wife Ann joined him in 1936. Buried with them is their son-in-law Leslie Ernest Adams, their daughter Annie Amelia’s husband, who died at 1 Queen Street in October 1959.

Arthur Skerten was buried on February 9, 1934 in grave plot C1785 joining his 12 year old daughter Isabella May who died in 1907 and his wife Betsy who died in 1930.