Among the fitters and turners, the boilermakers and the carriage makers buried in Radnor Street Cemetery lie the farmers. Richard Strange, tenant at Mannington Farm, is buried with members of his family in a triple grave plot numbered E8463/4/5 and Martha Hale from Creeches Farm in Hook, Lydiard Tregoze is in grave plot E7999 and most recently I have discovered the Croom family, originally from Somerset, who farmed at Walcot Farm.
The 1891 census records three properties in the Walcot Tything. Henry Thorne and his family occupied the ‘farmhouse’; Ernest E. Cox was at Walcot Farm (3) and Robert Croom at Walcot Farm (2). Lower Walcot Farmhouse remains to this day, renamed Bailey’s farm after its long association with the family of butchers who signed a lease with Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard in 1916. It seems likely that this was where Robert Croom and his family lived in the 1890s.
Robert Croom and his wife Martha Ann nee Crees shared ancestral links to Witham Friary near Frome, Somerset. Both came from large, farming families. Robert was the son of James Croom and Elizabeth Ann nee Crees and grew up at Quarry Hill Farm in Witham Friary while Martha Ann Crees was the daughter of Benjamin Crees and Charlotte nee White and grew up at Brook House Farm, Westbury, Wilts. As you can see the Crees and Croom families intermarried.
Robert and Martha Ann married in 1866 and in 1871 were living at Grange Farm, West Lydford in Somerset where they farmed 200 acres and employed 9 men and 3 boys. Within a couple of years they had moved to Draycot Foliat, Wiltshire and by 1891 they were at Walcot Farm, most probably Lower Walcot. Following Robert’s death on October 14, 1892 Martha carried on in business with the support of sons James, Edward, Henry and youngest son Archibald Ernest Crees Croom.
Walcot under construction, but which of the farms is pictured in the distance?
It is difficult today to picture the numerous farms that comprised our town but several were still in existence until the 1952 Town Development Act was adopted. Swindon Corporation acquired 1,000 acres of land for building to the east of the town, swallowing up long held Goddard family property, including Lower and Upper Walcot Farms. The housing estates at Walcot cover former farmland that included ancient fields once named Glazemore Ground and Chantery Green.
Martha Ann Croom died in 1899 at Walcot Farm and was buried in grave plot D43 where she was later joined by her 5 year old granddaughter Ethel Lilian Croom who died in 1911. Lilian Croom, Martha Ann’s daughter-in-law, died in 1927 and was also buried in D43. Then in 1949 Martha Ann’s youngest son Archibald Ernest Crees Croom (husband of Lilian and father of Ethel) died at Liddington Wick Farm, Coate and he too was buried in plot D43.
Radnor Street Cemetery 