Building began in Clifton Street in about 1879. There were a lot of builders involved, Job Day, James Hinton, Richard Leighfield, which is why the houses all look a little different. There is the Clifton Hotel and 180 houses in Clifton Street; some detached, semi detached, some terraced. Some of them have extensions and loft conversions or porches and some have a name incised in the stonework above the front door, a remnant of a bygone era. There’s a blue house and another with a pink front door and a pink gate and artificial flowers and a heart in the window. The Clifton Stores, still there, stood opposite the the Primitive Methodist Chapel, long gone. There were probably other shops along this long street that stretches from the top of Kingshill to Radnor Street. And tucked away behind is the cemetery.
In the 19th century Clifton Street was home to a lot of railwaymen and their families, now all gone as well.
You might like to read about some of the former residents of Clifton Street who now reside in the cemetery.
Back in the day people worked until they couldn’t work any longer. Engine Maker and Fitter George House continued to work into his 80s and Robert Laxon was working as a foreman in the Copper Smith Shop into his late 70s. By 1930 the GWR introduced the compulsory retirement age of 66 years but William John Culley Plaister was forced to retire in 1932 aged 61 years. It would be good to think he had a nice little nest egg that made this possible but unfortunately it was ill health that forced him to retire early.
Sadly, William didn’t have long to enjoy his retirement or to indulge his hobbies of cricket and football.
Running Shed Foreman
Mr W.J.C. Plaister Retires After 18 Years’ Service
Mr W.J.C. Plaister, of 24 Exmouth street, Swindon, who for the past 18 years has been mechanical foreman of the GWR Running Sheds, was the recipient of a barometer, presented to him by his colleagues, on his retirement.
The presentation was made in the Running Shed mess room by Mr A. Tyrell, Mr W.N. Pellows, superintendent of the division, was to have made the presentation, but was unable to attend.
Mr. Plaister has been forced by ill health to retire earlier than he should have done. He was very popular with his staff, and during his 18 years’ service has taken a keen interest in the social side.
He was president of the cricket and football clubs, and had taken an active interest in these two branches of the Running Shed’s sports activities.
As trustee of the N.G. Sick and Benevolent Fund, he has given valuable assistance in many ways.
North Wilts Herald, Friday, September 2, 1932.
William John Culley Plaister died on May 11, 1940 aged 69 years. He was buried in grave plot E7254. His brother John Cyprus Plaister and his wife Florence Louisa are buried in the neighbouring plot E7253.
In a blogpost last year I mentioned that there were very few old photographs of the cemetery. There were only three pre-dating the 1920s and two of these were taken by William Hooper. And then when I looked more closely into the work of this prolific Swindon photographer I found another taken at the funeral of his mother-in-law Eleanor Stroud.
Eleanor (sometimes known as Ellen) was born in Aldbourne in 1834, the daughter of agricultural labourer Thomas Brind and his wife Mary. She married James Stroud, also from Aldbourne, a railway guard, in 1864.
In 1871 Eleanor and James lived in Leominster with their two little daughters, Mary Jane 3 and Alice Kate 1. By 1881 the family had moved to 22 Merton Street, Swindon. On census night James and his daughters were at home. Eleanor, meanwhile, was employed as a monthly nurse at number 10 Merton Street where Annie Hacker had given birth three days previously.
In 1891 Mary Jane married William Hooper, a stationery engine driver with a passion for photography.
Two years later James Stroud was involved in a fatal shunting accident at Tetbury Road station when he was crushed between a waggon and the goods shed. He was brought to the GWR Medical Fund Hospital in Swindon but sadly died as a result of his injuries the following day on January 14, 1893.
After the death of her husband Eleanor lived with her elder daughter Mary Jane and her husband William Hooper. By 1911 William was working full time as a Portrait and Landscape Photographer. Eleanor is pictured here with William and Mary in their roof garden at Cromwell Street.
Eleanor Stroud died at her daughter’s home 6 Cromwell Street. She was buried on April 29, 1915 in grave plot A823 alongside her husband. William took this photograph at her funeral.
Three brothers died in the First World War, another returned with his health compromised. But what was it like for the two brothers who never went to war but stayed at home?
At the beginning of the 20th century the busy Preater family were running two businesses. Charles Preater ran first a haulage business before becoming licensee at the New Inn in Cromwell Street with his wife Mary Jane.
Harry Charles Preater was born on April 25, 1880 and baptised at St. Mark’s Church on May 27. He was the eldest of Charles and Mary Jane Preater’s nine children. In old photographs of Swindon you will see H.C. Preater’s garage at the Whale Bridge close to where the Leonardo Hotel now stands. Harry became a prominent business man and a Freemason. During the Second World War Harry was Secretary of the Swindon Penny a Week Fund, which raised £16,500 towards supporting prisoners of war. Harry died in 1968 and is buried in grave plot D65A.
Second son Jesse John Preater was born on April 2, 1882 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on May 14. By 1901 Jesse, then aged 18, was working alongside his father in the haulage firm. Ten years later his younger brothers Charles and John had joined him in that side of the family business.
Arthur Benjamin Preater, Charles Lewis Preater and Herbert Frederick Preater were all killed in action, Arthur in 1916 and Charles and Herbert in 1918. John Edward Preater served and returned home.
Why did neither Harry nor Jesse go to war? I’m sure their parents were relieved to save these two sons, but what was life like for them during and in the aftermath of the war. They shared their fate with many other men, but that couldn’t have made it any easier. Today we have a name for this condition ‘survivor guilt.’
Jesse married May Wallis at St Mark’s Church on October 4, 1915. Their son Charles Wallis Jesse was born in 1922. They are buried together in grave plot B2693 close to the grave where Jesse’s parents, his sister Hilda and John Edward, the brother who survived the war, are buried. A separate memorial commemorates the three brothers who were killed in action.
And this time I need some help identifying a couple of photographs.
We’ve already met David Uzzell – the inspiration behind the work of war poet Edward Thomas, so now let’s meet his brother John.
John married Rachel Bennett on Christmas Day 1864 at the parish church in Cirencester. He worked as a baker and in 1871 lived with Rachel and their two children Emily 6 and Frank 4 in Gloucester Street, Cirencester. His parents lived in nearby Factory Yard alongside his brother David and his wife Fanny and their son William.
John and Rachel went on to have a large family of at least nine children. Four sons – Frank, Harris, James John and Raymond and five daughters – Emily Rosina, Edith Ellen, Mabel Harris, Mary Maria and Minnie Bennett. In 1881 they lived in Ashton Keynes; in 1891 they were at 27 Stepstairs Lane, Cirencester and in 1901 they were in South Cerney.
At the time of her death in 1907 Rachel was living at 17 Ipswich Street, here in Swindon. A couple of her married daughters had moved to Swindon, which maybe how she came to be here. She was buried in grave plot B2754 on November 12, 1907.
John survived her by 15 years. He died aged 79 at the Purton Infirmary and was buried with Rachel on September 12, 1922.
And now those photos.
Is this John and Rachel with their children? Or is it John Uzzell the elder with his wife Sarah and their children? Unfortunately, the photograph is undated.
And who is this? John Uzzell the elder or the younger? Is this Rachel? Again, undated.
Today I am continuing the Uzzell family story with Thomas Henry Uzzell the son of that ‘country rogue’ David Uzzell and his wife Fanny.
By 1901 both David and Fanny and their son Thomas Henry were living in Swindon. Thomas had been here since 1897 when he married Eliza Pamela Fisher. The couple lived first at 23 Turner Street and then at Cambria Bridge Road before moving to 6 Morley Street. In 1911 Morley Street comprised more than 35 red brick terrace houses, home to railwaymen and their families and looked a little different then to now.
Their first child, Thomas Frederick Emmanuel died aged 15 months old at 23 Turner Street. He was buried in grave plot C814, a babies grave; one month old Charles Adams had been buried there just two days earlier. But, although this grave was never purchased by the Uzzell family it did end up the burial place of not only Thomas Henry but three more of their children.
Youngest daughter Mary May Doreen Uzzell was buried there on May 23, 1912 aged 11 months. The following year Thomas Henry himself died aged 39 years and was buried on April 12, 1913.
In 1919 David Henry Uzzell aged 20 was buried on October 22 with his father and two infant siblings. The last burial took place in 1938, that of Joseph Eli Uzzell, Thomas and Eliza’s 4th child. Just two of their children survived to old age. George William died in 1977 in his 70s and Lizzie Kathleen who married Arthur Ponting and died in 1987 in her 80s.
In 1919 Eliza went on to marry again. Her second husband was Thomas Choules but her home remained at 6 Morley Street until the end of her life. Eliza died in 1943 and was buried in grave plot B1966 in Radnor Street Cemetery where she lies with Thomas Choules.
Turner Street
Cambria Place cottages
You may like to catch up with some other Uzzell family stories:
I had long wanted to find the grave of Mary E. Slade who died in 1960. I eventually discovered she was buried in the churchyard at Christ Church, but where …
The Swindon Committee for the Provision of Comforts for the Wiltshire Regiment was formed in 1914. More than thirty years later Mary Slade and Kate Handley would still be supporting the soldiers who had survived the horrors of the Great War and the families of those who hadn’t.
Mary Elizabeth Slade was born in Bradford upon Avon in 1872, the daughter of woollen weavers Frank and Susan Slade. Mary and her brother George grew up in Trowbridge but by 1899 Mary had moved to Swindon and a teaching position at King William Street School.
At the outbreak of war Mary headed the team of mainly women volunteers who were based at the Town Hall. Their work was much more than despatching a few cigarettes and a pair of socks to the Tommies on the Front Line and soon became a matter of life and death as the plight of the prisoners of war was revealed.
“When letters began to arrive from the men themselves begging for bread, it was soon realised that they were in dire need, and in imminent risk of dying from starvation, exposure and disease,” W. D. Bavin wrote in his seminal book Swindon’s War Record published in 1922.
The provisions the prisoners received daily was a slice of dry bread for breakfast and tea and a bowl of cabbage soup for dinner.
“Had it not been for the parcels received out there from Great Britain we should have starved,” said returning serviceman T. Saddler.
The team of volunteers co-ordinated supplies and materials with the support of local shopkeepers, schools and hard pressed Swindon families.
In the beginning the committee spent £2 a week on groceries to be sent to Gottingen and other camps where a large number of men from the Wiltshire Regiment had been interned following their capture in 1914. By October 1915 the committee was sending parcels to 660 men, including 332 at Gottingen and 152 at Munster. And at the end of July 1916 they had despatched 1,365 parcels of groceries, 1,419 of bread comprising 4,741 loaves, 38 parcels of clothing and 15 of books.
As the men were moved from prison camps on labour details, the committee adopted a system of sending parcels individually addressed. Each prisoner received a parcel once every seven weeks containing seven shillings worth of food. More than 3,750 individual parcels were despatched in the five months to the end of November 1916.
But their work did not end with the armistice on November 11, 1918. Sadly, the soldiers did not return to a land fit for heroes as promised, but to unemployment and poverty. Mary Slade continued to fund raise for these Swindon families through to the end of the Second World War.
On July 25, 1919 Mary Slade and Kate Handley represented the Swindon Prisoners of War Committee at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party and in 1920 Mary was awarded the MBE.
Mary Slade died suddenly on January 31, 1960 at her home, 63 Avenue Road. She was 87 years old. The previous evening she had been a guest at the choir boy’s party at Christ Church.
Yesterday Noel and I visited the churchyard at Christ Church to pay our respects at the grave of our friend Mark Sutton. As we passed the Rose Garden on our way out I looked down and there was a plaque dedicated to Mary E. Slade. It was through Mark’s lifelong study of the Swindon men who served in the First World War that I first heard the story of Mary E. Slade.
Radnor Street Cemetery 