In 2013 Graham Carter, Mark Sutton and I began our great magazine publishing adventure. During five years of publication we produced twenty editions of Swindon Heritage, including one special publication to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
One of the first people we interviewed was Janet Flanagan. Jan is a well known figure on the local history circuit with her legendary knowledge of the Wilts & Berks Canal but we didn’t know that she was also researching the brickmaking industry of Swindon.
Jan told us how in the 1870s the Swindon Brick and Tile Company’s yard in Spring Gardens was the largest brickworks in Wiltshire with a Hoffman kiln (beneath where the Range stands today) capable of firing 25,000 bricks a day.
Jan’s ongoing research revealed 19 brickworks in the town and district, including the well known Thomas Turner works in Drove Road, now the site of Queens Park.
And of course the brickmaking industry employed a lot of people.
This is the last resting place of Thomas Page, born in Stratton in c1842, the son of a brickmaker, who spent a lifetime working in the industry.
In 1867 he married Mary Ann Painter, the daughter of another brickmaker, William Painter. In 1871 the couple lived at Brick Kiln Cottages in Wroughton. In 1881 they lived in Stratton Green where they also ran a General Shop & Outdoor Beerhouse. This was probably Mary Ann’s concern as Thomas was still working as a brickmaker.
They later moved to Trowbridge and in 1901 they were living and working at the Cockhill Brickyard. Their 15 year old son Moses also worked as a brickmaker and Thomas’ widowed brother-in-law William Weller, another brickmaker, lived with them.
By 1907 Thomas and Mary Ann had returned to Swindon where Mary Ann died at 80 Chapel Street, Gorse Hill on August 27. Thomas died 13 years later. The couple are buried together in grave plot B2708.
Radnor Street Cemetery 