Sometimes I get lucky…
A blogpost published last year about the Astill printing establishment was recently seen by Rhonda in Australia. Rhonda is the great great granddaughter of Robert and Margaret Astill and has an ongoing family history research project that she has been kind enough to share with me, including some fab photos.
Here is Robert Astill, founder of the printing business.
And here is Margaret, his wife.
Robert Astill married Margaret Hall on October 27, 1866 at the Baptist Chapel, Fleet Street, New Swindon.
The Astill family numbered 13. Two daughters died in childhood, Frances in infancy in 1881 and Emma aged 3 in 1870.
The surviving children were all baptised at Christ Church – eight in one go – on February 8, 1880! Ella Alicia Ward Astill was baptised the following year on August 28, 1881 and Annie Kathleen Wootton Hall Astill and Lily Blanche Astill on April 4, 1900.
In 1891 all 11 surviving siblings were living at 2 Bath Road – 7 sisters and 4 brothers – their ages ranging from the eldest Margaret Florence Marionne who was 21 to the youngest Lily Blanche aged 6.
Ellen Victoria, known as Nellie, was the sixth child, born on March 12, 1874. Family memories of Ellen speak of a charming lady who didn’t have much of a life. In 1911 she appears on the census returns as living at Roves Farm, Sevenhampton where she is described as a servant. Farmer Herbert Haine and his wife Edith have two young children and it is likely Ellen’s work was of a domestic nature.
By 1923 Ellen had moved to 28 Avenue Road, Swindon where she worked as a dressmaker and lived with various siblings across the years. In 1939 she lived there with her brother Quigley and sister Ella. It was there that she died aged 72 in April 1946.
And here is Ellen Victoria seated between her sister Mary and her niece Violet. Ellen is the daughter buried with her parents in grave plot E8601.
Many thanks to Rhonda in Australia and the late Eric Barrett from Wroughton for information, photos and family memories.
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Radnor Street Cemetery 
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