Have you picked up your copy of Moonies, Movers and Shakers yet (available from the Library Shop, Central Library, Hobnob Press and Amazon)? If so, you will have read about Frank Wallington.
Frank Samuel Wallington was born in Gloucester in 1865, the son of Francis and Mary Ann Wallington. By 1871 the family had moved to Swindon where Francis worked as a fireman on the locos, eventually progressing to engine driver.
By 1891 Frank had completed his engine fitter’s apprenticeship in the Swindon Works and had moved to London where he boarded with his brother William in Plumstead.
He joined The Association of Wiltshiremen in London (The Moonies in London) and from 1893-1901 acted as Honorary Secretary. Frank eventually emigrated to the United States where he died in Eton, Georgia in 1936.
But other members of the family stayed in Swindon and found their final resting place in Radnor Street Cemetery.
Cemetery volunteer Bex discovered the family graves and what a fantastic job she made of clearing them.
Francis Wallington died aged 49 years at his home 4 Edgeware Road in May 1884 and was buried in grave plot A287. His wife Mary Ann survived him by more than 30 years and died aged 85. She was buried with him on May 31, 1916. These are Frank Samuel Wallington’s parents.
George Harry Wallington and his wife Maud Annie Kate are buried in neighbouring plot A288. George was another of Francis and Mary Ann’s sons and brother of Frank Samuel Wallington.
Buried next to George and Maud are their two sons, Reginald Francis Wallington who died in 1963 and Cyril George Wallington who died in 1981.
Before and after photographs of the Wallington family graves.
At last there is some good news about the future of the derelict property on Victoria Road as published in yesterday’s Swindon Advertiser.
Unfortunately, a misinterpretation of my article No place like home has led to an erroneous link between the property and the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. This is not the case. There is no connection between the militant suffragette leader of the Women’s Social & Political Union and Oxford House, 57 Victoria Road.
But, you may like to read the story of this house and the remarkable Clarke sisters who lived there at the beginning of the 20th century.
Half way up Victoria Road, behind the bus stop called The Brow, stands an empty and derelict property and so it has been for many years. Last year, or maybe it was longer ago, the builders arrived and I was hopeful the property, called Oxford House, might be about to begin a new life. The roof was stripped and new dormer windows inserted. Then the builders left, the new windows were boarded up and the pigeons moved back in. And so it stands, dilapidated, unloved.
At the time of the 1881 census the Clarke family lived at 17 Wellington Street. William worked as an Iron Turner in the GWR Works, but he was an ambitious, intelligent and determined young man.
Ten years later William had moved his family up the social ladder and up the hill to a house in Victoria Road where he worked as a solicitor’s clerk.
When William died on December 16, 1898, the obituary in the Advertiser recalled how for many years he had been employed as a mechanic in the GWR Works. ‘But eventually [he] resigned his post to act as an accountant and debt collector. In the latter capacity he has worked up undoubtedly the largest business of the kind in the county, and has been of great assistance to the business men of the town,” the report continued.
Oxford House dates from around the end of the 19th century when development at the northern end of Victoria Street began. Known first as New Road and then later as Victoria Street North the road was eventually renamed Victoria Road in 1903.
In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst established the Women’s Social and Political Union at her home in Nelson Street, Manchester and at Oxford House, 57 Victoria Road, Swindon the three Clarke sisters, Rosa, Mabel and Florence, established their own financial business, as accountants and debt collectors.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales set up in 1880, discussed admitting females in 1895. Sadly, Rosa died in 1904 and it would be another fifteen years before the first woman became a member in 1919.
The two remaining sisters kept Rosa’s initial letter R in the company name. While the campaigning suffragettes boycotted the 1911 census, refusing to be counted without representation, Florence and Mabel Clarke filled in their census form and are recorded still in business at 57 Victoria Road.
In 1918 Mabel died, leaving an estate of £2,609 4s to her surviving business partner and sister Florence. Interestingly, when Rosa and Mabel died neither sister received the press recognition that their father had.
Florence carried on the business following Mabel’s death in 1918 but by 1920 the North Wilts Trade Directory records that H.T. Kirby, registrar of births and deaths, lived at 57 Victoria Road.
Mabel is buried in plot E8015 with her father William and mother Mary Anne Tilley Clarke.
During the 1980s architect Geoffrey Drew worked out of offices in Oxford House. Brian Carter sent me a photograph taken then and a few words about his father-in -law.
‘My reason for photographing it in 1983 was that the first floor was then the offices of Architect Drew. This was the business of my late father-in-law, Geoffrey Drew (and his secretary – my mother-in-law – Elisabeth Drew).
Geoff was born in Southampton in 1928, was evacuated to Corfe Castle during World War II, and started his working life in Ipswich. Later, he went into partnership in a business in Bristol. This brought him to Swindon for the first time in the 1960s (his first job in the town was working on the original BHS shop in Swindon town centre).
He set up a satellite office in Swindon and liked the place so much that he spent the rest of his life in Bishopstone, and married my future mother-in-law in 1972.
He set up in business on his own in 1981 – briefly in Newport Street, before moving to 57 Victoria Road. In about 1999, they vacated those premises and worked from home in Bishopstone.
This headstone is a victim of weathering. Other deteriorating examples can be found across the cemetery, but this is the end result, when the surface cracks and eventually falls away.
It might seem that the history of those buried here is lost, but it is possible to piece together the family history.
A cemetery marker is propped up against the headstone. These should be treated with caution as many are in the wrong place, but I struck lucky with this one. Using the cemetery maps and grave plot registers I was able to trace the story of not only the people buried in this grave but those in the one next to it as well.
This is the last resting place of James and Dorah Neate. James was born in Box, Wiltshire and Dorah in Bruton, Somerset. They married at St James Church, Bath on October 30, 1877.
James worked as a railway engine driver and the couple moved about a fair bit. At the time of the 1891 census they were living in St Brides, Bridgend with their two sons. William 10 who had been born in Box, Wilts and Frederick 9 born in Weymouth, Somerset. By 1901 they were living at 7 Park Terrace (Faringdon Road) in Swindon. William and Frederick were both working for the GWR, William as a stoker and Frederick as a fitter. The couples’ last home was at 13 Jennings Street where James died in 1925 and Dorah in 1930.
James was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery on April 27, 1925 in plot D519. Dorah’s funeral took place on July 7, 1930 and she is buried in the same plot.
The collapsed pink granite monument next to James and Dorah’s plot is the grave of their son William.
Like his father William also became a railway engine driver. He married Elsie Maria Tyler at St Paul’s Church, Swindon on June 24, 1907. At the time of the 1911 census William and Elsie were living in Goodwick on the Pembrokeshire coast with their two-year-old daughter Kathleen Dora. They also had a son, Arthur William T. Neate, who was born in Wales in 1915.
William and Elsie eventually returned to Swindon where Kathleen died in 1931 aged 22. William died at 30 South View Avenue, Walcot, Swindon on September 11, 1948 and Elsie died at 20 Castle View Road, Stratton St Margaret on December 13, 1968.
William, Elsie and Kathleen are buried in plot D520 next to William’s parents.
The Tyler family photo was shared on Ancestry by Debra Tyler on February 8, 2010. Elsie is standing on the left with her arm resting on her mother’s shoulder.
My grandfather always lingered awhile at the corner of Clarence Street opposite the site of the old Empire Theatre. He would grip my hand tightly and recall the tale of little Freddy Whitby.
I know the story well as he never failed to mention it. It was only much later that I fully understood; well you don’t as a child, do you? It was one of Pop’s stories, like the ones about the war, stories you heard all the time as a child and yet could only recall in fragments as an adult. How many times have you wished you’d asked about this or that, wished you had listened more carefully?
The Empire Theatre has long gone and there are traffic lights at the busy junction now, so as I wait for the traffic to come to a halt, I too think of little Freddy Whitby.
Freddy Whitby was 10 years and 10 months old on that fateful Friday in June 1911. He was on his way to school from his home in Swindon Road. At the corner of Clarence Street Freddy stepped off the pavement as if to cross, but then he hesitated before breaking into a run.
A witness said when he saw the car so near him Freddy appeared scared and dazed, and knowing not what to do stood absolutely still.
The driver of the car was racehorse trainer Mr W.T. Robinson from Broome Manor who was on his way to the GWR Station to catch the nine o’clock express train to London.
Mr Robinson told the inquest how he had been blowing the whistle all down the street from the tramlines and how, realising the danger the boy was in, he slammed on his brakes. The left headlamp clipped young Freddy, knocking him off balance and under the front wheel of the car.
Mr Finn, a butcher, was on his way to work when he too saw the accident. He ran across the street and picked up the boy, carrying him to Dr Lavery’s surgery just around the corner in Regent Circus.
The children on their way to Clarence Street School gathered round.
“Who is it?” they asked one another, but nobody seemed to know the boy.
Complaining of pain in his stomach Freddy was transferred to the Victoria Hospital where he was subsequently operated on for an internal haemorrhage.
The operation had proved successful and Freddy was showing signs of recovery when he died suddenly on Saturday morning. A post mortem revealed that the injuries had been slight and it was believed that Freddy had died from shock.
“I never even knew him,” Pop used to say, which always struck me as odd. Why, half a century later, did he still grieve for the boy knocked down on the corner of Clarence Street that he never knew?
But perhaps that was why? Nobody had known Freddy Whitby. Had he been walking to school with a group of boys, or even just one friend, that accident might never have happened? I think my Pop believed that had he been that one friend, Freddy Whitby would have lived. Throughout his long life my Pop somehow felt responsible for the death of Freddy Whitby…’
The facts …
At the inquest Freddy’s father described his son as being a very nervous boy who had poor eyesight and wore glasses. The family had previously been living in Liverpool, Freddy had only been in Swindon since Tuesday of the previous week and the streets were new to him, he told the court.
The Swindon Advertiser reported that ‘the accident again calls attention to the danger of children crossing the streets on going to school when motor cars are frequently passing.’
The Deputy Chief Constable suggested that in future motorists travelling from Old Town to the GWR station should proceed by way of Drove Road to avoid the Clarence Street schools’ area.
Freddy’s funeral took place on June 14, 1911. He is buried in plot B2238 in a grave he shares with three other children; Herbert Mark Keen who died in July 1894 aged 12 months; Oswald Hall who also died in July 1894 aged two years and an eight-week-old baby George Henry Clifford who died a month after Freddy in 1911.
The grave is marked by a memorial to Freddy, a cross toppled off long ago and lies in the grass. The inscription reads: In Loving Memory of Little Freddy the beloved and only son of F. and E. Whitby aged 10 years and 10 mths Accidentally killed by motor car June 10th 1911.
Love is the sweetest thing
What else on earth could ever bring
Such happiness to ev’rything
As Love’s old story.
How wonderful it must be to find love twice in a lifetime. In my mind’s eye I can see mother’s sardonic expression. She didn’t believe in love, or luck – she’d never had much of either in her life, but I was the eternal romantic.
Mother and I would go into town every Friday. We’d do some shopping and then we’d have afternoon tea in McIlroys. We used to meet Mrs Sessford, as she was then, at the bus stop on Kingshill Road.
Mother and Mrs Sessford were about the same age, but you would never have guessed it. Mother was, how can I put this kindly? Well let’s say she wasn’t a bundle of laughs. Mrs Sessford, on the other hand, was joyful, yes, that is the correct word to describe her. She was joyful.
Love is the strangest thing
No song of birds upon the wing
Shall in our hearts more sweetly sing
Than Love’s old story.
Mother always complained about the weather; it was either too cold or too hot. But for Mrs Sessford, the sun always shone.
Mrs Sessford lived with her father at 155 Kingshill Road where he died on August 30, 1943. Within weeks Mrs Sessford married Henry Harold Musto.
Whatever heart may desire
Whatever life may send
This is the tale that never will tire.
This is the song without end.
“They must be almost 60,” Mother tutted. “There’s something fishy about it all, you mark my words. I bet he’s after her money.”
Mother thought it ridiculous. I thought it was rather lovely, and how lucky Mrs Sessford had been, to find love twice in her lifetime. Sadly, it passed me by completely.
Love is the strongest thing
The oldest yet, the latest thing
I only hope that fate may bring
Love’s story to you.
Love is the sweetest thing written by Ray Noble and performed by Al Bowlly 1932
The facts …
Edith Maud Steel was born on February 9, 1886, the eldest of Thomas and Letitia Steel’s three children. She grew up in Devonport where in 1908 she marred James Henry Sessford. Lieut Sessford died on September 15, 1927 at the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham from Broncho Pneumonia and Cardiac Failure.
By 1939 Edith was living with her father Thomas, Chief E.R.A. Royal Navy (Retired) at 155 Kingshill Road. Thomas was 77 years old and Edith was 53.
Thomas died at his home on August 30, 1943. His funeral took place in Radnor Street Cemetery on September 2 where he was buried in plot C4911.
Edith married Henry Harold Musto in the December quarter of 1943. She died in St Margaret’s Hospital, Stratton St Margaret on June 3, 1951. Her funeral took place on June 7 when she was buried with her father. They are the only two interments in plot C4911.
Henry Harold Musto died in the December Quarter of 1971. His death was registered in the Plymouth district.
Henry Harold Musto was the only child of Joseph Henry Musto and his wife Margaret. He was a railway clerk in the Works and had grown up at 146 Clifton Street.
At the time of her marriage to Thomas Steel, Edith’s mother was living at 21 Regent Street; Letitia Fanny was one of William and Jane Musto’s five children, along with brother Joseph Henry.
Gran loved a good funeral. She especially liked the ones held at St Mark’s where Canon Ponsonby officiated as he had such a lovely voice, she said. But she wasn’t adverse to attending services at one of the many non conformist churches or chapels across town, or even the little cemetery chapel itself.
And afterwards she would come round to our house and over a cup of tea she would recount the events.
Mr Brittain’s funeral ranked as one of the best she had attended, she told us. The list of mourners read like a Who’s Who of Swindon railway royalty, she said.
As a child I accepted Gran’s funeral fascination as just one of the funny things old people did. Most things about the elderly were pretty incomprehensible to the young. It wasn’t until Gran died that I began to understand.
Gran had been born at a time when death was very much a part of life. Before she was ten years old she had lost her own mother and several siblings. Today we tend to think people must have become used to all that death and dying. One child died and the next one born received their name. Perhaps people didn’t invest so much love in their children then as we do now. Of course once I had my own family I realised what a ridiculous notion that was and I came to understand the loss Gran continued to mourn throughout her life.
Mr Brittain’s funeral was one of the best she’d ever seen, Gran told us.
The facts …
The Late Mr E.T. Brittain – We gave a brief account in our last Saturday’s issue of the sudden death of Mr E.T. Brittain of Wellington-street, New Swindon, the esteemed foreman of the R. Shop (Loco. Dept.) of the GWR Works.
Mr Brittain, who was 65 years of age, was well-known in New Swindon. For many years he occupied a seat on the Council of the Mechanics’ Institute, and for 17 years he was a director of the New Swindon Industrial Society, and during the last 12 years he ably filled the office of chairman. Deceased also took a great interest in political matters; he was a staunch Conservative, and at the time of his death was treasurer of the North Wilts Conservative Association.
His position in the GWR Works was unique, as he was the oldest foreman in the Works. He commenced as assistant foreman in the R. Shop, the principal fitting and machine shop, under the late Mr James Haydon. Upon that gentleman being appointed as Assistant Works Manager, Mr Brittain continued in the same capacity under Mr E.J. Davies. When some 20 years ago, Mr Davies obtained the appointment of the managership of the Engine Department of Messrs Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies, Limited, Ipswich, Mr Brittain was appointed to the chief foremanship, a position which he held and worthily filled to the day of his death.
We understand that for many years nearly all the fitter, turner and erector apprentices received their early training under Mr Brittains’s management and we are sure that his lamented death will come as a great shock to engineers who have been trained under him, and who are to be found at most centres in the world where engineers are employed.
The funeral of deceased took place on Monday last, and was the occasion of a striking demonstration of respect on the part of the officials and workmen of the GWR and the various bodies with which deceased was connected, as well as the general public.
The funeral cortege left deceased’s late residence in Wellington-street at half-past four, and proceeded to St Mark’s Church, where the first portion of the service was conducted by the Vicar, the Hon. and Rev. Canon Ponsonby, who also read the concluding service at the graveside in the Cemetery.
There were five mourning carriages, and the chief mourners included deceased’s three sons and brother-in-law. Deceased being an old Volunteer, eight members of the New Swindon Companies attended as bearers. Nearly 400 persons followed the remains from the church to the graveside, and the route was lined with spectators, besides which a vast crowd assembled in the Cemetery. Some idea of the extent of the procession may be gathered when we state that it extended from the Cemetery entrance throughout the whole length of Radnor-street.
The coffin was covered with an immense number of beautiful wreaths and crosses and other floral offerings. Amongst the mourners, besides deceased’s relatives, we noticed Mr. D.E. Marsh (Loco. Dept.), Mr J. Fordyce Stevenson (district engineer), Mr F.C. Kent (district estate agent), Mr Webb (representing Mr Carlton), Messrs. T.B. Watson, A. Adams, W.H. Ludgate, E.L. Pugh, Theo Wright, R.B. Pattison, W. Mole, W. Hunt, T. Veness, W.H. Lawson, J. Ireland, T. Stone, T. Money, H. Green, G.M. Butterworth, R. Baker, A. Nash, W. Booth, W. Harvie, R. Affleck, H.J. Southwell, F. Tegg, W. Sewell, D. White, J.D.R. Phillips, T. Spencer, H. Morris, R. Chirgwin, H. Wright, L. Dyer, H. Andrews, J. Christelow, E.Y. Westlake, E. Harvie, R. Hogarth, W. Morrison, R.N. Sutcliffe, E. Burns, W. Clark, J.S. Protheroe, W.J. Greenwood, C. Fox, T.C. Morgan etc. etc. The funeral arrangements were satisfactorily carried out by Mr H. Smith. Mrs Brittain and family desire to thank the many kind friends for the expressions of condolence and sympathy in their recent bereavement.
The Swindon Advertiser, Saturday, July 6, 1895.
Edwin Thomas Brittain pictured centre – published courtesy of Rosa Matheson – Railway Voices ‘Inside’ Swindon Works
Edwin Thomas Brittain was born in the parish of St Pancras on November 21, 1829, the eldest son of Henry James Brittain, an undertaker, and his wife Charlotte.
He married Louisa Elizabeth Hooker at Trinity Church, St Marylebone on January 11, 1852 and the couple soon moved to Wolverton in Buckinghamshire where Edwin was employed at the London & North Western engine works. Their son Thomas is born in Wolverton but by 1853 the family have moved to Swindon.
Edwin Thomas Brittain entered the GWR Service on July 26, 1853 working as a Fitter in the Loco factory. He was made Assistant Foreman on October 7,1865 and Foreman on January 12, 1867.
At the time of the 1861 census he was living at No 6 King Street with Louisa and their five children. The couple had nine children in total, moving to Wellington Street where they lived at No 18 and No. 39 at various times over the next twenty year period.
Edwin died at his home at 39 Wellington Street on June 27, 1895. He left effects to the value of £181 5s 2d. Louisa survived him by eighteen years and is buried here with him.
My mother wasn’t an emotional type of woman, but when John and Hannah Bates moved away she was inconsolable. I don’t think I’d ever seen her cry before, so it came as quite a shock.
The Bates boys Bill and Tom had already gone and with the selfishness of youth all I could think was how lucky they were to escape. There was nothing in Snap anymore, but to be honest the village probably never had a thriving social life; not like Swindon where there were theatres and clubs and pubs.
But what there had been in Snap was a sense of community, and now even that had gone. I think that’s probably what upset mother as much as the departure of John and Hannah Bates. The families she had lived alongside had all left – the babies born at the same time she had hers, the children raised, the hardships shared, the good times celebrated, all in the past.
I hoped we might follow the Bates family but my parents were loathe to leave. We stuck it out a while longer, but things were never going to improve. There would be no new jobs, no one moving into the empty cottages; no one even came back to visit those of us still here.
I never made it to the bright lights of Swindon. My parents moved up the road to Aldbourne, and now I find, like mother, I don’t like change much either.
The facts …
The first recorded mention of Snap, or Snape as it was sometimes called, is in a medieval document dated 1268. In the 14th century Snap was the smallest settlement in the parish of Aldbourne and one of the poorest in Wiltshire.
During the last decades of the 18th century the village consisted of five cottages built on the southern side of the valley and by 1851 there were just 41 inhabitants. For more than one hundred years Snap village was the home of the Bates family.
Three generations of the Bates family made their home in Snap. They worshipped at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at Woodsend where John Bates was a trustee, and worked as agricultural labourers on the two farms that supported the village.
In 1861 John Waldron owned Snap Farm where he employed 8 men, 7 boys and a groom on his 411 acre holding. Thomas Bates was employed as a carter, living in one of the larger properties in the village which had an extension to accommodate the cart and stable the horses. His son Joseph boarded at Snap Farm where he worked as under carter. Thomas’ father Joseph lived in the village and at the age of 76 he was still working as an agricultural labourer.
The difficult years 1871-1880 saw the onset of an agricultural depression. A series of cold, wet summers resulted in a succession of poor harvests and the residents of Snap began to move away.
At the time of the 1881 census there were just seven occupied cottages and a property described as a hut where the young shepherd William Marten lived.
John Bates lived at Snap Cottage with his wife Hannah and their three youngest children, William 14, Emily 10 and Thomas 7. For William, already working as an agricultural labourer, and his younger brother Thomas, there was no future for them in Snap.
William moved to Swindon where there were jobs aplenty in the railway factory. He married Ada Florence Gerrard at St Mark’s Church on September 30, 1893 and at the time of the 1901 census the couple and their three young children Dorothy 6; Hubert 4 and 8 month old Frances, were living at 13 Curtis Street. William’s brother Thomas was boarding with them and the brothers both worked as Machinemen in the GWR Works.
Back home in Snap a series of events would sound the death knell for the village. William’s parents had already left the cottage that had been their home for more than thirty years and moved to East Garston near Lambourn. Then in 1905 Henry Wilson, a butcher and sheep dealer from Ramsbury, bought both Snap and Leigh Farms. He quickly turned the land to grass and shipped in a more profitable crop – sheep.
Snap was all but deserted with just two remaining residents, James and Rachel Fisher. Following the death of her husband, Rachel was persuaded to move into Aldbourne, which she found too quiet, missing the birdsong and the barking of foxes in her cottage garden at Snap.
Following the outbreak of war in 1914 the village was used by the War Office for military training. The cottages fell into ruin, the stones robbed for new building in neighbouring Woodsend during the 1940s.
William Bates died on September 26, 1925 at his home in Curtis Street. His funeral at Radnor Street Cemetery took place on September 30th when he was buried in plot D907 where he was later joined by his son Hubert who died in 1932 and [Ada] Florence, his wife, who died in 1943.
Above photograph pictures theruins of Snap farmhouse in the 1930s.
In 1991 the pupils of Toothill School, Swindon placed a stone in memory of the people of Snap. Photograph is published courtesy of Brian Robert Marshall.
Such a novelty is it to have our museum back in Swindon that I’ve already visited twice.
The Swindon Museum and Art Gallery at Apsley House closed with the advent of Covid in 2020 and never re-opened. Apparently there was (and possibly still is) a plan in the pipeline to build an all singing, all dancing building in Swindon’s ‘Cultural Quarter.’ But it was a very long pipeline; a ten year long pipeline.
But, to cut a long story short, we now have a new museum on the first floor of the Civic Offices in Euclid Street, and what a cracker it is!
And, of course, I went round with my notebook collecting names of those people who might be buried in Radnor Street Cemetery. I already knew that Charles Herbert Henry Gore, the first curator in post in 1928 was buried in grave plot B3248.
Then I came across an indenture between *Edward William Beard, builder, and 14 year old Percy Albert Cook.
Born in Fareham, Hampshire in 1891, Percy was the son of Robert Bray Cook (whose signature is on the bottom of the document) and Elizabeth Mary Cook nee Cable. The family first appear in Swindon on the 1901 census when they lived at 114 Commercial Road. Young Percy successively completed his apprenticeship and in 1920 he married Gertrude Hawkins. In 1939 the couple and their two sons were living at 13 Commercial Road where Percy describes his occupation as ‘Carpenter, Decorator and Jobbing Builder (Master).’
Gertrude died in 1963 and Percy in 1976 but unfortunately neither of them are buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.
Percy’s father Robert had worked at a variety of jobs. Perhaps this is why he wanted Percy to have a trade and a secure future. By 1911 the family were living at 13 Commercial Road, the property where Percy was living in 1939.
Robert died that same year. He is buried in an unmarked public grave, plot B2332 which he shares with his son Barlett Alfred Cable Cook who died aged 24 in 1909.
* The firm founded by Edward William Beard is still in operation and is presently working on the Health Hydro building in Milton Road.
We always bought our shoes and boots from Mr Chappell’s shop in Bridge Street. I say ‘always’ as if it were a weekly event. Buying shoes and boots in our family was a big occasion and only done after much forethought and deliberation.
Father patched up our footwear until it was beyond repair and the new purchase was only embarked upon at the moment of absolute need, never on a whim or a fancy.
My sister always chose a dainty pair of shoes with buckles and bows. Of course these were never the ones she ended up with. I was just happy to have a pair of boots that kept my feet dry and didn’t scrunch up my toes.
My sister told me that Mr Chappell was born in America; New York, she said, but I knew that couldn’t be true. He didn’t look American and he certainly didn’t sound American. And why on earth would you leave New York and move to Swindon?
She also said he was a Minister of the Gospel and I didn’t believe that either. Why would he sell boots and shoes if he was a man of God?
Girls have some funny notions.
The facts …
This is the final resting place of Samuel Chappell, master shoemaker, boot and leather seller and as inscribed on the headstone, 40 years a Minister of the Gospel.
Samuel was the eldest son of Eli and Ann Chappell. His father was born in Castle Combe where he worked for many years as a tailor.
Samuel, however, was born in New York in 1847. By the time of the 1851 census the Chappell family were back in Wiltshire and living in Hullavington where Eli was working as a Master Tailor. Living with him were his wife Ann, 8 year old daughter Ann who was born in Castle Combe, obviously before the family’s big American adventure, and a baby son John, born in Hullavington on their return.
Samuel appears to have been raised in Castle Combe by his aunt and uncle, Susanna and William Chappell. William was a master shoemaker and in 1861 Samuel was working ashis apprentice.
The 1871 census has two entries for Samuel, one living in Stratton St Margaret with his parents and two brothers. The other entry shows him lodging with the Keylock family at 5 Albert Street in Old Swindon.
Samuel opened his own boot and leather shop at 26 Bridge Street in 1872. In 1874 he married Sarah Ann Sainsbury. On the 1911 census Samuel and Sarah Ann are living at 68 Eastcott Hill and state that they had six children, four of whom were still living.
This photograph shows Samuel and his eldest son William outside the shop in the early 1900s. According to a family member who kindly sent me this photograph, the shop remained open until the 1950s.
Samuel died at his home in Eastcott Hill and was buried in plot A2560 in Radnor Street Cemetery on January 19, 1926. He shares the grave with his wife Sarah who died in 1916 and their youngest son Samuel, who died aged 24 in 1909 following a leg injury sustained whilst playing football.
I was shown into the neat front parlour at 131 Faringdon Road where the ladies were enjoying a celebratory tea party. A trill of voices punctuated by laughter and cries of “Do you remember when …” greeted me.
The occasion was the return to Swindon of eldest sister Louisa after more than 50 years of living in Bournemouth. Today the seven sisters were enjoying tea together and had invited the Evening Advertiser to join them.
This was just the kind of human-interest story my editor liked and I had been sent to take the ladies’ photograph.
“Do you know young man we have a combined age of 517 years?”
“Oh Min, you’re exaggerating.”
“No, she’s quite right. If Louisa is 85 next month that would make Maud … “ Mabel proceeded to quote everyone’s age.
“My goodness Mabel, you’re not reckoning up in the Post Office now.”
“Where do you want us to pose, young man?” asked Ethel with a twinkle in her eye, obviously the cheekiest of the seven sisters.
The parlour was rather dark and I had caught a glimpse through the window of the pretty little back garden.
“Shall we move out into the garden?” I suggested.
“That would be perfect, let me grab my cardigan,” said Ethel.
“I hope my hair won’t be spoilt,” Eva tucked the hair grips more securely into her coiffure.
Standing at the bottom of the garden there was more chattering and giggles.
“Tallest in the middle,” former teacher Flora organised her sisters.
“Surely as the eldest Louisa should be in the middle? Would you like a chair darling? I’ll get you one from the dining room.”
I decided it was time to assert some order.
“Ladies, why don’t we form a semi-circle with the eldest at one end, down to the youngest at the other end?”
“You are a clever young man,” said Flora. “What a perfect idea. Right, Louisa you stand there, then we’ll have Maud and Mabel next. Stand next to me Min, there and Ethel and Eva on the end.”
“Lovely. Ladies, are we ready then?”
“Mummy and daddy would just love this. All of us back together again.”
The women linked arms and just as I clicked the shutter on the camera Min said something to make her sisters laugh. Ethel peeped out of place and Louisa closed her eyes.
Youngest sister Eva’s wedding to George Babington in 1911. Photograph courtesy of the Alley family.
You can read more about the amazing Alley sisters in my book Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon available from Amazon
The facts …
By 1881 George Richman Alley and his wife Emma had moved to Swindon. George worked as a body maker and later a wheelwright’s foreman in the GWR Works. The couple lived first at 3 Carfax Street and then at 8 Merton Street where George died in 1925. Emma survived him by seven years. The couple are buried together in a grave in Radnor Street Cemetery, close to the Chapel.
As ever my thanks go to Wendy Burrows, Kay Prosser, Di Edelman and Christine Price.
![20240807_143421[4011]](https://radnorstreetcemetery.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240807_1434214011.jpg)
Radnor Street Cemetery 