The terracotta grave markers

Back in the day there were flowers everywhere, right across the cemetery, displayed beneath glass domes; cultivated in the greenhouses. In 1907 the groundsmen were so busy that planning permission was sought for additional glasshouses to be built behind the caretakers lodge (see above illustration).

For those families who could not afford a headstone the flowers were a monument among the graves so densely arranged with barely a foot’s breadth between each plot.

Every grave was identified by a terracotta marker, sadly an unsatisfactory method. The system had worked well when a caretaker and gravediggers were employed in the busy cemetery but today they lie broken and scattered about. Some graves sport several of the brick like markers, others have none, and when searching for a grave they should be used with caution and only as a rough guide.

So what about the marker pictured here, found on a mound of earth. Is there a fallen headstone buried somewhere beneath? There are no clues, but it is possible to trace who was buried in plot D1083…

The facts …

The Radnor Street Cemetery burial registers reveal that there is only one person buried in plot D1083. His name was William John Molden, a boilermaker at the Works, who died on March 3, 1919 at his home, 145 Clifton Street. He was 44 years old and his funeral took place on March 8. Administration of William’s estate was awarded to his widow, Emily and his effects were valued at £179 5s.

Without applying for William’s death certificate we cannot ascertain his cause of death. Unfortunately we do not have a budget to pay for all the death certificates we need when researching the cemetery.

William was born on February 23, 1875 in Purton, the son of Eli and Hannah Molden. He began a six year boilermaking apprenticeship in the Works on February 23, 1890 aged 15. The 1891 census lists William as a 16 year old GWR Boiler Maker Apprentice living with his parents and older brother Sidney at Battle Well, Purton.

William married Emily Painter in 1898 and at the time of the 1901 census they were living at 65 Redcliffe Street, Rodbourne with their four month old daughter Dorothy.

The family appears on the 1911 census living at 122 Clifton Street where William lists his occupation as Boilermaker Rivetter. The couple have three children, Dorothy Maud aged 10, Muriel Louise Hetty, 8 and Harold Sydney John 2. Another son, Raymond Edward Joseph was born in 1917.

William was a relatively young man when he died. Perhaps he died as a result of the post-war ‘flu epidemic which raged through Swindon as it did everywhere else.

The Old Congregational Church

The re-imagined story …

Tomorrow I will hang up my check at V Shop for the last time. I’m looking forward to retirement with some trepidation. My body has had enough of the hard graft but I will miss my mates and the camaraderie. Fifty-five years I’ve been ‘inside.’

I left school at 13 and worked for a local builder until I could begin my apprenticeship in the Works. Some dates stick in your mind. On March 23, 1883 I was sent to join a group of labourers excavating the burial ground in Newport Street. The old Congregational Church had been demolished almost twenty years earlier, but the burial ground had been left intact, until now when the area was required for redevelopment. We were to locate and exhume the graves for reburial in the new Swindon Cemetery on Kingshill.

It had rained for most of the previous week and the clay soil was heavy and claggy and difficult to dig. You had to use a lot of force to shift the earth but all the time I was worried about what I might be disturbing. Some of the burials were more than 60 years old, the coffins rotting away. Every time my spade made any contact, I gave out an involuntary noise, something between a cry and a yelp. The men got angry with me and told me to have some respect for the dead. I was only a lad, I hadn’t known what to expect and I feared hitting a decomposed body, I tried not to look too closely, frightened of what I might see.

Eventually the foreman gave me a different job to do while the men transferred the exhumed remains to the mortuary in the cemetery. The new grave had already been dug by the cemetery Sexton.

A few weeks later I went to pay my respects at the graveside of the Strange family whose remains had been re interred. I stood by the large plot with the tall cross and made my apologies.

The facts …

The extended Strange family were prosperous members of 18th and 19th century Swindon society. They were farmers and salt and coal merchants, grocers and drapers and they even opened the first bank in the town in 1807 Strange, Garrett, Strange and Cook.

Richard Strange junior was born in 1799, the son of banker and grocer Richard senior and his wife Mary. Richard married his cousin Martha, youngest daughter of Uncle James and Aunt Sarah Strange at Holy Rood Church on January 9, 1834. Richard farmed at Mannington Farm from 1841 until his death in 1883 when his daughter Julia took over the tenancy of the farm.

The Strange family were prominent non-conformists in the town and Martha’s father James founded the Congregational Church in Newport Street where members of the family were interred in the small burial ground. The Newport Street Church was demolished in 1866 but the burial ground remained intact for more than 15 years. However, in 1883 the graves of Richard Strange’s immediate family were exhumed for re-burial in Radnor Street Cemetery. The remains of his mother Mary who died in 1829, his father Richard who died in 1832 and his 16-year-old sister Sarah who died in 1820 along with those of Richard’s wife Martha who died in 1858 and a one-day old baby son also called Richard, were re-interred in plots E8463/4/5.

Richard Strange junior died at Mannington Farm on June 23, 1883 aged 83 and was buried in this large family plot. He left a personal estate of £4,775 1s 6d to his only daughter Julia who took over the running of the farm. Julia was buried in the family plot when she died on August 30, 1911.

A stained-glass window is dedicated to Julia in St Augustine’s Church, Rodbourne. The dedication reads ‘a devoted worker in this Parish.’

Photograph published courtesy of Duncan and Mandy Ball.

First caretaker – Charles Brown

Radnor Street entrance

The re-imagined story …

It’s a long trek back home from the market to Clifton Street. I usually walk up Deacon Street and cut through the cemetery. Of course, in the old days you weren’t allowed to and if Mr Brown caught us kids, we were in for a right telling off.

Mr Brown was the caretaker who lived in the lodge at the Radnor Street gates. He used to keep all the other gates locked so the only way in and out was past his front door.

Us kids used to climb the railings, but woe betide you if he caught you scratching the paintwork.

He and his team kept that cemetery in a beautiful condition. The grass edges were always neat and tidy and come Autumn the paths were all kept clear of leaves. We reckoned he polished the gravestones as well, they were so clean.

He was very proud of the place. Well, he’d been caretaker from the day it opened. Funny to think he’d known the cemetery in its empty state. Strange thing was he died on July 31, 1905 the anniversary of the date he began work in 1881.

People say he’ll be missed. I’m sure he will, but my generation will always remember him as the scary man who used to chase us out the cemetery.

cemetery-lodge-front-door-2

The facts …

With the opening of the cemetery imminent the Cemetery Committee advertised for a caretaker and sexton, at a Salary of £1 a Week, and House-Rent Free. The successful applicant was 44-year-old Charles Brown who in 1881 was working as a Coachman in Wroughton. Charles worked as caretaker for 24 years. He died at home in the Cemetery Lodge on July 31, 1905 and is buried in the cemetery in plot E8661.

Death of Mr C. Brown. The death of Mr C. Brown, the caretaker at the Swindon Cemetery, took place on Monday afternoon. Deceased was born at Lambourne Berks 68 years ago, and after living at Burderop for some time, he removed to Swindon, and became the first caretaker of the Cemetery, being appointed just 24 years ago, his death occurring on the anniversary day. Deceased had been failing in health for the last twelvemonths, and went away a short time ago for the benefit of his health. He was taken seriously ill about a fortnight ago, and passed away on Monday, as already stated. Deceased was always most unobtrusive and courteous in the discharge of his duties – On Thursday afternoon, at 2.30, the mortal remains of the late Mr Brown were laid to rest in the Swindon Cemetery, over which he had had charge for so many years. The remains were enclosed in a polished elm coffin, with brass furniture, and the breast place bore the inscription: “Charles Brown, died July 31, 1905, aged 68 years.”

Extracts from the Swindon Advertiser, Friday, August 4, 1905.

Family dynamics and a rediscovered grave

One winter several years ago before public spending cuts became so constrained, Swindon Borough Council cleared a large area of the cemetery swamped by brambles, revealing many hidden graves. One of the rediscovered plots was that of the Barnes family.

This double plot E8410/E8411 is surrounded by an elegant, black marble kerbstone memorial. Although still partially concealed, two names can be detected. From these slim pickings it was possible to trace much of the history of this family, using a combination of sources beginning with the Radnor Street Cemetery burial registers.

On October 15, 1878 John Barnes and Elizabeth Jane (also known as Jane Elizabeth) Farmer married at St Mark’s, the church in the railway village. John worked as a plumber, most probably with his father Richard who was also described as a plumber on the marriage certificate. Elizabeth Jane was the daughter of Thomas Farmer, a mason.

At the time of the 1881 census John, Jane and their daughters Edith Ellen aged 1 and three-month-old Florence Beatrice, lived at 9 William Street. By 1891 they were still living in William Street where their family had increased by four sons – Harold E 6 years old, Ernest A 5, Herbert H J 3, and one-year old Frederick W.

By 1901 they were living at 5 Tennyson Street, their family complete with the birth of Edgar A in 1897. Their elder sons Harold aged 16 and Ernest 15 were both working in the building trade, Harold as an apprentice house carpenter and Ernest as an apprentice house painter. At a time when the railway works dominated the town, this large Swindon family worked independently and within the building trade. Maybe the family would look back on these times as the good years.

On September 4, 1907 18-year-old Frederick set sail for Australia. Perhaps the building trade had taken a temporary down turn, although that seems unlikely in fast growing Swindon. Was his departure a shock for his parents, or perhaps he had always been a daring, adventurous type?

But worse was to come. The first real tragedy struck on November 26, 1907 when 21-year-old Harold Ernest died, the first of the family to be buried in the large, double plot in Radnor Street Cemetery and whose name is visible on the re-discovered grave. It was Harold’s death that gave me an entry into this family’s history.

The 1911 census confirms some details. Jane states that she and John have been married for 34 years and that they had eight children, 7 of whom were living and one who had died. The couple’s four sons were listed at home in Tennyson Street, including Frederick returned from Australia.

On Boxing Day 1911 eldest son Herbert Horace John married Kate Gray Hill at St Mark’s, the church where his parents had married.

The following year Frederick and his younger brother Lionel set sail on the Orvieto bound for Sydney, Australia. John and Jane would never see Frederick again. He died in Drummoyne, New South Wales in 1913. His name is remembered on the family memorial.

Lionel remained in Australia where he married Lucy Amelia Hunt, a girl from Wootton Bassett, in 1913. They came back to England at some point, but returned to Australia in 1951 where Lionel died in Drummoyne, New South Wales in 1963 aged 71.

On September 23, 1914 Herbert’s wife Kate gave birth to a baby girl called Freda but sadly they both died the following day. Kate and her baby daughter were the first of the family to be buried in the adjoining plot E8411.

With the declaration of war, the parents must have feared for their sons, especially when their widowed son Herbert enlisted with the Royal Marines Divisional Engineers. He later transferred to the Royal Air Force.

Herbert returned safely from the war to marry Mabel Homer in 1919. He died in 1959 and was buried with his first wife and their baby daughter in plot E8411. They share the grave with Herbert’s sister Edith Ellen Lucas who died in 1962 and her husband Ernest Lucas.

Another son served in and survived the First World War. Edgar Arthur Thomas Barnes, a motor engineer, joined the army at the beginning of the war and served in the Royal Army Service Corps. He was awarded the Military Medal for repairing a motor under fire and bringing three wounded soldiers safely to hospital. Edgar died in Lincoln in 1961.

Jane died in 1922 and John in 1924. They were buried in plot E8410 with their son Herbert and daughter-in-law Mabel Barnes.

Eight family members and a day-old baby were buried in that newly discovered double grave plot. Thanks to the hard work of the Swindon Borough Council team it has been possible to trace the events of the Barnes family history.

Have you seen the doctor?

albert ramsden surgeon (2)

The re-imagined story …

Every Saturday Nan and me would come into town on the bus. We’d buy a bunch of flowers from a stall in the market and then walk up Deacon Street to the cemetery.

After we had spent a few moments looking at the wonky little headstone we would lay the flowers on the grave. Then I’d skip off down the steep path and out of the gate to Grandma’s house in Dixon Street, arriving at the front door ahead of Nan.

“Have you seen the doctor?” was the first thing she always said. Before “hello Marilyn, why aren’t you wearing a coat?” or “hello Marilyn I’ve got some chocolate cake in the pantry.”

Grandma was a wizen, little, ancient lady, who always dressed in black, I assumed in perpetual mourning for my dead Grandpa. Old ladies did that in my childhood. Of course, you don’t see that now. These days they get a tattoo and move on to a 50-year-old boyfriend. Grandma was my great-grandmother, someone to be revered and obeyed. That’s all changed as well.

When I was very young, I thought ‘the doctor’ was a relative of ours, but when I came to understand social politics I realised that’s wasn’t very likely; all the men in our family had been railwaymen.

Then one day Nan mentioned that the doctor was a surgeon, one of the GWR doctors employed at the Medical Fund Hospital. Perhaps he had performed some life saving operation on a family member. Perhaps that was why Grandma had been leaving flowers on the grave for more than 60 years.

Suddenly, as happens, life passed by. Grandma died and my much loved Nan took her place as the little old lady I took my children to visit on a Saturday afternoon. We didn’t call in at the cemetery first though as Nan lived just around the corner from us in Gorse Hill.

We talked about the past a lot, same as I find I do now, and then one day I asked her who the doctor was we used to visit in the cemetery.

She took her time replying and I wondered if she might have forgotten.

“When my mother, your Grandma, was young she worked for the railway doctors. The surgery was at Park House where Dr. Swinhoe lived, but the younger doctors lived in a house in London Street.” She paused for a moment and I sensed she was about to share a confidence that had not be spoken of for many years.

“Grandma used to do the washing for the young doctors, keep the house tidy and cook them a midday meal, returning in the afternoon to finish her duties. Remember mind, she was only 15 or 16. That was a lot of work for a young girl to be doing. That particular day, she left the meal for the doctors and went home for her own dinner.

“Just as she was about to leave her house a young boy knocked on the door with a note for her telling her not to return to work as one of the doctor’s had died suddenly. She would be expected at work the following morning. She never went back to her job or the house in London Street.”

It was a sad story. “Grandma must have been very fond of that doctor,” I said.

Nan sipped her tea and I could sense that wasn’t the end.

“It wasn’t that Marilyn. No one explained to her what had happened, or why he had died. She thought she had killed him.”

“Killed him?”

“She wasn’t a very good cook. Her family used to tease her and say one day she’d kill someone. That day she thought she had killed the doctor.”

Views of London Street taken in 2019

The facts …

Albert Ramsden was born in 1852 the son of Charles Ramsden and his wife Ann. At the time of the 1851 census, the year before Albert’s birth, the family was living at an address in the Beast Market, Huddersfield where Charles worked as a dry-salter. A dry-salter was a dealer in dry chemicals and dyes and in the 1857 Post Office Directory Charles is listed as living at 9 Beast Market, a dry-salter and oil merchant. By 1861 he was employing five men and two boys and obviously earning enough to pay for his son’s education. That same year Albert was a boarder at a school in Ramsden Street, Huddersfield, run by John Tattersfield.

Albert moved to Swindon in 1881. At the time of the census earlier that year he had been lodging at 35 Bromfelde Road, Clapham where he was described as a medical student. He had previously worked for Dr John Sloane at his large practise in Leicester.

Sudden Death of a Medical Man – An inquest was held at Swindon on Wednesday, August 31^st on the body of Albert Ramsden, aged 29, who died suddenly on the previous Monday afternoon, at his lodgings No 5 London-street, Swindon, where he resided with four or five other gentlemen of the medical staff. It appears that deceased, when at dinner, rose suddenly and went into the drawing room where he stayed two or three seconds, and then upstairs. On entering his room shortly afterwards his body was found lying across the bed with the head on the floor. The four medical gentlemen present did what they could for him, but to no effect. Deceased it seemed had fallen in a fit, death resulting from a flow of blood to the head. A verdict was returned in accordance with the evidence. The deceased had only resided at Swindon three weeks, having been an assistant to Dr Sloane, of Leicester, for several years. He was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and had passed his examination as L.R.C.P. only four weeks previously.

Leicester Chronicle and Leicestershire Mercury, Saturday September 10, 1881.

Albert had died during an epileptic seizure. He was buried in plot A137, the 14^th burial to take place in the new cemetery at Radnor Street.

albert ramsden surgeon

First impressions

The re-imagined story …

There was a lot of talk in the workshop about the new cemetery. We had a vested interest as undertakers, and wondered at the choice of location.

“Makes you wonder why the Local Board settled on that piece of land.”

“Must have been something to be made out of it for one of them.”

“It belonged to Mr. Hinton.”

“Enough said.”

“Which gate will be the usual entrance?”

The new cemetery was situated in the middle of Kingshill with an approach by four entrances at Dixon Street, Clifton Street, Radnor Street and Kent Road.

“I’m assuming it will be the Radnor Street one. That’s going to be quite a climb with a handbier.”

“Kent Road might be a better option.”

“Which ever way you approach from New Town there’s going to be a hill to climb.”

“Has anyone been to have a look?”

“It’s one big building site up there at the moment. There’s work going on in all the surrounding streets. I pity anyone who has to bury a loved one during the next few weeks.”

Little did we know we would be burying our own governor, Mr Edward Hemmings, just five days later.

The facts …

Edward Hemmings, a carpenter, joiner and undertaker, was born in Charlton Kings, Cheltenham. He and his wife Eliza lived in London between 1851 and 1861 and moved to Fleet Street, Swindon in the mid-1860s.

By 1871 he had a business at 43 Fleet Street and ten years later they were living and working at 22A Fleet Street. This may have been the original property, renumbered as building work continued in that area.

Following her husband’s death Eliza placed an announcement in the Swindon Advertiser.

Mrs Hemmings, of 22, Fleet Street, New Swindon, begs to inform the inhabitants of Swindon and the neighbourhood that she intends carrying on the business of her late husband Edward Hemmings, Builder, Carpenter, and Undertaker, and trusts to meet with the same liberal support bestowed upon him during the past 15 years.

Six years later the following announcement appeared in the Swindon Advertiser.

22 Fleet St New Swindon

Fredk. Hemmings

Builder, carpenter, & Undertaker

Begs respectfully to inform the inhabitants of Swindon and neighbourhood that he intends carrying on the business of his later Brother Edward Hemmings, who preceded him as above so successfully for many years.

F.H. begs to remind them that the same earnest attention to business, and care in the execution of all orders entrusted to him, will be paid, and that there shall be nothing wanting on his part to give the same satisfaction as heretofore.

Funerals Economically Conducted.

Estimates given for all Work connected with the Building Trade.

The Swindon Advertiser, Saturday March 11, 1882.

Edward was buried in plot A137 on August 11, 1881, the fifth burial to take place in the new cemetery. He was buried in a public or pauper’s grave where he lay alone for more than twenty years. In 1904 a child by the name of Frank Batt was buried with him.

Standing at the graveside

The re-imagined story …

That first week she visited her baby’s grave every day. She stood by the small mound of freshly turned earth, every day. There would soon be a bench placed close to the grave. Somewhere she could sit and think about him, but today the cemetery was a barren, vast gash in the hillside.

A few trees remained scattered about, relics of the cemetery’s past when it had been a coppice ground called Howses.

And the new chapel stood in all its Gothic splendour, if on a small, parochial scale, the modest bell tower guarded by grotesques. But there had been no tolling bell for her baby, no headstone, no marker for there was no money to buy the burial plot in which he lay.

On the day of his funeral she laid flowers. The following day she bought a small pot plant and knelt on the soft soil and pressed in the roots with her fingers, reaching for her baby.

summer3

But the next day the plant had gone. There could be no permanent marker on this grave, for this was a pauper’s grave and even in the vastness of the new, now empty cemetery, soon there would be others buried with her baby. She didn’t know if this was a comfort or not. She hated the thought of him lying there alone in the cold earth, but she didn’t want to share this space with anyone.

Then just four days later there was another woman standing at that graveside, the earth freshly turned, again.

They looked into each other’s eyes and saw the grief, but they did not speak.

After that she stopped coming every day, now another child lay on top of hers, placing him a little further out of reach. She visited on a Sunday, sometimes, and always on his birthday and, so quickly afterwards, his death day, and then there were the other days, when she just wanted to remember him.

Shrubs were planted, headstones raised, she watched the grass grow and one day the bench appeared. Sometimes she would sit there and watch; the cemetery was a busy place now. Mourners left flowers set beneath a glass dome; she would have liked one of those for her baby.

She never met again that other mother.

The facts …

Albert Edward Wentworth was the second burial to take place in Radnor Street Cemetery on the day it opened, August 6, 1881. He was one-month old. His mother’s name was Lucy. Matthew Henry Bissell was buried in the same grave plot four days later. He was one-year old. His mother’s name was Susan.

A Nice View

Radnor Street Cemetery

William Hooper photograph published courtesy of P.A. Williams

The re-imagined story …

“It’s going to be an expensive business, getting buried in the new cemetery.”

“Perhaps we ought to invest in a grave now, before the prices go up.”

“How big a plot were you thinking of buying?”

“Well, we ought to consider your parents.”

“Do we want a vault?”

“How much would that work out at?”

“It says here – For a Vault in perpetuity, to contain four corpses abreast, not exceeding 9ft deep £4 4s.”

“How much?! I don’t think so.”

“What section shall we plump for?”

“There’s a nice view from the top of Section D. We could see our house from there as well.”

“That would cost another 21s.”

“What about a headstone? It says here ‘all inscriptions and plans of monuments, tablets, and stones, to be erected in the Cemetery or Chapels, to be submitted to the Board for its approval.’

“Oh, I’d like a pink granite one with fluted pillars and foliage tracery and maybe a verse from a hymn, or perhaps a bit of Shakespeare.”

“You’d better start saving up now then.”

“It’s going to be an expensive business, getting buried in the new cemetery.”

“Well I suppose they’ve got to pay for it somehow.”

The facts …

Swindon Cemetery

List of Fees proposed to be taken by the Burial Board.

On interment of any resident in either of the Local Board Districts in a common grave 5s

For a Vault in perpetuity, to contain four corpses abreast, not exceeding 9ft deep £4 4s

The like, three corpses abreast £3 3s

The like, two corpses abreast £2 2s

If more than 9ft. deep, per foot extra £1 1s

For a brick or boarded Grave, for one corpse only, not exceeding 9ft. deep £1 1s

For re-opening a Vault or Brick Grave 10s 6d

For interments in selected situations £1 1s

Entry in Register of vault or grave in perpetuity 2s 6d

Certificate thereof 2s 6d

For erecting a head-stone 15s

For erecting a foot-stone 3s 6d

For every additional inscription on any stone 10s 6d

For erecting or placing a coffin-shaped tomb, or flat stone, or stone or slate enclosure over the grave, not exceeding 18 inches high (without palisades) £1. 1s

For erecting any other Tomb or Stone, or Palisading only not exceeding 8ft. by 4ft. £2 2s

The like, not exceeding 10ft. by 8ft £4 4s

For enclosing any Tomb or Stone with palisades, any space not exceeding 8ft by 4ft. (extra) £1 1s

The like, not exceeding 8ft. square (extra) £2 2s

On erecting any mural monument in chapels, not exceeding 3ft. by 2ft. £10 10s

For an extra size, subject to an agreement

For Sexton’s Fees

For digging and filling in a common grave for any resident, his wife, or child 3s

The like for an out resident 8s

Every grave to be 6ft. deep, if above, per foot extra 5s

For digging, excavating, and levelling ground over a vault for two corpses, 9ft. deep, and attending burial £2 2s

For every additional corpse 7s

For filling up and turfing when required 2s

For tolling Chapel bell if required 1s

For tolling Chapel bell above one hour extra, and so on in proportion 1s

For Hand Hearse

For the use of a Hand Hearse (without attendants), at the burial of any resident, his wife, or child, time not exceeding one hour 2s 6d

For every additional period of time up to half an hour 1s

For searching register of burials, one year 1s

For every additional year 6d

For each certified copy of an entry therein 2s 6d

All walls of vaults to be nine inches thick and every wall between two vaults to be nine inches thick and every wall between two vaults to be a party wall. All damage to any boundary wall by making a vault or grave to be substantially repaired by the party causing the same.

All inscriptions and plans of monuments, tablets, and stones, to be erected in the Cemetery or Chapels, to be submitted to the Board for its approval.

On interment of non residents all fees and payments to be charged double.

By Order of the Board,

James Copleston Townsend, Clerk.

Any objection to the above mentioned Board Fees to be communicated to the Clerk to the Board, 42 Cricklade Street, Swindon, on or before Saturday, the 20^th August instant.

Swindon Advertiser, Saturday, August 13, 1881

RADNOR STREET CEMETERY(2)

The entrepreneurial James Hinton

The re-imagined story …

I will admit to having a grudging admiration for Mr. James Hinton, but I wouldn’t say I actually liked him. We’ve done business together on a couple of occasions and he’s very shrewd. He strikes a hard bargain and you have to respect him for that. And he works hard; the stamina of the man!

He’s been in the news most recently for offering up a piece of land on which to build the new cemetery. Some say he has gifted the land, but in fact he has sold it to the Burial Board. He’d probably like it to go down in history that he was a generous benefactor, but he’s sold it at a very competitive price. As the debacle of the cemetery question needs a quick resolution his fellow members on the Board were happy and grateful to accept the offer.

I’m quite surprised he didn’t win the contract to lay out the cemetery and construct the requisite buildings, but perhaps he didn’t put in a tender. Perhaps that would have been an audacious step too far. Next would have been a vote to name the new burial ground the James Hinton Municipal Cemetery.

But I will admit, I secretly quite admire the man.

Death of Ald. J. Hinton

A painful sensation has been caused throughout the town by the news of the death of Alderman James Hinton, of The Brow, Victoria Road, Swindon…

For some time past it had been known that Mr Hinton had not enjoyed what may be termed the best of health, and on several occasions recently he had to resort to medical care, but no one, even those nearest to him, ever thought for one moment that he would be stricken down with such painful suddenness…

The deceased Alderman was 65 years of age. He was essentially a native of Swindon having been born in Newport Street in 1842. He had been for very many years intimately connected with the moving forces of the Borough, and took a keen practical interest in its commercial developments. There is not a class in the town, no matter what their religious or political opinions may be, but what will deeply deplore the loss of a public man whose best energies were given to the service of the community in which he lived.

The deceased Alderman’s career was one characterised by much interest, inasmuch as by his own industry and business acumen he rose from a somewhat humble position to one of comparative affluence…

The deceased Alderman became well known too, for his judicious speculative undertakings. Important estates, capable of considerable developments, were laid out by him, notable amongst which was the Kingshill building estate laid out in 1879. He became a large owner of land, enterprise dominated his thought and action followed; money flowed in and accumulated, and by dint of patience and perseverance Mr Hinton emerged from the obscurity with which Newport Street and the butcher’s shop had somewhat enshrounded him into the full light of prosperous, active life…

As Mr Hinton became absorbed in the growing interests of the town, further important undertakings came in his way. In conjunction with Mr Haines, he had the contract for constructing the Swindon and Highworth railway, which upon its completion was acquired by the GWR Co. During his speculative undertakings Mr Hinton did not at once relinquish the auctioneering profession, in which he was eventually succeeded by his son, Mr Fred Hinton…

It is about 30 years ago that he was elected on the then New Swindon Local Board, taking the place of the late Mr J. Armstrong, who was for some time Loco. Superintendent at the GWR Works, Swindon…

The old Local Board existed up to the year 1894, when the District Councils’ Act came into operation, and Mr Hinton then succeeded Mr T. Brain as the Chairman of the Council. He represented the East Ward, and did not suffer defeat until 1896, on which occasion he was touring in Australia, and was as a matter of fact unaware that his name had again been submitted to the electors…

In 1900 the Charter of Incorporation was granted to Swindon, and that august body, the Town Council, was constituted. Mr Hinton once again entered the arena of active local life, still representing the East Ward. He was elected a member of the Wilts County Council on its formation in 1889, and was a member of that body up to the time of his death. It was only the other week that he was returned unopposed for the East Ward. He was for four years a member of the Board of Guardians in the time of the late Mr William Morris, who was then the proprietor of the Swindon Advertiser. He was Swindon’s fourth Mayor, and it was, of course, largely in consequence of his associations with the almost phenomenal development of the town that his acceptance of the Mayoralty was invested with exceptional interest…

Mr Hinton was a Freemason, and was a member of the Gooch Lodge. He was also a Forester, being initiated an honorary member of “Briton’s Pride” Court at the Eagle Hotel during his year of Mayoralty…

He was raised to the Alderman’s bench on the same occasion that he was elected to the Mayoral chair. He was a man who possessed a broad and liberal mind, and by his death the town has lost a good and trusted and esteemed servant…

Extracts taken from James Hinton’s obituary published in The Swindon Advertiser, Friday, March 15, 1907.

Cemetery problem resolved

In 1869 the people of New Swindon went to the polls to vote upon the question of a new cemetery. More than 480 votes were cast, 153 in favour of a new cemetery, 333 against, influenced no doubt by the Great Western Railway Company’s announcement that they intended to oppose the proposal.

The Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard reported – ‘The question, therefore, resolves itself into a sentimental grievance on the part of the Dissenters, who object to be buried in the churchyard. The proper course to have pursued would doubtless have been for the Dissenters to form a company, as was suggested by one of the speakers at a former meeting, and not to put an unnecessary tax on Churchmen and Dissenters alike.’

But the cemetery problem did not, and could not, go away. There were more meetings and discussions and William Morris continued to publish letters in his newspaper, the Swindon Advertiser. Then, more than eleven years later the matter appeared to have been resolved, but not without further problems as William Morris discusses in this hard hitting, editorial.

“Swindon, with its eighteen or twenty thousand of population, is drifting, or rather had drifted, into a position which even the smallest of communities might desire to avoid. For long anterior to the time when it was counted a public duty to decently house the living, the work of providing a last resting place for the dead was undertaken, and has always been most religiously adhered to. But Swindon, as we have said, has drifted into that unique, and we do not hesitate to say disgraceful, position of having literally no place to bury its dead.

This, we know, is practically to close all means for burying the dead in the ecclesiastical district of St Mark’s, New Swindon, for there is absolutely no other place beside the churchyard of St Mark’s in which interments can take place.

Then, as to the churchyard of the Old Town district. It has but very little more burying space left than has the churchyard of St Mark’s. So full has the yard become, and so far have the graves advanced westwards, the interments having been commenced in the eastern part and gradually worked on westward, that poor Cook, the unfortunate man who, the other day, was found dead in the snow at Walcot, now lies in his grave within ten or twelve yards of the very spot where he left his cart in Brock-hill on the night of the dreadful snow storm.

It cannot be long before, in the interest of the public health, this burying place also will be peremptorily closed. And what have we then? Absolutely nothing in the shape of accommodation for the burial of the dead out of the population of a parish of from eighteen to twenty thousand inhabitants: Is there in the whole country another town in such a pitiable, or, rather, disgraceful, position?

In addition to the two churchyards, there are, or rather have been – for the bodies have been sometime since removed from one of the places, the ground being required for building purposes – four other burial places connected with Non-conformist chapels – if, indeed, a strip of land, about ten feet wide, between the front of a chapel and a public street, can be called a burial ground. And, then, one of the two remaining graveyards – the old Independent yard, in Newport street, has been closed for very many years, thus leaving one place only in the parish in addition to the two churchyards – the small yard in Prospect belonging to, and exclusively used by, the Particular Baptists, for the interment of the dead of the whole parish, which, on a very moderate computation, cannot be less than from two hundred and fifty to three hundred per annum.

We believe we are within the mark when we say that by utilizing every foot of ground in all the available graveyards in the parish there could not be made room enough for the decent burial of one year’s dead without using ground “over again” and disturbing the remains of those who have pre-deceased friends and relatives still living only a few years.

And this is what a place like Swindon has come to! We hesitate not to say it is simply disgraceful, and when the reason for it all is understood, no right minded person can help pronouncing it contemptible.

The question of providing a public Cemetery is no new thing in Swindon. Twenty years ago it was regularly and persistently advocated on the ground that without such a convenience the inhabitants did not enjoy that full religious liberty to which they were entitled, and which the providing of a public Cemetery would give them. But the insidious priestly intrigues of those who are interested only in the narrowest and most exclusive of sectarian bigotry always succeeded in crippling every effort that was made.

In Swindon, for many years past, there has appeared no possible chance of carrying out so important a work as that of providing a public Cemetery on the simple basis of the duty we owe each other on the platform of equal rights in all matters of conscience and religious liberty.

Again and again, for years past, efforts have been made to avoid the difficulty in which the parish is now placed. Public meetings were held, resolutions passed, and committees formed, but it was always so managed that nothing further could be done. At one time elaborate statistics and statements were read to show that the existing burial space would be sufficient for years to come; at another time the always “sure card” of increased rates and unnecessary expense was played, and always, with the same result as now, a great deal being done “on paper,” but nothing anywhere else.

A loan of £10,000 has been applied for, and that sum the parish – that is, the parish less Walcot and Broome Farms – will have to repay. Land has been secured upon which this £10,000 will be expended in a hurry, and money spent in a hurry on public works is too often little better than squandered. But worse by far than this is the prospect of the parish having a year’s dead thrown on its hands with nowhere to place it. Progress is bound up hand and foot in that most tenacious of all bondages – red tape; on sanitary grounds every burying place in the parish ought to be peremptorily closed forthwith, and men, women, and children will continue to die. The work has now to be done under the most ruinous of conditions, and under the most unfavourable of all circumstances, and for no better reason, we hesitate not to assert, that in the past, reasons, which should have had no influence with reasonable and rational men for one moment, have been allowed to be all powerful and to stand in the way of anything and everything being done.

Extracts from The Swindon Advertiser – Saturday, February 5, 1881.

Just a few of Swindon’s non-conformist churches and chapels