We are extremely lucky to still have the Railway Village for in the 1960s it was under threat of demolition. Purchased by the local authority in 1966 the 19th century cottages were in a state of dilapidation and Swindon Borough Council was intent upon a project of demolition and rebuilding. However, a passionate local campaign and the vocal support of Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate, rescued the village and a programme of renovation began.
Without these properties it would be difficult to imagine the lives of the first railway families who arrived in Swindon in the 1840s. But today you can still walk down the backsies and hear the distant echoes of children at play; hear the tramp of the men’s feet as they return home after a hard day’s work and re-imagine life in Swindon 180 years ago.
If you lived in Taunton Street you rubbed shoulders with royalty – railway royalty, that is. The first members of the Mechanics’ Institute Council Mr Grandison and Mr Fairbairn, lived in Taunton Street. Even old Mr Hurst, the first locomotive driver on the GWR, lived there although that was much later. Read more …
Peter Bremner was born in Dundee in about 1819 and arrived in Swindon around 1848. It is possible the family came straight from France where a daughter Erskine was born in 1847. For more than 35 years Peter lived at 5 Taunton Street at the very centre of life in New Swindon. Read more …
It is seldom we have the opportunity to read the words of an ordinary railwayman. When George House died in 1903 the Advertiser republished extracts from an earlier interview made in 1899. Read more …
In the 1960s Swindon’s iconic railway village was under threat of demolition. Purchased by the local authority in 1966 the 19th century cottages were in a state of dilapidation and Swindon Borough Council were intent upon a project of demolition and rebuilding. However, a passionate local campaign and the vocal support of Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate, rescued the village and a programme of renovation began.
John Ham was born in 1860 in Pontnewyndd, Pontypool. His parents moved to Swindon soon after John’s birth and he spent the rest of his life living in the railway village. He appears on the 1871 census, a schoolboy aged 11, living at 29 Reading Street with his widowed mother Ann, his uncle and aunt, and his elder brother 13 year old William. William was already working as an office boy in the GWR Works and as soon as he was able to John joined him.
In 1881 John was head of the household at 29 Reading Street where he lived with his mother Ann and three engine fitting apprentices.
On September 10, 1885 John married near neighbour Emily Solven who lived at 21 Reading Street. John and Emily began married life at 29 Reading Street where they were living at the time of the 1891 census with their young son William, and John’s cousin George Rushton.
By 1901 the family had moved to 15 Faringdon Street where John died in May 1905 aged 44 years. Despite his premature death John had contributed considerably to life in Swindon as can be seen from the brief obituary published in the Wiltshire Times. He was buried in grave plot D80 on May 19, 1905 where he was joined by Emily following her death in 1926.
Death of Mr J. Ham – The death is announced of Mr John Ham, a well known member of the Council of the GWR Mechanics’ Institute, Swindon. Deceased, who was only 47 [44] years of age, had been a clerk in the GWR Works for the past 33 years, going there immediately on leaving school. He had been an active member of the Council of the Institute for the past 12 years. He was a prominent Oddfellow, being a member of the “Widow’s Hope” Lodge, and also a good cricketer. He leaves a widow and two little children – a son and daughter.
The Wiltshire Times, Saturday, May 20, 1905.
Corner of Reading Street
Images published courtesy of Local Studies, Swindon Central Library.
If there was a memorial to Peter Bremner, this is where it would be
The common belief is that the early railwaymen who arrived in Swindon in the 1840s are mostly buried in the churchyard at St. Mark’s.
There are a great many burials in that small churchyard; so many that by the 1870s there were extreme concerns that burial space was fast running out. Drainage of the churchyard was also a problem, restricting usage of a large area. All this contributed to the long, ongoing debate about the need for a new burial ground. Eventually resolved in 1880, Radnor Street Cemetery opened in 1881 and soon became the last resting place of many of the old railwaymen.
There are many of their stories told here on the Radnor Street Cemetery blog; this is that of Peter Bremner.
Peter Bremner was born in Dundee in about 1819 and arrived in Swindon around 1848. It is possible the family came straight from France where a daughter Erskine was born in 1847. For more than 35 years Peter lived at 5 Taunton Street at the very centre of life in New Swindon.
Death of a railway official – Our readers, especially the old hands of the GWR Works, will hear with regret of the death of Mr Peter Bremner, who has occupied the position of foreman for many years past, he being one of the earliest arrivals on the establishment of the works. His kindly disposition made him many friends. The funeral will take place this (Saturday) afternoon, at 2-45, and will no doubt be largely attended.
The Swindon Advertiser, Saturday, September 18, 1886.
Funeral of Mr Peter Bremner – The funeral of the late Mr. Peter Bremner, of 5, Taunton Street, New Swindon, took place on Saturday afternoon, admidst many manifestations of the respect and esteem in which deceased was held. For 40 years Mr. Bremner, who had reached the age of 67 years, had been in the service of the GWR Company, and during a great part of that time as foreman, he, at the time of his death, being foreman of the G (Millwrights’) Shop, GWR Works, New Swindon. As a foreman, the deceased was respected by all above and below him, those under his charge especially valuing his good qualities, and he had also obtained the esteem of a large circle of friends. That this was the case was evidenced by the fact that nearly 400 persons joined in the funeral procession on Saturday, and the route was lined with spectators. Mr. F. Hemmings, of Fleet Street, New Swindon, was the undertaker, and he carried out the funeral arrangements in the most satisfactory manner. The coffin was of polished oak, with black furniture, and bore the following inscription:- “Peter Bremner, died September 15th, 1886, aged 67 years. Through the Cross to the Crown.” On the handleplates were the words “Praise the Lord.” A number of beautiful wreaths were contributed, including one from Mrs. Swinhoe, one from Mr. S. Carton and Mr. J. Haydon as “a tribute of respect and esteem from the managers for an old and valued servant,” from Mr. and Mrs McCulloch, Mr and Mrs Batchelor; from the fellow foreman of deceased in the Locomotive Department of the GWR Works; and amagnificent artificial wreath supplied by Mr. Hemmings, from the workmen employed under the deceased. On a card attached to this wreath was the following inscription:- “In affectionate remembrance of Peter Bremner, the much respected foreman of the G Shop, GWR Works, Swindon, this wreath is placed by the workmen formerly employed under him as a mark of the general respect he merited.”
The chief mourners were:- Mr. J. Bremner (son of the deceased), Mr W.D. James (grandson in law) and Mr. E.C. Riley. In the procession were included many of the deceased’s fellow foremen, about 160 of the employes in the G Shop, and many friends. The procession included three carriages in addition to the hearse. The funeral cortege left disceased’s residence at about three o’clock, and proceeded to St. Mark’s Church, where the first portion of the burial service was conducted by the Rev. H.W. Boustead. By way of Church Place, and Cambria Bridge, the procession marched to the cemetery. There was a large number present. The remainder of the burial service having been read, the body was lowered to its last resting place, and after a final look at the coffin the procession returned to Taunton Street, where its members dispersed.
Extracts fromthe North Wilts Herald, Friday, September 24, 1886.
Peter Bremner died aged 67 years at 5 Taunton Street. His funeral took place on September 18 when he was buried in grave plot A1057 with his wife Annie who had died in February of that same year.
During a period when we might have thought people stayed in the area in which they were born, railwaymen and their families were frequently on the move.
Born in about 1805 in Lamesley, Durham, Robert had already moved about a fair bit by the time he arrived in Swindon. His route can be traced by the birth place of his children in Penshaw and Shields in Durham, Paddington and then Swindon.
Engine driver Robert Patterson appears on the 1851 census in Swindon when street numbering was still to be established. He lived in No. 2 or 5 Farringdon Street with neighbours Robert Laxon at No. 1 or 4 and William Laverick at No. 3 or 6, although that was not the end of his travels. Between 1871 and 1881 (when he was 78 years of age) he was still working as an engine driver and living in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, which is a bit of a coincidence as I lived there as well exactly a hundred years later.
The couple had seven children – two sons Thomas and Michael, who sadly died aged 20 in 1856, and five daughters, two of who died aged 22 and 24. Hannah and Barbara Patterson died in identical circumstances in 1862 within just five weeks of each other, their tragic deaths reported in the local press.
New Swindon
Singular Circumstance – Four weeks ago to-day we recorded the death of Miss Barbara Patterson, of New Swindon, in a peculiarly sudden and lamentable manner, and we have to-day to announce the death of her elder sister, Miss Hannah Patterson, under similar circumstances.
It was be remembered that Miss Barbara Patterson was taken ill on the Sunday evening after having been about as usual during the day, and after lingering until about the same hour on the following day she expired. A post mortem examination of the body subsequently disclosed the cause of death to have been the rupture of an internal abscess, the discharge from which had flooded the heart.
On Sunday week, Miss Hannah Patterson was apparently in her usual state of health, and was out walking both in the afternoon and evening. Some time after she had returned home in the evening she complained of sudden illness; medical aid was at once procured, and, notwithstanding that Mr. Swinhoe was in almost constant attendance upon her, she, after being ill to within half an hour of the period of her sister’s illness, expired; and from the symptoms under which she laboured, there appears to be no doubt whatever but that the cause of death in both instances was precisely the same.
The death of two young women – the one 22 and the other 24 years of age – in so sudden and peculiar a manner, has produced quite a sensation in New Swindon.
Wiltshire Independent, Thursday, November 6, 1862.
The late Trevor Cockbill, railway and local historian, writes in his book A Drift of Steam that the Choral Society arranged a Sacred Concert, conducted by Mr Albert Sykes, which included Mozart’s Twelfth Mass to be held in the Mechanics’ Institution. The proceeds were donated to provide a memorial for Miss Hannah Patterson’s grave in St. Mark’s churchyard. Trevor writes that the programme included a tribute to Miss Patterson “who for so many years past contributed, by the aid of her great vocal talent to the edification and pleasure of this and the surrounding neighbourhood. Her services were at all times cheerfully and gratuitously rendered.”
Robert Patterson died in December 1884 aged 82 at 2 Gloucester Terrace, Swindon. He was buried in grave plot A1093. Margaret died in August 1887 aged 77. Her last address was in Brigstock Road, Bristol. She was buried with her husband on September 1, 1887.
Yesterday I published the story of William Barnes Keylock who died in 1955. Today I am sharing the documents concerning the burial of his father in 1894.
One of the most poignant revelations of reading the Keylock family burial documents was the cost of a basic burial in 1894, yet so many Swindon families were unable to afford even that.
The two accounts published here were issued by the Swindon Burial Board for Charges and Fees, for Interment at the Cemetery.
The first invoice is dated April 28, 1894, the day following William John White Keylock’s death (the burial board didn’t hang around!) and was addressed to his son Mr W.B. Keylock of 11 College Street.
The costs include 5s for a burial in grave plot A856. An additional charge of 2s 6d was for the services of the officiating minister and 3s for the Sexton. There was a 6d charge for a grave space indicator (presumably the terracotta markers seen about the cemetery today) and finally 1s to toll the bell. The cost of a burial (not the funeral itself) amounted to 12s, little more than 50p in today’s money, but so much more in 1894 – more than many Swindon residents could afford. But the Keylock family had not been such a family.
William John White Keylock was born in 1853 the son of John, a painter and glazier, and his wife Ann. He grew up in Albert Street and began work with his father. He married Susannah Ponting on July 20, 1872 at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, The Planks and by 1889 he was working as a beer retailer at 12 High Street, later known as the Baker’s Arms.
The second invoice addressed to Mrs S. Keylock was issued on January 31, 1895, some nine months after her husband’s death. Susannah has paid for the Purchase of Grant of Right or Burial in Grave Space No 855 & 856 Section A at a cost of £2 2s. She paid a further 2s 6d to have her husband’s details entered in the Burial Register. These are the registers vital to our research and it had never occurred to me that some names might be missing due to an inability of the family to pay. Finally, Susannah paid 2s 6d for a burial certificate. There is no entry for erecting a monumental stone so maybe there never was one. Susannah paid £2 7s (less than £2.50 today) but a big expense in 1895 and of course the funeral costs would be in addition to this.
William John White Keylock, retired publican, died on April 27, 1894 at 11 College Street. He left effects valued at £74 (worth around £9,000 today) to his wife Susannah.
Susannah remarried. She died aged 72 in March 1925 at the house she had shared with William. She was buried on March 21 in grave A856 with William and in the plot next to her son and daughter-in-law.
Finding these records that Rose so very kindly provided several years ago has been a thought provoking experience.
After some 15 years of research the Radnor Street Cemetery archives are becoming quite extensive. Between us Andy, Noel and I have many hundreds of photos and items of ephemera and it was while looking through one of my boxes that I came across this cache of documents.
Rose contacted me some years ago as she feared her family headstones had been removed from the cemetery. The passage of time had seen the memorials sink and tilt and become very discoloured and almost unrecognisable, but I was able to confirm they were still there. At the time Rose provided me with family documents regarding graves and burials and several photographs including one of the grave of William Barnes Keylock and his wife Edie.
William was born on December 2, 1872 and baptised at Christ Church on December 10. He was the only surviving child of William John White Keylock and his wife Susanna. In 1881 William J.W., a pattern maker, Susanna and William B. were living at 9 Read Street. William B. started work as a Railway Clerk on April 2, 1888 and at the time of the 1891 census he was living with his parents at the Bakers Arms in the Railway Village where his father was the inn keeper.
William Barnes Keylock married Edith Prideaux Dymond on July 27, 1895 at the parish church in Porlock. The couple had two children, William Harold and Dorothea Edith May. Sometime after Dorothea’s birth in 1901 the family moved to London where William was licenced Victualler at the White Hart, Clerkenwell and later The Eagle in Woolwich.
By 1939 the family had returned to Swindon and William, Edie and Dorothea were living at 11 College Street.
Edie died aged 77 at the Victoria Hospital. She was buried in plot A855 on January 26, 1951. William died aged 82 on April 5, 1955 at St Margaret’s Hospital. He was buried here with Edie on April 9, 1955.
My thanks to Rose for providing so much information and my apologies for taking so long to publish her family story.
To be continued …
Photograph believed to be William Barnes Keylock as a boy – published courtesy of Ancestry
You saw it happen so often in those days, a mother or father would die suddenly, but to lose both parents within a matter of three years was heart-breaking for those poor children. Little Arthur was just four years old when his mother died and only seven when he lost his father.
I would have happily taken that little boy into our home. It would have been what his mother would have wanted. We were close, the two of us. But his father had obviously made provision for his family.
It would have been hard on those children had their father not been a Freemason. The girls received a good education and Walter, the brother just a couple of years older than Arthur, went into the railway factory before moving to Wolverhampton and a job as a fitter in the GWR Stafford Road works. But I never knew what had happened to that little boy.
I often thought about young Arthur then one day there was a knock on my door and who do you think was standing there but him. My, he had grown into a handsome young man – I could see something of his mother in him. He came in for a cup of tea and a piece of my sponge cake and he told me he was about to start work as a clerk in the Works, following in his father’s footsteps.
He had been to the burial ground at St. Mark’s to visit his parents’ grave, but things looked very different to how he remembered them and he came away without paying his respects. Perhaps someone could help him find the grave? He’s been gone a long time.
The facts …
When Arthur White’s father Richard Lewis White died in 1879 it seems likely it was members of Swindon’s Freemasonry who provided for the young boy and his family of siblings.
Richard Lewis White, secretary and chief accountant for the GWR locomotive and carriage department, was a member of The Gooch Lodge when he died in 1879, leaving behind six orphaned children from his first marriage.
The first clue to what happened to the children comes in a newspaper article published in the Western Daily Press, Bristol on Wednesday, September 17, 1879:-
Somerset and Wilts Freemasonry – The balloting papers for the election of daughters of Freemasons to the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls have just been issued. The election will take place at the Freemasons’ Tavern, London, on Saturday October 11th. There are 48 candidates on the list, and 18 vacancies in the school. Among the candidates are one from Somerset and one from Wilts. The Somerset candidate is Mabel Jane Sampson, whose father, Thos. Sampson, nurseryman and farmer, was initiated, in the Lodge of Brotherly Love, No. 329, Yeovil, on the 16th March, 1859. The Wiltshire candidate is Adelaide Louisa White, ten years of age, whose father, Richard Lewis White, a clerk on the Great Western Railway, died on the 6th of February last. He was initiated in the Gooch Lodge, No. 1,395, New Swindon, on the 4th of April, 1870, of which he became Worshipful Master. He was also Past Provincial Grand Sword Bearer of Wilts.’
Adelaide was one of the successful candidates, polling 1,118 votes and at the time of the 1881 census she is recorded as a pupil at the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, Battersea. In the same census Eleanor, aged 17, is recorded as a pupil at Queen’s College, a private school in Islington and 12-year-old Walter is a pupil at The College, Beach Road, Weston Super Mare.
Arthur’s eldest brother Richard Corbett White died in 1877 aged 15 while his sister Frances worked first as a domestic servant and then a dressmaker at the time of her marriage in 1893.
And what of little Arthur who was just four when his mother died and seven when his father died.
The first definite sighting of Arthur is on January 4, 1887 when he enters the GWR employment as a Lad Clerk and it is possible to track his employment record in the Swindon Works. By 1902 he is Assistant Chief Clerk and in 1918 he is promoted to Chief Clerk. His annual salary rose from £45 in 1889 to £1,000 in 1924, so the boy orphaned as a seven-year-old did well. And like his father he also became a Freemason, joining the Royal Sussex Lodge of Emulation in 1919.
Arthur married Emily Sendell in October 1917. He was 45 and she was 41. They did not have any children.
Arthur died on October 24, 1929 at his home in Okus Road. He left effects valued at more than £4,000 to his widow Emily. He was buried in plot E8134 in Radnor Street Cemetery on October 29, 1929, where Emily joined him when she died in 1968 aged 92.
Images of London Street published courtesy of Local Studies, Swindon Central Library.
You may think that when a memorial is in this condition that it is impossible to discover who is buried there.
Aha! Not if you have access to comprehensive records such as the ones existing for Radnor Street Cemetery.
The burial registers for Radnor Street Cemetery come in various forms. There is a set of alphabetical indices plus a set of chronological volumes. I was able to check the date closest to Mary’s death on April 29, 1884 and soon found her surname and the date of her burial on May 3. The entry in the burial registers provided her address as 10 Bridge Street, Swindon and, helpfully, that she was the wife of John Perkins. From here I was able to search the grave plot register and discover with whom she was buried.
Then it was back to the Ancestry website to piece together the family history.
In 1881, three years before Mary’s death, the family were living at 10 Bridge Street. John aged 47, was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire and worked as an Iron Moulder in the railway factory. Mary was 51 and was from Burton upon Trent, Staffs. Living with them were their three children, Mary A. 23, Joseph 21 who also worked as an Iron Moulder in the Works, and Emily 16. They also had a year old baby living with them, Seth John Perkins who is described as John’s nephew and was born in Bristol. There appears to be some confusion concerning this baby as he is described on subsequent census returns as son and grandson.
Following Mary’s death, John married for a second time in 1886. The marriage took place in Brackley, Northamptonshire and in 1891 John is still living at 10 Bridge Street with his second wife Sarah 49 and Seth aged 11. By 1901 John, Sarah and Seth are living at 63 Curtis Street.
Sarah died at her home 39 Bathampton Street in February 1911 and was buried with Mary in grave plot A529.
John remained living at Bathampton Street until his death in 1915 aged 81 years old. He was buried with his two wives.
And I bet they wonder who planted the blooming great tree next to their grave.
New Swindon has been much criticised for its rows and rows of red brick housing, but it wasn’t always like that. In the beginning there was the Works and the company houses, constructed from stone quarried locally at Kingshill and Bath and Corsham. But granddad said those early cottage were built just for show.
“Railway men and their families began arriving in such numbers that those building their homes couldn’t finish them quickly enough. The first cottages were little more than hovels, just two rooms often with two large families sharing one property.”
Mr granddad used to say Swindon was a work in progress.
“The whole place was one big building site.”
Granddad could remember Bath Street before it was renamed Bathampton Street and Faringdon Street before it became Faringdon Road.
“Mr Hall lived at number 1, Mr Laxon at number 2 and the Laverick family at number 3,” he recalled. “Mr William Laverick senior lived there first and then his son, William junior took on the property.
There was a sad story surrounding young Mr William Laverick, but granddad would never tell me what it was.
“Old Mr Laverick was the Superintendent at the Wesleyan Sunday School. My mother would have had me go, but my father wasn’t insistent so I managed to avoid it.” That made him chuckle, which brought on his cough.
My granddad used to say Swindon was a work in progress. I wonder what he would say if he could see it now.
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel published courtesy of Local Studies, Swindon Central Library.
The facts …
William Laverick was born in Bedlington, Northumberland on September 16, 1843 the son of William and Mary Ann.
He entered employment in the GWR Works on July 3, 1858 as a Door Boy in the Loco Factory before beginning his apprenticeship as a forgeman in 1860. In 1885 he was made a foreman.
The family were Wesleyan Methodists and William Laverick senior was Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School for 35 years.
William Laverick junior and his wife Maria had a large family and the registers for the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Faringdon Road list the baptisms of six of their children.
Sadly, four of their children died young – Henry Allen Laverick at 9 months old and Arundel Laverick also died before his first birthday. Francis Charles died aged 2 and James Lightford Laverick aged 6 years. James died shortly after the opening of Radnor Street Cemetery and is buried in plot A100. Henry Allen died the following year and is buried in plot E7035. The other two children died before the cemetery opened in 1881 and are most likely buried in the churchyard at St. Marks. There is a mention of the four children on William’s memorial, but the inscription is badly weathered and incomplete.
William was admitted to the County Asylum at Devizes on July 22, 1890 where he died on November 9, aged 46 years.
William was buried in plot A2497 on November 13. In the 1891 census William’s widow Maria continued to live at number 3 Faringdon Street with her three remaining children, William Richard a 19 year old Engine Pattern Maker apprentice, Muriel Beatrice, 18, and six year old Arthur George. She married Francis Davies Morgan in 1895. Maria died in 1904 and is buried with her first husband in Radnor Street Cemetery.
In her comprehensive and readable book Swindon Works – The Legend, Rosa Matheson devotes a section to the legend that was ‘Nicknames.’
She writes:
‘The Works’ sense-of-humour is a notrious legend in its own right from its earliest times.
And it came as no surprise to me that Andy Binks, cemetery guide and fellow volunteer at Radnor Street Cemetery, had contributed a few nicknames for Rosa’s book, for example – ‘Melvyn, otherwise known as Drill Head from when a drill fell on his head and floored him!’
From ‘the Clockie’ to Big Arthur, Arthur and Little Arth, all members of the same family, none of whom were called Arthur, it would seem every man in the Works had a nickname.
This is the story of George Bramley who hailed from Yorkshire. Guess what his nickname was?
George Bramley was born in Leeds in 1831, the second child of William Bramley, a weaver, and his wife Mary. George married Margaret Dunwell in 1852 and at the time of the 1861 census he was working as a labourer in an Iron Foundry and living in Tallow Hill, Worcester. By 1871 the family had moved to Swindon and were living at 10 High Street (later named Emlyn Square) with their four children James 16, Lucy 15, Maria 8, William 3 and three boarders. They later moved to 18 Oxford Street, which would be their last home.
Death of an old GWR Servant – The death took place on Sunday last, after a short illness of Mr George Bramley, of 18, Oxford Street, New Swindon. Mr Bramley passed away in his sleep at the age of 66 years. Deceased, who was better known throughout the Works by the soubriquet of “Yorky” (from the fact that he hailed from Yorkshire), came to Swindon in 1859*, and has been employed in the GWR Works, under the late Mr. Holden, and the late Mr Edward Brittain, ever since. He was one of the first Volunteers in the town, having joined the New Swindon Corps when it was formed in 1859, and did a considerable amount of work in assisting to make the first shooting range. He had been in failing health since the death of his wife last February, but continued to go to his work regularly up to last Saturday week. Deceased leaves two sons and two daughters. The funeral will take place on Saturday next, leaving the residence at 2.45 p.m., and proceeding to St. Mark’s Church at three o’clock. Friends will please accept this intimation.
Swindon Advertiser, Wednesday, November 22, 1899.
The backsies in the Railway Village
Margaret died in February 1899 and George in November of the same year. They are buried in grave plot C98 where their daughter Maria joined them when she died in 1933.
*census returns indicate that George may have moved to Swindon later than 1859.
Radnor Street Cemetery 