Tag: Avebury

A piece of Paradise

If you are looking for an escape this beautiful April Sunday you will find a piece of paradise in the churchyard at St. James’s, Avebury.

As you might expect the parish church of St James’s, Avebury is an ancient one. A place of worship has existed on this site for more than a thousand years and evidence of those Anglo Saxon builders remain in the church today, including masonry, window apertures and the tub font.

The present church includes a magnificent 15th century rood loft saved by the parishioners a century later when such features were banned. Concealed behind a lathe and plaster construction on the east wall of the nave it was rediscovered during restoration work in the early 19th century. Outside in the churchyard the headstones are arranged in neat rows, although unfortunately few survive from the early history of the church.

Lying in their own piece of paradise is the fittingly named Paradise family. James Paradise was born in Avebury, the son of Francis and Hester Paradise, and was baptised in St James’s on March 29, 1763. On December 11, 1794 he married Susanna Townsend at Winterbourne Monkton. The parish register for that church reveals that James made a firm signature while Susanna made just her mark.

Susanna returned to James’s home in Avebury where she raised a large family of 13 children, all of whom were baptised at St. James’s church. Her first child, a daughter named Hester after the child’s paternal grandmother, was baptised on November 1, 1795 and her last, another daughter, Jane on December 6, 1821.

James appears to have spent his working life as a labourer, although when he made his Will in 1834 he describes himself as a Yeoman. James died in March 1837. His detailed Will runs to four pages, but Susanna’s, written in 1838, is much more straightforward.

This is the last Will and Testament of me Susanna Paradice of the parish of Avebury in the County of Wilts Widow I give and bequeath all my monies and securities for money wearing apparel Personal Estate and Effects whatsoever and wheresoever unto & equally between all my daughters who shall be living at the time of my decease and I hereby appoint Hester Underwood wife of George Underwood sole Executrix of this my Will hereby revoking all former Wills by me at any time heretofore made and declaring this only to be my Will In witness whereof I have to this my last Will and Testament set my hand and affixed my seal this fifteenth day of August one thousand eight hundred and thirty eight Susanna Paradice – Signed by the Testatrix Susanna Paradise in the presence of us present all the same time who have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses this fifteen day of August one thousand eight hundred and thirty eight John Whittington Solcr Bristol Robert Coles his Clerk.

Susanna died in January 1841 aged 66 years and was buried on January 8 with her husband James. Susanna’s five daughters were all still living at the time of her death.

Eldest daughter Hester, whom Susanna made her executrix, married George Underwood, a sawyer, in 1821. She had just one surviving daughter, Ann. Hester died in 1845.

Second daughter Sarah married agricultural labourer George Coleman in 1831. When she made her Will (valued at a Personal Estate of £22) she appointed Thomas Kemm, gentleman farmer at Avebury Manor, as her Executor. Sarah died on April 11, 1884 aged 84.

Third daughter Ann married James Dew, a master Carpenter on July 4, 1839. She died in 1865 aged 55.

Fourth daughter, Eliza married William Maton, a joiner, on February 12, 1835. Eliza had two sons, John and James. On April 9 1849 they set sail on the Tory for a new life in New South Wales.

Youngest daughter Jane Paradise married Thomas Blake, a saddler, on October 20, 1842. Jane had at least seven children and died in 1908 at the age of 86.

While James and Susanna’s daughters lived long and eventful lives their sons were not so fortunate, four of them dying at a tragically young age.

The burial registers record that Richard Paradise died aged 9 was buried on January 7, 1815. His death had occurred ‘by an accident from an Horse.’

Next to be buried in the churchyard at Avebury was James and Susanna’s eldest son George. Born in 1797 George died in 1817 aged 19 years.

On February 4, 1830 William Paradise was buried next to his brothers George and Richard. He died aged 23 years and according to the burial registers he was ‘accidently killed.’ Aaron Paradise died in 1832 aged 20 years old and joins the sad row of brothers reunited in death.

Today the churchyard at St. James is a tranquil place, despite the many visitors who visit historic Avebury, a tourist attraction since time immemorial.

The Church of St. James’s, Avebury

Paradise family graves

William and Mary Hooper rock up at Stonehenge

The re-imagined story …

I have Swindon photographer William Hooper to thank for my appearance on Time Team.

As a nerdy little kid, I was already interested in archaeology (in particular the Neolithic period) and the inspiration for my obsession was all down to a photograph that hung in my grandpa’s study.

William Hooper has become famous for his Edwardian Swindon street scenes, but William and his wife Mary were not averse to getting on their bikes and venturing beyond Swindon. In the early days they travelled quite literally by push bike, graduating to a motor bike and sidecar as they travelled the Wiltshire countryside and beyond. Between 1905 and 1910 they took a series of stunning photographs of Avebury and Stonehenge.

The photograph in my grandpa’s study was of an ethereal woman dressed in white, sitting on a fallen boulder within the stone circle. These days you have to have permission and a very special reason for being allowed access to the stone circle but in 1910 the historic monument was still in private ownership, the property of Sir Edmund Antrobus 4th Baronet. Perhaps anyone could rock up and take a few photographs.

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Image published courtesy of P.A. Williams and Local Studies, Swindon Central Library

Skip on twenty years or so and with my degree in archaeology under my belt, I volunteered for a brand-new television programme that was thought by many to be doomed before it even made it to the screen. Television producer Tim Taylor had the crazy idea of making a programme featuring scruffy, hippy looking student types digging trenches in muddy fields. The premise of the programme was that the team would turn up at a site of archaeological interest, dig for three days and then reveal the history of that site. For twenty years Time Team brought archaeology to the masses and achieved viewing figures in excess of 2 million per episode.

I was a regular participant on the show, taking part on a number of digs, working alongside my university professor Mick Aston and national treasure Phil Harding. There are photographs of us in trenches and in various pubs mulling over the findings of the day’s dig.

I’ve recently moved to a cottage in Avebury (the magnetism of those stones still draws me) and it has long been my intention to pay my respects at the grave of William Hooper, the man who sparked my interest and gave me a lifelong love of history.

I’ve been told his grave in Radnor Street Cemetery is difficult to find. Now, where is John Gater and his geophysical wizardry when you need him?

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Image published courtesy of P.A. Williams and Local Studies, Central Library

The facts …

William Hooper was born in Windrush near Burford in 1865 and moved to Swindon and a job in the Works in 1882. In 1886 he was involved in a serious accident during which his leg was so badly crushed that he would eventually have it amputated at the knee.

William returned to his job in the railway factory where in 1891 he worked as a labourer and ten years later as a stationary engine driver. However, the work became too difficult for him and it was then that he decided to turn what had previously been a hobby into a business.

He opened his first photographic studio at 2 Market Street in around 1902, later moving to 6 Cromwell Street where he and his wife Mary remained until they retired in 1921.

Mary Stroud was born in Hereford where he father James worked as a Railway Guard. The family later moved to 22 Merton Street in Swindon. Mary and William married in 1890.

At the time of the 1911 census William, then aged 47, describes himself as a Photographer – Portrait and Landscape, his wife Mary as assisting in the business, but Mary did more than just ‘assist.’

In the extensive Hooper archive available online courtesy of P.A. Williams on the Swindon Local Studies flickr account, we glimpse Mary ‘assisting’ not only in the studio, but out on the road, travelling with her husband across Wiltshire on a variety of vehicles from a tandem to a motorbike and sidecar.

The couple never had any children of their own but were very close to Mary’s two nephews who also worked in the business with them from time to time.

William died in 1955 followed by Mary a short while later. They are buried here with Mary’s parents James and Ellen Stroud.

The modest memorial is a small cross on a plinth, sadly broken and difficult to find when the grass grows long. But the Hooper name lives on in the many photographs of Swindon William left us – with Mary’s assistance.

The Radnor Street Cemetery volunteers have revealed the battered William Hooper memorial and cleared the area around it. Unfortunately the cross is now badly broken.