Christ Church – The Old Lady on the Hill

In previous years Andy and I have conducted the occasional guided churchyard walk at Christ Church. Built in 1851 the churchyard is the final resting place of many of Swindon’s Victorian entrepreneurs and, of course, the ordinary, working class people as well. Our much loved and sadly missed Radnor Street Cemetery colleague Mark Sutton rests here.

By the 1840s the medieval parish church of Holy Rood, close to the Goddard family home at The Lawn was proving inadequate to cater for the needs of the rapidly growing industrial Swindon.

A church had stood on the site since the end of the 12th century, possibly longer, but with the arrival in 1847 of an energetic young clergyman Rev. H.G. Baily came the impetus to build a new church.

Fashionable architect Gilbert Scott received the commission to design the new church hot on the heels of his success at St. Mark’s in the Railway Village.

The new church was built at a cost of £8,000, funding was originally sought through the Church Rate, a tax imposed on all householders whether or not they attended Church of England services. Unpopular, especially among non-conformists, this was eventually abandoned and the debt remained outstanding until 1884.

The consecration ceremony at Christ Church took place on November 7 1851 officiated by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Ollivant, Bishop of Llandaff, a mere 17 months after the foundation stone was laid on land at the top of Cricklade Street donated by Ambrose Goddard.

Pew listings for the newly opened church record that Ambrose Lethbridge Goddard paid for the first two pews on the south side of the Nave to seat twelve family members and another nine sittings in the South Transept for his servants.

The Goddard family are remembered in many of the fixtures and fittings in the church. In 1891 the reredos (panelling behind the altar) was presented by Pleydell and Jessie Goddard in memory of their brother Ambrose Ayshford Goddard. In 1906 the brother and sister dedicated the pulpit to the memory of their parents while the previous year Edward Hesketh Goddard presented the font in memory of his wife.

Despite the grandeur of the building, the people of Swindon preferred their order of service to be plain and simple. While Rev. J.M.G. Ponsonby battled to maintain unpopular High Church ritual at St. Mark’s, at Christ Church there was an absence of all pomp. Documents reveal that there was no surpliced choir, that altar lights were never used and that the preacher dressed in a black gown.

Builder Thomas Turner and his wife Mary. The Turner home is now the site of Queen’s Park.

The Toomer family memorial. The Toomer family home was the former Swindon Museum and Art Gallery in Bath Road.

This is the New family memorial. Swindon school teacher Edith Bessie New moved to London and joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) becoming an active, militant Suffragette, continuing a personal campaign for women’s rights throughout her lifetime. She is buried in the cemetery at her last home Polperro, Cornwall.

The Morris family memorial. William Morris was the founder of the Swindon Advertiser.

Martha Hall – Richard Jefferies’ auntie

As part of our Swindon Suffragette festival in 2018 I conducted a ‘women only’ walk at Christ Church.

The magnificent Celtic Cross (see below) marks the grave of Martha and William Hall. The Celtic Cross is an ancient Christian symbol dating back to the 9th century and is particularly associated with Ireland. Martha’s husband William Hall was born in Longford, Ireland in 1815 and named his property on The Sands, Longford Villa after his birthplace.

Martha and William Hall

Martha’s father John Luckett Jefferies had left Swindon as a young man and moved to London where he worked as a printer. He married Frances Ridger in 1809 and they had five children born in London. But in 1816 John was forced to the leave job, the home and the life he loved in London to return to Swindon where the family farm at Coate was failing.

Today the farm at Coate is better known as the birthplace of naturalist, journalist and poet Richard Jefferies, the son of James Luckett Jefferies, Martha’s brother.

Martha was born on July 12, 1818, the first of the couple’s children to be born back home in Wiltshire. She was baptised at the old parish church of Holy Rood and married William there on June 30, 1849.

William Hall died on August 30, 1898 and Martha on January 22, 1902.

William and Martha Hall also have a stained glass window dedicated to them in Christ Church.

Martha Morris – for 41 years the faithful and devoted wife of William Morris

During our Swindon Suffragette festival in 2018 I led a guided walk around Christ Church churchyard, visiting some of the notable women buried there.

There is a lot known about William Morris, founder of the Swindon Advertiser. He was outspoken and challenging in the columns of his newspaper. He was a member of the Local Board of Health (the local authority of his day). He travelled widely and wrote several books.

But it is less easy to find out what his wife did. Maybe she belonged to clubs and served on committees, in keeping with her husband’s status in Swindon, but it is difficult to find out how she spent her time. That is, if she had any to spare.

Martha was baptised in Wroughton on July 14, 1823, the daughter of shopkeeper James Howe and his wife Mary. At the time of the 1841 census Martha worked as a servant at Salthrop.

Martha and William married in the parish church at Walcot, Somerset on September 8, 1845. William described his occupation as Printer. He was under the age of 21 and Martha was two years older.

At the time of the 1851 census the couple lived in Victoria Street. William described himself as a Letter Press printer employing two men. He was 25 and Martha 27. They had been married less than six years and Martha already had three children. Jessie 4, William 3 and Frederick 1. (Jessie died in 1853 and was buried in Wroughton, most probably in a Howe family grave). Also living with them was William’s brother and sister. Henry Morris was 14 and described as a letter press printer and 12 year old Elizabeth was described as a servant. Obviously family members had to pull their weight.

By 1861 Martha had had another five children – Walter 9, Samuel 7, Valentine 5, Jessy 3 (named after the daughter who had died) and 7 month old Edwin. And that wasn’t the end – by 1871 Martha had had another three children – Kate 9, Septimus 7 and Mark 4 – 11 children in all.

Martha died on December 14, 1886 aged 64. I was hoping to find an obituary in William’s paper. There is a death notice, but again it’s all about William rather than Martha.

It reads:

For 41 years the faithful and devoted wife of William Morris (Editor and Proprietor of the ‘Swindon Advertiser’).

He also publishes a rather flowery poem by G.J. Davis, but the last few lines are rather nice.

Oft to the worthless, men memorial raise,

To keep their memories fresh. Beneath the sun

Our love will never die, thou gentle one!

Administration of Martha’s will was left in the hands of her son William Edwin Thomas Morris and her effects were valued at £151 8s 3d.

She was buried in Christ Church churchyard on December 18 and is remembered on the Morris family memorial there.

The Morris family memorial in Christ Church

Henry Fox Townsend

Another story from Christ Church churchyard.

Swindon solicitor Henry Fox Townsend was feeling as fit as a fiddle when he boarded the 3 pm train for Paddington on Thursday December 13, 1894.

The purpose of his London visit was to bid farewell to his brother Charles, a tea planter, who was returning to India the following day.

The brothers had a table booked at the Holborn Restaurant on the Friday but Charles was to report that Henry failed to turn up.

Upon the arrival of the train at Paddington it was noticed by one of the railway officials that Mr. Townsend was in an insensible condition, apparently suffering from a fit, reported the Swindon Advertiser. He was at once removed and conveyed to St. Mary’s Hospital, where he died shortly afterwards without regaining consciousness.

His death at the early age of 34 shocked all who knew him. His friends told how he had recently purchased a property called the Firs in Wroughton where he intended settling down and enjoying what appeared to be, in all probability, a long and prosperous career.

The following week the Advertiser reported on the verdict of the inquest where coroner Dr. Danford Thomas heard how railway porter William Lovesey found Townsend lying on his face on the floor of one of the compartments. Dr. Poynton told how Townsend was unconscious and breathing stertorously upon arrival at St. Mary’s Hospital. Both pupils had become dilated and the unfortunate gentleman remained insensible till his death, which took place at a quarter past nine the same evening.

A post mortem examination showed that the cause of death was compression of the brain, the result of an apoplectic seizure, continued the report.

The funeral took place the following Tuesday with the coffin covered in wreaths, and carried on a hand bier the short distance from Townsend’s offices at 42 Cricklade Street to the parish church.

Chief mourners were the deceased’s sister Annie Louise and brothers Southcote and Charles. Others present included Ambrose Goddard and his son Capt. Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, Henry’s partner Edward Tudor Jones and rival solicitors Henry Kinneir and his son Walter.

Among the many wreaths was one with the sad message From his mother with tender love and unutterable sorrow.

Unbelievably Annie Townsend had lost her husband James Copleston Townsend in identical circumstances when returning from London on the evening of March 26, 1885, he was noticed to totter and fall as he alighted from the train.

He was carried to the Refreshment Rooms and then to one of the bedrooms, where he momentarily regained consciousness but died at around 10 pm.

Image published courtesy of Duncan and Mandy Ball.

William and Jane Frampton

Continuing the story of Swindon Suffragette Edith New and her family.

Round the other side of Christ Church churchyard we met Edith’s four great aunts, the Frampton sisters. Here we meet her grandparents, William and Jane Frampton.

Jane was born in Cricklade in 1816, the daughter of John and Ann Akers and William was born in Swindon in 1813, the son of James and Ann Frampton. However, when the couple married it was at St. Mary’s Church, Whitechapel in the East End of London on May 24, 1837. The entry in the parish registers states they were married by banns, which had to be called over a three-week period, and that they were both said to be ‘of this parish.’

By the time of the 1841 census they were back in Swindon living in a house in Prospect Place and their eight children were all born and baptised in Swindon, the older ones in Holy Rood and the three younger ones at Christ Church.

William owned several properties in Old Town and you might have expected the family led a settled, prosperous life, but they were not without their problems.

In 1851 William declared himself bankrupt. The bankruptcy notice declared that he owned two houses and shops in Wood Street, two houses in Prospect Place, the Victoria Inn and an adjoining house in Victoria Street and four dwellings in Union Row.

Five years later he was back in business working as a carpenter, builder, appraiser and undertaker and by 1861 he was working as a builder and living in Wood Street.

Quite how he dealt with this set back in the 1850s remains unknown but it must have been a huge worry to Jane. Again, we know so little of her life. And again, I’m left wondering if all this made an impact on the way Jane raised her daughters, especially Isabella, Edith’s mother who was widowed young with small children. Was there always a sense of insecurity in the family with the women picking up the pieces? It would be so interesting to read first hand accounts of these women’s lives.

Perhaps we should all commit to writing down our own histories, not as a great work of literature but just to inform those that come after.

Jane died in May 1873 aged 57 and William died in December 1875 aged 62.

The Frampton Sisters

Another story from Christ Church churchyard…

Swindon Suffragette Edith New came from a large family with a lot of maiden aunts. Her mother Isabella had four sisters and her grandfather William Frampton also had four sisters.

In 1861 the Frampton family occupied three properties in Wood Street. Edith’s grandfather lived at what is now Balula’s Delicatessen. To his right lived his married sister Catherine Sharpe and to his left his widowed mother Ann and those three unmarried sisters.

By 1871 the sisters were at 4 Victoria street where they lived and worked for more than 30 years. One was a milliner, another a dressmaker and one a mantle maker, which was a type of cloak.

Catherine was widowed in 1865 and returned to Swindon from Malmesbury with her daughter to live with her sisters.

Jane died first in 1880 and Emma, Catherine and Ellen all died in 1902.

Edith was born in 1877 and would have been just three years old when Jane died, so probably had no memory of her. However, she would have grown up knowing the other three sisters. According to the 1901 census the women worked up until the year before they died.

I wonder what impression their situation made upon Edith and whether it contributed to her long fight for equality in the teaching profession and her involvement in the Votes for Women campaign.

This weathered headstone, which no longer marks the actual grave, records the burial of William Frampton’s four sister, Jane, Emma and Ellen, who never married, and Catherine who married William Sharpe.

The Astill dynasty continued

Yesterday we met Ellen Victoria Astill. Today let me introduce you to three more Astill siblings. Quigley, Ella and Annie occupied consecutive placing in the Astill line up. Quigley was born in 1878, Ella in 1880 and Annie in 1882.

Annie Kathleen Wootton Hall Astill

Quigley, along with his brothers, attended King William Street School. There is no mention of the girls in the family attending this or any other school. There were several private girls’ schools in Old Town at this time, so perhaps they attended one of these.

Annie in particular must have had some further education as she later became a nurse. The 1911 census records her working as a Rescue Worker at a home for unmarried mothers and their babies in Ladywood Road, Birmingham.

Quigley Wallace Astill seated in deckchair and surrounded by family members

Quigley trained as a printer, presumably in the family firm. However he later went on to work for the Swindon Press where an accident lifting heavy machinery left him disabled.

Ella Alice Ward Astill

The unmarried Astill siblings lived at a couple of addresses in Old Town including 14 Springfield Road, but by the 1920s they were settled at 28 Avenue Road. We have already discovered Ellen living here in the 1920s. Quigley and later Ella and Annie also lived at this address.

Apparently Annie and Ella had a volatile relationship. In old age the two sisters were admitted to St. Margaret’s Hospital where they had to be accommodated on separate floors because they argued so much. Annie died on February 14, 1966. Ella died just a month later on March 17. With the death of her lifelong adversary she lost the will to live.

The two sisters were buried together in Christ Church churchyard where they joined their brother Quigley who died in 1957.

Many thanks to Rhonda in Australia and the late Eric Barrett from Wroughton for information, photos and family memories.

Another day, another churchyard – Christ Church

I am intrigued by the two spinster sisters with names that could come straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel, Tryphena and Hephzibah Evenden.

Family historians researching the Evenden family have little information about these two unmarried sisters who left no descendants and apparently no photographs either.

As is so often the case these women lived within a close knit family but when they died their life’s work disappeared into the ether. No doubt there were nephews and nieces who retained fond memories of their two aunts, but more than a hundred years later nothing is left of these women except a handsome headstone in Christ Church graveyard.

The two sisters were born in Wrotham, Kent the daughters of John Evenden and his first wife Naomi Frances. Hephzibah was christened on March 26, 1820 and Tryphena on July 16, 1826 in St George’s Church, Wrotham.

They first appear in Swindon on the 1881 census returns living at Ightham Villa, (a property named after their childhood home) Bath Road, but how did they end up here?

You would think that with such distinctive names it would be easy to track them through the census returns. In 1841 Hephzibah is living with her sister Ruth and brother John in Wrotham where he works as a grocer. In 1851 she is visiting the Leney family in Bow Road, Wateringbury while Tryphena is at home in Greenhithe, Swanscombe with her father, his second wife Sophia Sarah, her grandmother Elizabeth Evenden and three servants.

I can’t discover what the women’s father did for a living as he describes himself variously as a ‘fund holder’ and a ‘gentleman’.

So, in 1881 the sisters are living in Bath Road where Tryphena died on August 1, 1889 and Hephzibah on July 21, 1905. Tryphena leaves effects valued at £5,398 2s 11d and Hephzibah £9,894 3s 1d. Both women leave their estates to the administration of Swindon bank manager William Wearing,

Tryphena is a Greek name meaning ‘delicate’.

Hephzibah is from the Hebrew ‘my delight is in her’

Beautiful names due for a revival.

Skerten family undertakers

The Skerten family of undertakers had a presence in Swindon for more than 75 years. For most of that time they were busy in Radnor Street cemetery and the early burial registers reveal the many funerals they performed there.

Carpenter and joiner Richard Skerten married Ann Brown at St Paul’s Church, Bristol in 1844 and by 1851 they had moved to Swindon and a home at 32 Reading Street with their three young daughters.

By 1871 Richard was established as both a joiner and an undertaker but his business very nearly came to an end when a disastrous fire totally destroyed his Regent Street workshops. It happened on Friday June 15, 1877 when it was believed the heat of the sun ignited oils in the workshop. Neither the buildings, the stock-in-trade nor the workmen’s tools were insured.

However, Richard re-established his business at 1 Queen Street where his wife Ann and younger son Richard continued to run the family firm after his death in 1886.

Meanwhile, by 1881 elder son Arthur had established his own business at 5 King Street. On April 29, 1887 Arthur had the sad task of burying his twin baby sons Richard and Joseph just 3 and 4 days old respectively. Perhaps surprisingly the babies were buried in a public plot with three others – burial conventions were different then.

Probably the most extraordinary funeral Richard Skerten junior arranged was that of gipsy patriarch Timothy Buckland. For about a month the terminally ill Timothy camped in a field near the Wharf, Drove Road with some nine other vans and tents and 50 members of his family.

According to the Swindon Advertiser the funeral attracted several thousand spectators to the churchyard at Christ Church.

For the funeral the arrangements were placed in the hands of Mr Richard Skerten, undertaker, of New Swindon, and a hearse and eleven mourning coaches were engaged, the adult members of the family occupying the latter. The coffin was of French polished oak, with brass fittings, and bore the simple inscription on a brass plate “Timothy Buckland, died 8^th Nov. 1890, aged 70 years.

Extract from the Swindon Advertiser, Saturday Nov 15, 1890.

When their time came all three Skerten undertakers were buried in Radnor Street Cemetery, which seems very fitting.

Richard Skerten senior was buried on May 20, 1886 in grave plot E8434 where he was joined by his wife Ann who died in 1902.

His son Richard was buried on December 11, 1911 in grave plot D1319 where his wife Ann joined him in 1936. Buried with them is their son-in-law Leslie Ernest Adams, their daughter Annie Amelia’s husband, who died at 1 Queen Street in October 1959.

Arthur Skerten was buried on February 9, 1934 in grave plot C1785 joining his 12 year old daughter Isabella May who died in 1907 and his wife Betsy who died in 1930.

Tag: Christ Church