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.

Emily Read – killed in house fire

Today the frontage of number 76 Deacon Street is much altered. It is difficult to imagine the horror of that night in May, 1895 when fire broke out in one of the bedrooms.

It seems likely that the Read family had not long lived in Deacon Street. The census returns of 1891 list William and Emily as living at 38 Eastcott Hill.

Burning Fatality at New Swindon

Sad Death of a Woman

Narrow Escape of her Children

Considerable excitement prevailed in the neighbourhood of Deacon Street, New Swindon, at a late hour on Thursday night, by a fire which occurred at No. 76. It appears that the house is occupied by Mr Wm. Reed, an engine driver on the GWR, and his wife and two children.

Reed left home on Thursday morning to attend to his duties, telling his wife he should not be home again until Friday afternoon (yesterday), he having to go to South Wales with a train. Reed’s wife appears to have retired to rest with her children about the usual hour on Thursday night. By some means at present unexplained, the lamp which was used in the bedroom either burst when it was being blown out or fell over.

The room in which the mother and her children sleeping together was soon ablaze. A neighbour who had gone to bed about ten o’clock says he heard something like the fall or explosion of a lamp, but apparently the first alarm was given by a youth named Tipper, living in Curtis street, who was passing at the time. Assistance was promptly to hand, and ably rendered by Mr Dade and Mr Mercer, each of whom succeeded in rescuing a child by breaking the windows and effecting an entrance into the bedroom.

Firemen Munday and Flowers were on the spot within three minutes of the call being given, but prior to their arrival Mr Mercer had succeeded by the aid of buckets of water hand up to him, in extinguishing the fire although he was nearly choked in doing so by the dense volumes of smoke. The fire was put out in about fifteen minutes.

Mrs Reed, it appears, was in flames, and she ran downstairs with her youngest child. She went into a neighbour’s and there explained that she was in the act of turning down the lamp to blow it out, when it exploded and set the place on fire. The poor woman was burnt in a shocking manner, and though medical aid was sought and everything done for her the poor woman succumbed just before 2 o’clock yesterday (Friday) morning. One of the children was also very badly burnt.

An inquest was held on the body of the unfortunate woman yesterday (Friday) afternoon, at the Rolleston Arms hotel, before Mr Coroner Browne and a jury, of whom Mr Alfred Adams was foreman. After viewing the body and the scene of the (fire) the following evidence was taken.

George Wm Singler said deceased was his step sister and he lodged with her. The last time he saw her alive on Thursday was at seven o’clock in the evening. He was away from home when the fire occurred. He identified the bottom of the lamp produced as the one deceased always used to take upstairs with her when she went to bed.

Thomas Mercer, living next door to deceased, said that between 9.30 and 10.30 the previous evening, he was in bed when he heard a cry of “Fire”. He got out of bed and went downstairs. He got up outside the house and rescued one of the children out of the cot in the bedroom, bringing the child through the window. He could not see deceased. The room was all in flames. He called for water and put the fire out. There was one other child in the room. He heard a lamp burst just before he heard “fire” called out. The fire only lasted about a quarter of an hour. He did not know whether the lamp fell or was knocked over. The mother and youngest child had gone when he got in at the window. The fire was nearly out when the fire brigade arrived.

Sarah Beamish, living in the same street, said she was at her gate and heard something burst. She ran to the gate, and Mrs Read then ran down stairs. The door was locked, and they could not force it open. Some men broke the window and she got through. Deceased was in flames, but was burning round the neck only. Deceased walked into witness’s and said she turned the lamp down to blow it out when it exploded. She repeated this statement several times. Deceased thought the lamp was turned too low; it was not the blowing that made it explode. All her clothes were burnt off. By the foreman: It was not more than five minutes after the explosion that Mrs Reed was outside. She then sent for medical assistance, but she died at 1.50 a.m. that (Friday) morning. Both children were brought out of the bedroom window. Witness said everything was done for deceased that could be done. Her husband (Mr Reed) left at 4 a.m. on Thursday, and would be back until that (Friday) afternoon.

The Coroner adjourned the inquest until Wednesday next, to enable an analysis of the oil to be taken and obtain the flashing point of same.

The Swindon Advertiser, Saturday, June 1, 1895.

Emily Read was buried in Radnor Street in plot B2426 on June 3, 1895. She lies in a public grave with two other, most probably, unrelated people.

William married the widowed Mary Jerome four years later. The 1901 census finds them living at 19 Gloucester Street with Mary’s 23 year old daughter, Seline Jerome and William’s two little girls who had survived the blaze, Winifred Emily, 11 and Elsie May, 9.

*Read is misspelt as Reed in some instances.

The aspirational Percival Seymour Scott

The re-imagined story …

When I was growing up in Swindon there was a ‘can do’ atmosphere in the town. If you wanted to make something of your life you could, yes even those from disadvantaged families.

From the very early days Swindon was an ambitious town with a self belief that permeated all aspects of life. It was taught in the schools and colleges; preached in the churches and chapels and honed and forged in the Works.

It was said an apprenticeship in the Works was the hallmark of excellence and recognised across the world.

Take George and Eliza Scott’s boy. He grew up in Ashford Road, one of the many roads of ubiquitous red brick terrace houses that crept up Kingshill, but what an exciting life he led. They must have been so proud of him. I’m sure they would say it was worth all the sacrifices they made.

The facts …

George Albert Scott and Eliza Seymour were married in the Providence Baptist Chapel on July 9, 1892. George was 26 and worked as an Engine Fitter and Turner in the GWR Works. He was born in Bristol in 1866 and first appears in Swindon on the 1881 census living with his mother Caroline and stepfather Charles Jefferies at 10 Queen Street. Aged 15 years old, George had already begun an apprenticeship as an engine fitter.

Eliza was born in Lechlade in 1871. In 1891, the year before her marriage, Eliza was living with her parents at 124 Stafford Street. Her father John was a grocer and Eliza worked as a dressmaker.

The newlyweds set up home in Ashford Road where the family would live for more than 70 years. They had three children, Percival born in 1896, Ivy in 1898 and Gwendoline in 1906. The 1911 census records the couple’s only son Percival 15, was a part time student whilst working as an Office Boy in the Works.

In 1915 Percival joined the Royal Navy for the duration of hostilities (the First World War). His naval records describe him as 6ft ½ ins tall with black hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. At the beginning of 1918 he transferred to the newly created RAF.

In 1920 Percival married Elsie Holbrow, the daughter of another railwayman Samuel Holbrow and his wife Minnie. The following year Percival’s name appears on the Ship’s Register of the SS Highland Glen bound for South America where Elsie would join him at their home in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The couple apparently made return visits to Swindon and are recorded as passengers on the Asturias in 1926, their destination 47 Deacon Street (the home of Elsie’s parents), their permanent residence Argentina. They were too late to see Percival’s mother Eliza who died in 1922.

Elsie died in Buenos Aires just three years later on January 29, 1929 aged 32. Her details are recorded on her parents’ headstone.

George Scott married for a second time in 1924. He died in 1928 aged 62 years and was buried with his first wife Eliza in Radnor Street Cemetery plot E7492. His second wife Margaret died in 1973 and was buried in the same grave.

Percival remained in South America until at least the 1960s when he is recorded as living in Peru but he died closer to Swindon at his home The Hermitage, Combeland Road in Minehead on November 5, 1979.