Tag: GWR

Aunt Charlotte would have loved all this

The re-imagined story …

It was a bitterly cold morning but we were the best dressed passengers on the platform at Swindon Junction that Boxing Day in 1906.

Uncle Alfred had polished his top hat to a shine and Bill looked prosperous, if a bit portly, with his fob watch chain stretched across his ample stomach.

I wasn’t sure how we would keep the children neat and tidy for the duration of the journey, but so far, they have been very well behaved.

We managed to find seats all together in one carriage, although it was a bit of a squeeze and Fred almost sat on Annie’s hat.

Aunt Charlotte would have loved all this.

My mother came prepared with a picnic hamper and enough food to sustain us on an expedition across the dark continent, never mind a trip to Cardiff.

No sooner had we passed through the station at Wootton Bassett Junction than my mother was handing round the scotch eggs.

We were met at Cardiff station by Florence’s uncle who took us to the church at Canton where the wedding ceremony took place and then it was back to the Davies’s home in Conbridge Road for the wedding breakfast.

The other day I was looking through some of my old bits and pieces with Maisie, my granddaughter. I’m moving in with her and her husband, I just can’t manage living alone anymore. I have to get rid of so much. It’s difficult.

Maisie found Florence and Bill’s wedding photograph taken in the back garden in Canton on Boxing Day 1906.

“I love the ladies dresses,” said Maisie as she studied the sepia image. “Who are they all?”

I pointed out Uncle Alfred and Bill and Florence.

“I can’t remember who the others are, they are all members of the bride’s family.”

“They look a serious bunch,” she pulled a straight face. “Where are the Drinkwaters?”

“We were laughing and talking behind the photographer. I remember he asked us to be quiet as we were too much of a distraction.”

Aunt Charlotte would have loved that.

charlotte-and-alfred-drinkwater

The facts …

Alfred Drinkwater was born in Barton St Michael, Gloucestershire in 1848. He married Charlotte Dent at St Mark’s Church, Gloucester on April 12, 1869. The couple had a large family of eight sons and four daughters.

Alfred worked as an engine cleaner, a fireman and a 1st Class Engineman (Engine Driver) The family moved from Gloucester to Reading, eventually arriving in Swindon in the mid-1890s. There is a family story that he once drove Queen Victoria’s train.

Charlotte died at the family home in Theobald Street and was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery in plot D1453 on June 29, 1904.

Alfred outlived her by almost 30 years. He died at 112, Millbrook Street, Gloucester on July 26, 1932, his body returned to Swindon and the plot he shares with his wife.

Alfred and Charlotte’s nine-year-old daughter Nellie died in 1895. She is buried in Radnor Street Cemetery in plot B2398.

The couple’s eldest son Alfred James Henry served a six-year apprenticeship in the railway factory where he worked as a fitter. He married Annie Cummins in 1892 at St Mark’s, Swindon. The couple never left Swindon and their last family home together was at 27 Whitehead Street. Alfred James Henry died in 1949 and his wife Annie died the following year, 1950. They are buried together with Alfred’s parents. The cremated remains of L.C. Drinkwater, probably Alfred and Annie’s daughter Lilian Charlotte, were interred in the family plot in 1989.

William Charles John Drinkwater and his wife Florence, the couple who married in Cardiff on Boxing Day 1906, were living at 40 Montagu Street, Rodbourne at the time of the 1911 census. They later moved to Wales. William died in the Pontypool and District Hospital on July 9, 1942 and Florence died at her home, 21 Saint Matthews Road, Pontypool on June 5, 1958.

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Additional family history information obtained from Public Member’s Trees on http://www.ancestry.co.uk.

Martha and George Coster – another ordinary couple

The strapline for this blog is ‘Remembering the ordinary people of Swindon.’ This grave story is about one such ordinary family. George worked as a platelayer with the Great Western Railway, a job described by Will Thorne, a platelayer during this period as The most neglected man in the service. The poorest of any railway employee with little or no opportunity for promotion or advancement.

In 1870 George married Martha Robinson at the parish church in Wroughton where they had both grown up. George and Martha would have 10 children but sadly four of them died young. In 1881 they were living at 13 Oxford Buildings, Rodbourne with three of their children, George’s mother and an unnamed lodger described on the census returns as having “left house.”

By 1891 they were living a 21 Jennings Street where they would remain for more than 20 years. It was where Martha died in 1918.

How many meals did the family sit down to eat in the kitchen? How many Mondays had Martha toiled over the boiler in the scullery, pegging out washing on a line that stretched the length of the garden. Did she dust and polish or was there little furniture to fuss over in the house at No 21 Jennings Street?

Was George a keen gardener, when all that washing wasn’t hanging in the way? Or was he too exhausted after a day’s work to do yet more digging and shifting earth? Was he a member of the Even Swindon Working Men’s Club and Institute, cutting along the backsies for a swift half? Or did he prefer to drink in the Dolphin? But then again, perhaps as a Methodist he didn’t partake of Mr Arkell’s finest.

And what about Hilda, the daughter who was buried with George and Martha. She never married and worked as a domestic servant, that much we know. She died on July 6, 1936 at 30 Twickenham Road, Isleworth, not at her home in Maze Road, Kew, nor at 49 Paxton Road, Chiswick, the address recorded in the burial registers.

So many unanswered questions about one ordinary Rodbourne family.

Martha Coster died at her home in Jennings Street in May 1918 aged 70 years old. She was buried in grave plot C1952 on May 9. Her husband George Coster died at 92 Beaufort Terrace, Rodbourne Road on January 31, 1922. He left effects valued at £266 18s 8d to his daughter Kate Fisher. He was buried on February 4 with Martha. Hilda Coster died on July 6, 1936 aged 53. She was buried with her parents on July 10.