Could this be a wedding photograph of William and Maud? She looks very young; only 20 years old at the time of their marriage in 1893. William was 8 years older and had already seen service in the Warwickshire Regiment.
We find them next on the 1901 census living at Wroughton Road. William is working as a ‘Collector and Salesman for Singer Sewing Machines.’ The family had moved around with the elder children’s birthplaces recorded as Cheltenham and Fairford.
By 1911 they were living in Ashton Keynes with further children born in Swindon, Faringdon, Stanford in the Vale and Ashton Keynes. By then Maud had had 10 children, 9 of whom were still living. At least 3 more sons were born between 1911 and 1915 but only one survived to adulthood.
Another baby, Thomas Reginald Brotheridge, was born in 1915 and died aged just 7 months old when the family were living at 90 Montagu Street. By then war was raging. William and Maud’s eldest son, also named William, had joined his father’s old regiment, the Warwickshires. On May 27, 1918 he was on board the Leasowe Castle, an armed troop transport ship, when it was torpedoed and sank off the coast of Alexandria. A total of 83 officers and men were drowned that day, including 21 year old William. He is remembered on the Chatby Memorial in Egypt. He left a small sum of money, including a War Gratuity of £17, to his mother, as previously agreed with his father.
William and Maud were just one of many Rodbourne couples who lost a loved one during that awful conflict.
Montagu Street, Rodbourne
Maud died in February 1924 at 90 Montagu Street. She was 51 years old – no age to die, we would say now. She had given birth to at least 13 children and along with the babies she lost she also lost a son to war.
She was buried in Section Lower C grave plot C3953 where in 1934 her daughter Elizabeth Maud Mary joined her. Elizabeth was 38 years old and unmarried.
William Brotheridge died at 86 Montagu Street in November 1941. He was laid to rest with his wife and daughter.
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 …
The cemetery volunteers have done an incredible job of clearing and revealing the grave of Scottish rugby international Dr. Charles Reid. In doing so they have also revealed the fallen headstone of the Cocks family buried in the row behind.
Here is another family who moved across the country and a head of household who changed his occupation, presumably to one that was more lucrative.
William Cocks was a joiner at the time of his marriage to Sarah Townsend Ulett in 1864. His father Thomas was a cabinet maker so both men were skilled craftsmen.
At the time of the 1871 census William was living at 45 Cheltenham Street where he worked as a Coach Body Finisher in the GWR. Sarah and the children were staying with her parents in Birmingham but she obviously joined him at some point as their son Ernest Albert was born in Swindon in the autumn of 1871.
By 1881 the family were living in High Wycombe where William then worked as an Insurance Agent. Perhaps work in the railway factory was too insecure at this time. In 1891 they were in Hungerford where William worked for the Super Prudential Assurance Company and in 1901 William and Sarah were living at 8 Turl Street, Swindon. William aged 66 was still working as an insurance agent and their son Ernest as a dispenser. Two daughters had married – Pauline lived with her husband Walter William Poulston in Brecon where they worked as Hairdresser and Fancy Dealers and where her spinster sisters Lillian and Eugenie often stayed. Ada married Albert John Gomm and lived in 15 Durham Street, Swindon in the 1940s.
The Cocks family headstone cleaned up after its reveal
Sarah Townsend Cocks died aged 69 years at her home 8 Turl Street. She was buried on May 15 in grave plot E8445. Her son Ernest Albert Cocks, the only one of her children who was born in Swindon died later that same year aged 34 years. He was buried on November 6 with his mother. William Cocks moved to Bristol where he lived with his unmarried daughter Eugenie at 2 Rookery Road, Knowle. He died in January 1918 aged 82 years and was buried with his wife and son. The last person buried in this family grave is Albert John Gomm, the husband of Ada Frances, who died in 1947 and was buried on April 3.
I read a lot of newspaper reports as part of my cemetery research and I’ve noticed that both the style of writing and the content has changed considerably over the years.
Back in the 19th century local newspapers published at great length meetings of governing bodies in the town – the Local Board Meetings (precursor of Swindon Borough Council) for both Old and New Swindon, the Swindon School Board and the Mechanics’ Institute Council to mention just three. Columns and columns of tightly packed print recording who said what to and about whom! The Great Western Railway featured prominently as might be expected with reports of social events, the retirement of old railwaymen, accidents and inquests where all the gory details were reported.
And then there are the odd gossipy bits that creep in. In Arthur Jefferies Lewis White’s obituary there is a reference to his widow with the comment –
Mr White’s widow is a Swindon lady, formerly a Miss Sendell. She will be the fourth widow in the family of the Sendells – three other sisters having lost their husbands.
So, of course, that set me off on the search of these sisters.
The first of the three sisters to marry was the eldest Ellen who married Herbert Henry Llewellyn a railway clerk. The couple lived at 23 Dixon Street where Herbert died in 1898 aged just 27. Ellen returned to the family home where she can be found on the 1911 census. She died at St. Margaret’s Hospital on May 23, 1943 and was buried with her husband.
The next sister to marry was Kate and her story requires more research. Kate married George Astill a draper in 1904 at St. Saviour’s Church, Brixton Hill, South London. Their son Reginald was born in Otago, New Zealand but baptised in the UK in June of that year before George and Kate returned to New Zealand. On April 6, 1912 Kate and her 3 year old son arrived in London without her husband George. Was this just a holiday; a family visit? Did she plan to return? George died the following year in New Zealand. Kate’s last home was 344 Western Avenue, Acton. She died in the Central Middlesex Hospital in 1956.
Youngest daughter Margaret married Charles Robert Tippetts in the Wesley Chapel, Faringdon Street on April 19, 1915. He died in 1928 and Margaret died two years later. They are buried together in grave plot E8204, next to Margaret’s parents.
Emily Sendell was born in 1876, the third of four surviving daughters. Her parents Henry and Lucy married in Chipping Norton in 1870. They can be found living in Bristol at the time of the 1881 census with 5 of their 8 children. By 1891 they had moved to 15 Theobald Street where the family would remain for more than 55 years until Lucy’s death in 1933. Emily was the last sister to marry. She was 42 years old when she married Arthur Jefferies Lewis White in 1917 at Christ Church. Arthur died in 1919. Emily outlived him by some 40 years. She died in the Cheriton Nursing Home in 1968 aged 92 years. She was buried in plot E8134A next to Arthur.
Perhaps it’s a shame that journalism has changed so much over the years! I might never have discovered these family stories without the gossipy bit in the newspaper.
This is the grave of Lucy and Henry Sendell who died in 1933 and 1935 respectively. Their daughter Margaret Tippetts and her husband are buried in the neighbouring grave.
The grave of Herbert Henry Llewellyn and Nellie (Ellen nee Sendell).
What impression can a 20 year old make on history? Unmarried and without children, once his parents and his sister died, who would remember Henry John Hatter. He didn’t die on a battlefield as so many young men would during two World Wars. Unless we order his death certificate we will not know what killed him.
More than 100 years after his death, we can remember him.
Henry John Hatter was born on June 4, 1884 in Swindon. His father Henry was a Sawyer and Machine Man in the Works. His mother Selina was a housewife. The following year a daughter was born. The family was complete.
Henry John began work as an office boy in the GWR Works on July 18, 1897 aged 14. Just after his birthday in June 1904 he transferred to the General Manager’s Office at Paddington. He proved to be a popular member of staff.
By special request we give a portrait of Mr. H.J. Hatter, who death occurred at the end of February. Mr Hatter, who was only 20 years of age, was a member of the staff of the General Manager’s office, having come to London from the Locomotive Engineer’s office, Swindon, as recently as July last. In this short time he had established himself a favourite with his office colleagues and with the Athletic Association, of which he was regarded as a promising member. His early death caused much sympathy and regret both at Paddington and Swindon.
Great Western Railway Magazine 1905
Henry John Hatter of 31 Granville Street died aged 20. He was buried on March 3, 1905 in grave plot E8612.
Selina Hatter died in 1915 at her home in Granville Street. Henry died a year later. They are buried with their son. Mabel Louise became a teacher. She never married. She died on March 26, 1948. Who would remember Henry John now, or her come to that. We can.
Mam would take flowers up to the cemetery every week. People did in those days, but what I thought was odd was that Mrs Adlam always went with her.
Mam would knock on her door at number 18 and they would walk together up Cambria Bridge Road to the cemetery in Radnor Street.
Mam looked after a few graves in the cemetery, alternating the flowers each week. She’d tidy up Pop and Nanny Williams grave, then she would move on to Gramps and Grandma Griffiths and then Auntie Hilda and Uncle Len. Dad grew the flowers in his greenhouse otherwise it would have cost her a small fortune, he used to say.
But quite why Mrs Adlam joined her, I could never understand. Well, not then I couldn’t.
Mrs Adlam was from Somerset originally and had spent the first years of her married life living in Frome. The Adlam’s were a big family, more than ten children she had. Two of the sons went to America but most of the others lived around and about in Swindon.
She lost two babies when they lived away, Mam told me, and another child buried in the churchyard at Rodbourne Cheney. One little boy was only 12 days old. That wasn’t unusual either in those days. All those dreadful diseases that swept through families. Our mam was one of the fortunate ones. Tidy little family we were, just the four of us, all grown up with families of our own.
Two babies left behind, buried in Frome. I wonder if anyone looked after their little graves. Now I understood why Mrs Adlam visited the cemetery in Radnor Street with our mam. It was her way of being close to her babies.
Of course she is long dead herself now and buried with her husband. But recently another burial was made in the family plot. A little baby just three weeks old, Mrs Adlam’s great-grandson. At last she has a baby she can watch over.
The facts …
Sarah Elizabeth Smith was baptised on May 4, 1856 at the parish church in Marston Bigott, Somerset, the illegitimate daughter of Mercy Smith.
She married Thomas Adlam at the same church on April 19, 1877. Thomas states his occupation as a Rivetter and that he was the son of Thomas Adlam, a gardener. Sarah Elizabeth was of full age and written across the space where father’s name and occupation is required is written ‘illegitimate.’
At the time of the 1881 census Thomas and Elizabeth were living at 2 Cottages, Nunnery Lane, Frome. They already had three children, William Henry aged 3, Eleanor Sarah 2 and Ernest Thomas five months old. Eleanor died later that year and was buried at Holy Trinity church, Frome on July 6. Oswell Joseph Adlam was buried in the same churchyard on October 16, 1888. He was just 12 days old.
By the 1890s the family had moved to Swindon where Thomas had a job in the Works. On February 2, 1893 Mercy Alice was baptised at St Augustine’s and on July 29 1896 their youngest daughter and last child, Dora May was baptised at St Barnabas Church when they lived at 51 Ferndale Road.
By 1911 Thomas and Sarah had moved to 18 Cambria Place where they lived with their three youngest children. Alice Mercy 20 who worked as a shop assistant in a drapers, Reginald Frank 18, an apprentice brass finisher in the works (and part time student) and fourteen year old Dora. Sarah declares that she and Thomas have been married 34 years and that they had 11 children, seven of whom are living and four who have died by 1911. The fourth child could be son Gilbert who left for the USA and about whose date of death there seems to be some confusion.
Sarah died on March 7, 1920 and was buried in plot E8190. Her son Ernest Thomas died in Southmead Hospital Bristol and was buried with her on May 29, 1936. Husband Thomas spent his last years living with his married daughter Dora M. Baker at 38 Osborne Street. He died in May 1946 aged 93 years old and was buried in the same plot on May 20. The last burial in the grave was that of Peter William Graville the three week old son of Marie Helena, Thomas and Sarah’s granddaughter.
Percy Adlam was born in Frome in 1883 and died in 1890 aged 6 and a half years old. He was buried on January 7, 1890 at Rodbourne Cheney.
Adlam, Sarah Elizabeth of 18 Cambria Place Swindon Wiltshire died 7 March 1920 Administration Salisbury 26 April to Thomas Adlam boilersmith Effects £382 0s 10d.
Every cemetery story is a recognition, a celebration of a life, but sometimes that story is one so sad it is difficult to write and to read. Such is the story of Minnie Louisa Roach whose future looked promising when she was born in 1874. Her father John Roach was an erector employed in the Works, her mother was Louisa Roach and she had a brother William born in 1873. By the turn of the new century the family were living in Avenue Road.
Minnie married Frederick William Gilchrist, a railway clerk, at the Wesleyan Chapel Bath Road on March 23, 1901. He was 38 years old and she was 26. They began married life at 39 Dean Street, but sadly less than 3 years later Frederick died.
A Well Known Volunteer
For 7 Years Bugle-Major
The death took place on Thursday, Dec. 31st at his residence, 4 Lethbridge-road, Swindon, of Mr F.W. Gilchrist, a well-known Swindonian, who has been a great sufferer for the past two years or more, his illness being induced by the after effects of influenza. He has been taken in the prime of life – he was only 40 years of age, – and leaves a sorrowing widow, but no children. Deceased, who was the son of Capt. G. Gilchrist, of the Royal Artillery, was for many years employed in the Drawing Office, GWR Works, Swindon. But he was best known to the public as a prominent member of the Wilts Rifle Volunteers. He was a man of fine physique and good soldierly bearing. He was a member of the F and G Companies for 27 years, during 7 of which he held the position of bugle-major.
Extracts from The Swindon Advertiser, Friday, January 8, 1904.
Minnie moved back into 45 Avenue Road where she lived with her widowed mother. In 1913 she married again. Her second husband was Frederick Charles James Perry Day, the illegitimate son of Kate Day. Frederick was a coach body maker in the GWR Works and had spent most of his life living with Charles and Elizabeth Davies, presumably relatives, at 101 Stafford Street. At the time of her second marriage Minnie was 39 and Frederick 34. They should have been looking forward to a long and financially secure marriage, but of course a war was just around the corner and Frederick enlisted.
Perhaps the fear and anxiety proved too much for Minnie. She died in 1917, a patient in the Devizes Asylum.
A Soldier’s Wife’s Death – The death took place on Tuesday, at the age of 42 years, of Minnie Louisa Day, wife of Corporal Day, RFA now on active service at Salonika.
Deceased was the only daughter of the late Mr John Roach, of 45, Avenue Road, Swindon, and leaves her husband, an only brother, and a widowed mother to mourn a heavy loss.
The funeral took place on Saturday at Swindon Cemetery amid many tokens of respect on the part of friends and neighbours.
Amongst the beautiful wreaths was the following – “With deep sympathy and in grateful remembrance of much kindness shown in 1907 – from Mrs L.A. Baugh – ‘Thy will be done.’”
The relatives of deceased desire to return sincere thanks for the many kind expressions of sympathy received in their sad bereavement.
North Wilts Herald, Friday, May 25, 1917.
Stafford Street
Minnie was buried in grave plot E7888 on May 19, 1917. The burial registers record her address as 101 Stafford Street, the home where Frederick grew up. She was buried with Charles Henry Davies who had died in 1904 and was later joined in 1919 by Elizabeth, his wife, the couple who had raised Frederick.
When I began researching the Henderson family grave I suspected this might be a story that would run and run.
First there was the account of how James Henderson averted a train collision with Royalty on board the “Lord of the Isles” loco. Next came Noel’s story about the Musical Stones of Skiddaw. Today we have an account of James Henderson’s career upon his retirement complete with a photograph of the man himself!
Swindon. – On November 7 Mr James Henderson, who for the last twenty years has been an inspector attached to the Locomotive Running Department, retired from the service, and was made the recipient of a handsome testimonial, subscribed to by the officers and staff, and a large number of enginemen and firemen, throughout the system. Mr. Henderson joined the GW Railway as a fireman at Paddington in 1865, and acted in that capacity on the engine “Lord of the Isles,” which frequently worked royal trains between Windsor and Paddington. He quickly reached the position of driver, and from 1874 until his removal to Swindon as inspector was a familiar figure on express broad-gauge engines. Mr W.H. Waister, in making the presentation, which consisted of a solid silver cigar case and a purse of gold, stated that during the time Mr. Henderson had been inspector he had won the respect and esteem of all the staff. It is interesting to note that during the Olympic Regatta at Henley in August last Mr. Henderson was presented with a silver cup and an illuminated address by the Traffic Department staff in appreciation of his work there, he having taken charge of the locomotive arrangements during the Henley Regatta for a number of years.
When I begin my research I never know how much I can actually find out about any given person. This time I found an obituary, a career profile and several family photographs, although unfortunately none of Sarah Annie Witcomb.
Sarah Annie Witcomb was born in Trevethin, Monmouthshire in about 1863. She was the second of Alfred and Sarah Witcomb’s seven children. By 1864 the family had moved to Swindon and in 1871 they were living at 3 Brunel Street where Alfred worked as a Forgeman in the Works. By 1881 they had moved to 31 Carfax Street where they would remain for more than 35 years until Alfred’s death in 1916.
As you can read in the obituary, Sarah became a teacher and eventually moved away from Swindon. She was one of four siblings who all entered the teaching profession.
The Late Miss Witcomb – The remains of Miss Sarah A. Witcomb, eldest daughter of the late Mr Alfred Witcomb, were laid to rest in Swindon Cemetery on Wednesday. Miss Witcomb’s end came with unexpected suddenness. She felt very deeply the recent death of her father, and an attack of influenza, resulting in heart failure, caused her death. As a young teacher in Swindon, there are many who will remember her, from when a pupil teacher she worked under Mrs Watson at College Street School. After leaving Southlands Training College she worked for a few years at Peckham, leaving there to take up a headship at Barking, Essex. Here the last 26 years of her active life have been spent as head mistress of a girls’ school of over 500 scholars.
The first portion of the burial service was held in the Wesleyan Chapel, Faringdon Street of which in her early days the deceased had been a member. The Rev. John Hall and Mr Godber were the officiating ministers. As the mourners entered the building the hymn, “Now the labourer’s task is o’er,” was sung. The hymn during the service was “Rock of Ages,” and as the procession left the chapel “O Rest in the Lord” was played by the Organist (Mr. H.C. Reynolds). The committal at the graveside was impressively performed by the Rev. John Hall.
Amongst those who attended to pay a last tribute to Miss Witcomb were Mr. G. Jackson (Essex County Council), representing the Barking Education Committee, and Mr W. Weston, an old and esteemed associate in former Sunday School work in Swindon.
Extract from the North Wilts Herald, Friday, October 13, 1916.
Family historians on Ancestry have shared photographs of Alfred, Sarah and another daughter Mary Jane.
Alfred Witcomb
Sarah Witcomb
Mary Jane (teacher)
Alfred died in July 1916 aged 75 years and was buried in grave plot E8161. Sarah Anne died just three months later, aged 53 and was buried with her father. Alfred’s wife Sarah died in April 1918 aged 77 years and was buried with her husband and daughter.
A large number of people attended our last Radnor Street Cemetery walk as you can see from the photograph below. However, perhaps surprisingly, far fewer attended the walks we organised at St Marks several years ago.
Among those buried in the churchyard by the railway track are Engineer William Frederick Gooch the younger brother of Sir Daniel Gooch, employed as Manager at the Swindon GWR Works at the time of the 1861 census.
A hugely influential man in the early history of the Works and the Railway Village was Works Manager Minard C. Rea. who died in 1857. His memorial is published below.
And, probably most famously, is the memorial to Joseph Armstrong, Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent at the Great Western Railway 1864-1877.
The churchyard was closed to new burials in 1881 – after a mere 36 years it was already full. The new Swindon Cemetery on Kingshill, better known today as Radnor Street Cemetery, opened on August 6 that same year.
Poet Laureate John Betjeman was a big fan of St. Mark’s.
‘The parishioners of St Philip and St Jacob in Bristol entreated the Great Western to build a church for their workers; directors stumped up money, subscriptions were raised, land was presented and by 1845, St Mark’s church was built.
There it stands today close beside the line on the Bristol side of the station. A stone building, all spikes and prickles outside, designed by Gilbert Scott who was then a young man and who lived to build hundreds of rather dull copy-book churches all over Britain, and to build St Pancras Hotel, the Foreign Office in London and to restore many cathedrals.
One cannot call it a convenient site. Whistles and passing trains disturb the services, engine smoke blackens the leaves and tombstones, and eats into the carved stonework of the steeple. But it is a strong church and though it is not much to look at, it is for me the most loved church in England. For not carved stones nor screen and beautiful altars, nor lofty arcades nor gilded canopies, but the priests who minister and the people who worship make a church strong. If ever I feel England is Pagan, and that the poor old Church of England is tottering to its grave, I revisit St Mark’s, Swindon. That corrects the impression at once. A simple and definite faith is taught; St Mark’s and its daughter churches are crowded. Swindon, so ugly to look at to the eyes of the architectural student, glows golden as the New Jerusalem to eyes that look beyond the brick and stone…
Extracts published from First and Last Loves a collection of essays on architecture published in 1952.
With so many interesting stories to tell we were a little surprised that these walks did not prove more popular. Perhaps it is because Radnor Street Cemetery has an extra special place in the hearts and memories of 21st century Swindonians.
Photograph from our most recent guided cemetery walk at Radnor Street Cemetery
Radnor Street Cemetery 