A public grave and an unusual discovery

As you look across the cemetery, you will see large areas without headstones or grave markers. But we know there are no empty burial spaces here as the cemetery was full when it closed in the 1970s.

These empty spaces are graves where families were unable to afford a headstone or memorial of any kind. There are also a large number of public graves where families were unable to afford even a burial plot. These plots often contain numerous burials, usually of unrelated persons. And then there are also the infant burial plots where the babies are buried and there are a large number of those in the cemetery.

I came across plot C63 while was researching the death of Emily Hobbs. Emily had died at the Stratton Infirmary aged 75 years old. Her home address was given as 34 Linslade Street and she was buried here on September 24, 1938.

When I looked at the plot details I soon discovered that this was a public plot, so I knew there would not be a headstone. But what surprised me was that there were four other people by the name of Hobbs already buried here when Emily died in 1938.

Research revealed that this plot was originally designated as a babies plot. The first burial to take place was that of Edgar Henry Smith a 10 week old baby who died in June 1896. A week later another baby was buried here 17 month old Grace Emily Hobbs from 31 Linslade Street. In February 1897 Laura Louise Hobbs aged 5 years old from 31 Linslade Street was buried here. In November of that year Myra Agnes Smith, little Edgar’s sister, was buried here aged 3 months old. And on February 13, 1909 the last burial of a baby was that of three day old Violet Mary Bishop. However, nine years before that, William John Hobbs aged 15 months of Groves Street was also buried here.

Could it be a coincidence that so many babies by the name of Hobbs were buried in this plot?

Emily Leviss married Charles Hobbs at St Leonard’s Church, Blunsdon on December 22, 1883. The young couple were both aged 20 and had to obtain the consent of their parents to marry. On the marriage certificate Charles’s father is named as William Hobbs a labourer but Emily has given no father’s name or details, suggesting that she was probably born illegitimately.

The couple moved to Rodbourne where they lived at various address in Groves Street, Linslade Street and Redcliffe Street.

In 1891 Emily and Charles are living at 31 Linslade Street. Charles works as a Blacksmith Striker in the Works. The couple have two children – five year old Frederick Thomas and Henry James aged 3. Living with them is Emily’s grandmother Hannah Matthews aged 75 who works as a Laundress. Charlotte M. Willis is visiting the family on census night.

By 1901 the family are living at 31 Linslade Street and by then they have another son Reginald Charles who is 7 years old.

But it isn’t until we get to the 1911 census that the full tragedy of the family comes to light. Charles and Emily are by then both 48 years old. Elder sons Frederick and Henry have moved out and moved on. Still living at home are Reginald Charles, Edward Alfred and youngest son Norman Stanley Leviss Hobbs aged just 2 years old. Charles and Emily have been married for 27 years and during that time Emily has had 10 children and 5 have died.

As well as the three children buried here Hubert Robert Hobbs died in 1904 aged 10 months and is buried in plot B1318. Florence Maud Hobbs died in January 1907 aged one year old and is buried in B1845.

When Emily’s husband Charles died in 1913, he was buried in grave plot C63 with his children, presumably at Emily’s request, and then when she died 25 years later she joined them. This is quite an unusual situation for a public grave. Perhaps it shows a more compassionate side of an authority that allowed this family to be reunited even though they could not afford to buy their own grave plot.

Lott King – killed in a sandpit on the Rolleston Estate

The 1900 map of Swindon reveals a number of quarries in the area of Old Town. Town Gardens was laid out on worked out quarries but the area behind it is possibly still being quarried in 1900. Then there is an Old Quarry at the end of Westlecott Road and smaller outcrops either side of the railway line.

But given that the inquest took place in the Globe Tavern on the corner of North Street I’m guessing that Lott’s fatal accident took place in the sand and gravel pit in the area that is now Savernake Street and play park. (At this time inquests usually took place in a public building close to the site of the accident, most frequently in a public house).

Lott King was born in Castle Eaton and during his lifetime was employed in a variety of jobs, for example, a carter, a labourer and, this his last job, a labourer in a stone quarry. He married widow Leah Matthews in 1870 and raised three step children as well as the couple’s own four children. In 1896 Lott and Leah were living at 4 Eastcott Hill, a short walk to Lott’s place of work.

quarries 2

On Monday afternoon last Mr W E N Browne, County Coroner, held an inquest at the Globe Tavern, Swindon, on the body of Lot King, a labourer, aged 51 years, who was killed in a sandpit on the Rolleston Estate by the fall of a massive stone, weighing nearly three tons, on Saturday last, about noon. Mr T H Williams was chosen foreman of the jury, Mr A. E. Withy was present to represent Messrs Bishop and Pritchett, the lessees of the sand quarry. The jury having viewed the body, the follow evidence was taken:-

James Telling said he was working with deceased on Saturday. They were breaking stone. Asked how the accident happened, witness said he expected it was owing to the heavy rain of the previous night. The whole depth of the quarry was 40ft., but not at the spot where they were working. The stone which fell weighed between two and three ton. The stone did not project, and they did not see any danger of the stone falling, so they continued with their work. The sand slipped from underneath the stone, and it fell quite suddenly, striking deceased on the head, or he would have been buried beneath it. Deceased had no time to get out of the way. At the time of the accident there was only deceased and witness working in the sandpit.

By Mr Withy: He had been working in the quarry some 18 months, and only the day before the accident he got up on the stone to examine it. Witness had ascertained since the accident that there was a joint in the stone and it was that which caused the one portion to fall.

Henry Trueman, a young man in the employ of the New Swindon Urban District Council, said he was drawing stone from the quarry when the accident happened, about noon on Saturday. The stone suddenly gave way, and fell, hitting deceased on the head. Deceased lived for about a quarter of an hour after the doctor’s arrival.

Dr Muir, of Stratton, said he happened to be at Dr Rattray’s on Saturday when a messenger came, and witness went to the sand quarry. Deceased was dying when he arrived. He was internally injured, but the cause of death was the blow on the head. Death was due to shock and concussion of the brain.

Richard Albert Page, the working foreman on the Rolleston Estate said he had employed five men at the quarry but there were only two there on Saturday. The pit was full of sand, with some great boulder stones. Deceased had previously let down some other stones near, which he considered dangerous.

By Mr Withy: The stone fell over, due, he believed, to rain of the previous night getting into the joint.

The Coroner, said it appeared there was no blame to be attached to anyone.

The jury concurred and returned a verdict of ‘Accidental death,’ They passed a vote of condolence with the widow and family of deceased.

The jury, and three of the witnesses gave their fees to the deceased’s widow, the sum total being 11s 3d.

Swindon Advertiser Saturday December 19, 1896

Savernake play park

Savernake Street play park in 1984 published courtesy of Carter Collectables.

Lott was buried on December 16, 1896 in grave plot C352. My guess is that this was possibly a public grave. The jurors gave their fee to the family, which suggests they were in dire straits following the death of the breadwinner. The grave was later purchased by the Theobald family.

Granville Street and the Watkins family

I’ve spent a couple of hours browsing the Local Studies flickr site, looking at photos of Swindon during the 1970s and 80s. This was a period when the town centre, still largely Victorian in design and layout, was modernised. Rows of red brick terrace houses came down as multi storey office blocks (now themselves out of date and unfit for purpose) went up. Granville and Morley streets were two victims, most of the properties sacrificed to create – a car park.

In 1891 our own home grown Liberal MP, Levi Lapper Morse, financed the construction of two town centre streets, which he named after Earl Granville, Liberal politician and former Foreign Secretary and Viscount John Morley, Liberal MP for Newcastle upon Tyne.

In 1901 Charles Watkins, a blacksmith, was living at No 19 Granville Street with his wife Margaret and their son Charles 27, also a blacksmith. Charles Watkins senior died in 1907 but Margaret was still living at number 19 Granville Street in 1911 with her son Charles. Living with her were her three grandsons, Thomas 18 an apprentice blacksmith in the GWR Works, George 16, an apprentice shoeing smith and 11 year old schoolboy Archibald, the children of her son Thomas. The grandsons were living with Margaret following the death of their mother Blanche Louisa Watkins that same year.

Margaret and her younger sister Fanny spent their early childhood in Loughborough Street, Kennington, pretty close to where I spent mine in Brixton. Margaret would remain living at 19 Granville Street until her death in 1923. She chose a perfect place to rest for all eternity.

Charles Watkins senior died in 1907 aged 71 years and was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery in plot B2618. Buried with him are his wife Margaret and their daughter-in-law Blanche who died in 1911. George Sydney Watkins, Charles and Margaret’s second son, was buried with them on November 2, 1936 and their youngest son, Charles John following his death in November 1943.

You can’t help but wonder what the Watkins family would make of the 20th century improvements to our town – or the 21st century ones either, come to that!

Tenders for work

It was always Mark’s dream to see the cemetery gates and railings painted black with the fleur de lis finials burnished in gold. Custodian of the military history of the cemetery, Mark was a painter and decorator by trade and the state of the cemetery railings was a source of professional frustration for him. Today the gates and railings reveal a motley coat of green and black paint, which came first is difficult to work out.

In 1885, just four years after the cemetery had opened, it would seem the railings were already in need of maintenance.

The Swindon Burial Board are desirous of receiving tenders for the following work:- Clean and Paint, with two coats of good oil paint, the whole of the iron fencing around the Cemetery; Paint twelve seats with three coats of good oil paint; Size and Varnish the outside of the chapel door.

For further Particulars, apply to the Caretaker, The Cemetery Lodge.

Tenders to be sent to me the undersigned, on or before the 11^th day of May, 1885.

The Board do not bind themselves to accept the lowest or any Tender.

H.F. Townsend

42, Cricklade Street, Swindon, 22^nd April, 1885.

The North Wilts Herald, Friday, April, 24, 1885.

Kent Road gate

Clifton Street gate

Clifton Street gate

Radnor Street gate

Dixon Street gate

#TellThemofUs

#MarkSutton

The Fortune family and those pesky grave markers

This is a tale of two disintegrating headstones and a misplaced grave marker. What began as an attempt to trace the occupants of two neighbouring graves has involved some confusing paperwork, but I’ve got there in the end.

This is a cautionary tale of relying too heavily on the terracott grave markers in the cemetery. These portable brick like markers stamped with a letter and a number can be a big help when trying to pin point a plot, however they are very often in the wrong place. Perhaps back in the working day when there was a team of staff caring for the cemetery these markers were a useful identification aid. Unfortunately today they can be more of a hindrance, leading those searching for a grave on a confusing journey.

Many of the earliest burials in the newly opened cemetery took place here in Section A in the 1880s. In this area there are many public graves with numerous unrelated occupants. Funerals have always been an expensive business for the poor and frequently they had to bury their loved ones in a communal grave without a headstone. However, there are surviving headstones in Section A, among them several like these two badly weathered examples. Sadly, the inscriptions are completely lost and so it would appear is the identity and history of those buried here.

Someone has at some point propped up two of these grave markers at the back of one of the headstones, so I decided to see if they helped unlock the identity of who is buried here.

A consultation of the cemetery map quickly revealed that these are not the numbers of the two adjacent headstones. Grave plot A555 is a few rows removed from A340, as you can see from this image. However the marker for A340 is probably in the right location. The number of the neighbouring grave is plot A341 so now it was time to hit the burial registers, firstly the grave plot register.

After some research I was able to confirm that the two plots belong to the same extended family; the first of these to be buried in the new cemetery was Sarah Fortune, wife of William Fortune. She was 81 years old and her last home was at 1 Vilett Street, New Swindon where she lived with her daughter and her family. Her funeral took place on December 21, 1881 in plot A340.

The second family member to be interred in the cemetery was Mary Pickett, Sarah’s daughter. Mary was 67 years old and her funeral took place on May 3, 1890. Her last home had been Alderley, Gloucester, which has a connection to her husband’s family. Mary was buried in plot A340.

On October 11, 1904 Kate Minnie Brond was buried in plot A341. Kate was 35 years old and the granddaughter of Sarah Fortune. Her last home was at 25 Devizes Road where she lived with her parents Richard and Charlotte Fortune, her three younger sisters and her son Wilfrid Brond.

The last burial in this plot was on December 7, 1904. Wilfrid Percival Brond aged 5 years old died just weeks after the death of his mother.

Entries in the burial registers are slightly confusing. Sarah Fortune is described as being buried in plot A340 but the entry for her daughter Mary suggests she is the only one buried there. The details for plot A341 list Kate Brond, W.P. Brond and S. Fortune. All that we can be sure of is that Sarah Fortune is buried in one of these family graves. No doubt the lost inscription on the headstones would have settled the matter.

So, now all that is left to do is discover if there is a headstone on plot A555 and find out who is buried there.

George Puckey – Swindon artist

When the Hammersmith & Shepherds Bush Gazette and Post interviewed George Puckey in 1961 they reported how the 74 year old pensioner had developed a profitable hobby in his retirement.

Any self-respecting local art enthusiast would be quick to point out that George had honed his talent here in Swindon where we have a clutch of his work, once available to view in the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery.

George was born in Plymouth in 1888, the son of Charles and Sarah Puckey. The family had moved to Swindon by 1901 when they lived at 2 John Street Terrace where Charles worked as a Butcher journeyman. By 1911 23 year old George was working as a van driver for a house furnishing firm; his 16 year old brother Frederick was a general labourer in the GWR Works.

George’s work is hung Down Under

A 74 year old Acton man has found a novel way of supplementing his old age pension. He is Mr. George Puckey, of Northfield-road, North Acton, and since he retired eight years ago he has been painting pictures.

As Mr Puckey’s fame as a painter spread, so more and more orders for his colourful pictures, most of them of Kew Garden scenes, have rolled in.

Two of them are the proud possessions of an Australian family. They were bought by an Acton shopkeeper who sent them to her Australian relatives.

Exhibition

Mr Puckey, an Acton resident for 30 years and a former packer for the Metal Box Co., has just reached a proud highlight in his painting career.

He told the Gazette last week that he has had a picture accepted for the Middlesex County old people’s handiwork exhibition, to be held at Wembley Town Hall.

The picture is of Queen’s Cottage, in Kew Gardens.

Mr Puckey started painting when a young man living at Swindon. “I attended the Swindon College of Art but since then I have done very little painting. It was only when I retired that I seemed to find the time.

But I was very successful with my pictures at Swindon and a number of them of interest to local historians were bought by the Swindon Museum.”

Mr Puckey’s views on modern art? “It is awful, terrible, most of it,” he said.

Gazette and Post, Thursday, September 28, 1961.

George’s younger brother Frederick died in 1926. He is buried in Radnor Street Cemetery in grave plot C3760 where he lies alone.

The family later moved to Acton, Middlesex, where George remained for the rest of his life. He died in 1963, a couple of years after the newspaper article appeared in the local press.

What a coincidence!

On my way to conduct a guided cemetery walk for the Old Town Belles WI group recently, I met a woman who emerged from Section Lower C where the grass is as high as an elephant’s eye (to misquote the famous song from Oklahoma).

Ilse was visiting from the Netherlands on a week long, whistle-stop, family history tour of Wiltshire. She had spent the morning in Box and the afternoon in Gorse Hill before a quick visit to the cemetery.

She had no cemetery map and had by happenstance arrived at Section Lower C. She had hoped there would be numbers on the graves, but sadly that is usually not the case. She did have a grave number she had taken from a well-known website, but it was one that I had an ‘mmmn’ about – you know what I mean? However, Radnor Street Cemetery burial registers record the grave numbers which range from a single digit up to a four digit number and always preceded by a letter (and occasionally with a letter at the end e.g. D12A). But this was a five digit number without any letter. Mmmn!

Ilse wrote her email address and the name of her great-aunt on the back of my notes and today I’ve done some research for her. As I suspected the number she had was not a Radnor Street Cemetery grave plot number – but, guess what? Where she was exploring in the wilder reaches of Section Lower C was exactly where her great aunt (and great-great-grandmother) are buried. What a coincidence!

She has a wealth of family stories, which I am hoping she will share with me when she gets home. One of these was of how her great aunt met her husband-to-be when her hat blew off on Swindon station platform and he rescued it. Ilse says she has family photographs – obviously not of the hat retrieval incident – but what others might be revealed! What a fortuitous meeting. (And the guided walk with the Old Town Belles was most enjoyable as well).

Section Lower C

An overall view of the cemetery and a scan of Section Lower C where Ilse was searching.

Robert Albion King – Freeman of London

When Elizabeth King died in 1908 her family had the following inscription placed upon her headstone ‘The Beloved Wife of Robert Albion King of Swindon, Freeman of London.’ They were obviously very proud of Robert’s status.

However, in 1868 coach builders H. & E. King were forced to make the following announcement in the North Wilts Herald.

We are requested by Messrs. H. and E. King, coach builders, of Swindon and Stratton St. Margaret, to state that Mr Robert Albion King, recently charged before the magistrates with assaulting a Mrs Jennings, is not a coach builder, and is in no way connected with their firm.

North Wilts Herald, Saturday, April 18, 1868.

Robert Albion King appeared before Swindon Police Court on Thursday April 2, 1868 charged by Mrs Mary Jennings with damaging an unoccupied house, belonging to her, at Stratton St Margaret, by breaking two panes of glass, and with assaulting her, with intent to do her bodily harm.

Mrs Jennings said she had visited a property in Stratton which she had recently bought where she found Mr King in possession. Upon entering the property Mr King ordered her out tearing her shawl, and putting his fist in her face in a threatening manner; he was very much excited, and said he would shoot anybody who came on that property.

In his evidence King told the court he had previously informed Mrs Jennings that the property had been in his family since the 17^th century and could not be sold, and if she bought it she would lose her money as he was heir-at-law to it.

He in turn accused Mrs Jennings of assaulting him on a previous occasion, insulting his wife and children and scratching his face.

In summing up the Chairman said these family feuds were most disgraceful, and the bench would bind over both parties in their own recognizances of £20 each to keep the peace for six calendar months.

You can read more about the disputed property and the family connection in The North Wilts Herald, Monday July 20, 1868.

Robert Albion King died quietly (or perhaps he was arguing the toss at the time) at his home on December 23, 1909.

Death of an old inhabitant – One of Swindon’s oldest inhabitants passed away on Thursday, December 23^rd, in the death of R.A. King. Deceased, who had been suffering from heart disease for some time, died at his residence in County Road. He was the only surviving son of the late John and Ann King, of Little Britain and Moor Lane, London, and also of Stratton. Deceased’s father was a Freeman of the City and also of the Goldsmith’s Company, while deceased himself also enjoyed the same distinctions. He leaves three sons and six daughters. The remains were interred at the Swindon Cemetery on Wednesday, the coffin being of polished elm with brass fittings, bearing the following inscription: “Robert Albion King, died Dec. 23^rd, 09, aged 85 years.” A number of floral tributes were sent by relatives and friends.

North Wilts Herald, Friday, December 31, 1909.

Elizabeth King died in March 1908 at 166 Beatrice Street. Her funeral took place on March 6 when she was buried in grave plot B2820. Her husband Robert Albion King died in December the following year aged 85 years at 33 Country Road. He was buried on December 29 with his wife. Their daughter Olive Magdalene Manners is buried with them. She died in December 1926 aged 37.

The redoubtable Susan Legg

Those embarking on their family history research are always told to talk to older relatives first; to ask questions and make a note of family ‘legends’ which often contain valuable information. When Marilyn Beale began her research there were plenty of stories still circulating within her large family.

I recently had the good fortune to meet Marilyn, who I am sure many Swindonians will know, especially those who live in Penhill.

Marilyn moved to Penhill as a young, newly married woman and has spent more than 50 years volunteering in her local community. Beginning with a gardening club and then involvement with the Penhill Forum, the Seven Fields Conservation Group and the Penhill Community Orchard, Marilyn loves her neck of the woods.

We met to talk about Rodbourne where Marilyn grew up. Marilyn is an avid reader and has a great curiosity and interest in history. We talked about the past and her redoubtable grandmother Susan Legg born in 1868 – imagine the changes she would have experienced in her lifetime. She had lived through the reign of five monarchs and had survived the deprivations of two world wars.

Susan was the daughter of agricultural labourer Job Simpkins and his wife Elizabeth. She grew up in Purton and at the age of 14 was working as a ‘nurse girl’ at Dudgmoor Farm, Cricklade for farmer Charles Kennett, his wife Agnes and their two young daughters. In 1890 she married Richard Legg, a general labourer and they went on to have a large family of 13 children. Susan would survive at least three of her children. A daughter Mabel died in 1918 aged 11. Her son George was killed in action during the First World War and is remembered on the La Ferte-Sous-Jourarre Memorial in France. He was 20 years old. Another daughter Elizabeth Jane died in 1921 aged 30 of tuberculosis.

Marilyn remembered hearing stories about her resourceful grandmother who steered her family through financial vicissitude. A go-to woman who those in search of a reliable servant would consult as she always knew of a good, hardworking girl looking for a job.

Susan died at 31 Hawthorne Avenue in 1951 aged 82 years. She was buried on February 26 in Radnor Street Cemetery in grave plot C3544 which she shares with her two daughters – Mabel and Elizabeth Jane and her husband Richard who died aged 70 in 1934.

Marilyn continues to volunteer in her community, serving as a Parish Councillor for the Penhill Ward where she attends the Leisure & Recreation; Environment & Planning and Community Wellbeing committees, which pretty much describes her life’s work.

Susan Legg

Richard Legg – Susan’s husband

Mabel (standing) and Annie Legg

Elizabeth Jane Legg

Susan Legg pictured in later life

Ellis Herbert Pritchett – architect

Ellis Herbert Pritchett was born in Chiswick in 1861, the son of Robert Taylor Pritchett and his wife Louisa. His father is a most interesting character who at the time of Ellis’s birth was a rifle manufacturer for the War Department employing 150 men and two boys. He later went on to be a water colourist.

Ellis was articled to the prestigious Scottish architect Charles Forster Hayward from 1880-1884. He then took a year off to travel through France and Belgium before setting up in his own practice in 1885.

He appears to have arrived in Swindon in the late 1880s and at the time of the 1891 census he was living in Ivy Cottage, Purton with his mother and a little niece, Johanna C. Taylor who was just a year old.

He became partners with Charles and Ernest Bishop and the firm of Bishop and Pritchett was established as auctioneers and estate agents by 1893, a year after he married Mary Campbell Maclean.

Pritchett was Chief Officer of the Swindon Fire brigade and like so many of these professional men he was a freemason, joining the Royal Sussex Lodge of Emulation in 1890 and Gooch Lodge the following year.

Among the buildings Pritchett designed was the Euclid Street High Elementary School and several houses on The Sands and Bath Road.

Ellis died suddenly on March 16, 1905 at Poole and his body was brought back to Swindon where he was buried on March 22. His wife Mary Campbell Blythe (she later remarried) and her parents Dr John Campbell and Ellen Maclean are buried in this large, double plot E8371 and E8372.