Tag: Rolleston Arms

Charles Edward Iles – licensee of the Rolleston Hotel

Today the Rolleston Arms is looking very smart with a new coat of paint and new signage. John Horsell, responsible for developing the new Rolleston Estate in 1890, was the first landlord. Charles Iles was landlord for more than 10 years until his death in 1938.

The Late Mr C.E. Iles

Funeral of a Swindon Licensee

The funeral of Mr Charles Edward Iles, licensee of the Rolleston Hotel, Swindon, who died after a long illness, on 21 March, took place last Thursday afternoon. The service at St Paul’s Church was conducted by the Vicar, the Rev. C.F. Harman, who also officiated at the interment in Radnor street cemetery.

Mr Iles, who leaves a widow, was a native of Swindon, and was 46 years of age. As a youth he was apprenticed as a boilermaker in the GWR Works, and served in the Royal Navy as an artificer from 1914 until 1920 when he was invalided out of the service.

He was licensee of the Foresters, Stroud, for three years, before taking over the Rolleston Hotel, where he has been for the last 12 years. Mr Iles was a member of the Western District United Service Lodge No. 2258 and Chapter Eliot.

The chief mourners were: Mrs Eva Iles (widow), Mr Charles E. Iles (father), Mrs Lawrence (aunt), Miss T. Gascoyne (friend), Mrs D. Kent (sister in law), Miss C. Warren (sister in law) Mrs Wenban (aunt), Mr A. Gerring (cousin), Mr H. Kent (brother in law), Mrs H. Kent and Mrs W. Harris (sisters in law), Mr Eli Mort, Mr J. Coster and Mr Harry Waters (uncles), Mr B. Menham, Mr W. Gascoyne, Mrs W. Gascoyne, Mr Johnson, Mr Cavel (representing Golden Carp Angling Association), Mr and Mrs C. Salmon, Mr Graham Davies, Mr Hayball, Mr J. Spackman and Mr N. Davies (representing Swindon Licensed Victuallers’ Association), Mr H.A. Reeves, Mr G. Beburn, Mr G. Wakefield, Mr F. Burchell, Mr Glass, Mr R. Matthews (representing Cirencester Brewery Co. Ltd.), Mr Halfpenny, Mr Charlie Baxter, Mr Watson and Mr Gilbey (representing A.S.E.).

Funeral arrangements were carried out by Messrs A.E. Smith and Son, 24, Gordon road, Swindon.

North Wilts Herald, Friday, 1 April, 1938.

Charles Edward Iles was buried in grave plot A352 on March 26, 1938. This was previously a public, children’s grave and two burials took place in the first year the cemetery was opened. Three year old Tom Wootton was buried here on October 20, 1881 and the following day Violet Lilian Murray aged 2 was buried in the same plot. The Iles family purchased the grave plot more than 50 years later when Charles died. His wife Eva remarried in 1941 and was buried with him when she died in 1979.

You may also like to read:

John Horsell – builder and licenced victualler

Cottell Brothers- marking time

The re-imagined story …

I once asked my pa if I could have a watch for my birthday. After a brief silence he replied: “Isn’t the hooter loud enough for you lad?”

The Works hooter punctuated our days, its blast heard across the town, even out into the countryside as far as Lydiard Park. Old Lord Bolingbroke fought a long battle with the GWR in his attempt to have it silenced. He said it disturbed his sleep. It disturbed ours as well – that was the whole point of it!

My heart’s desire as a fourteen year old was to own a pocket fob watch. I would wear it in my waistcoat pocket attached by a gold chain. Before you scoff, I did have a waistcoat, all of us lads did. It was a part of the Works unofficial uniform in my day; not the old fashioned white ducks nor the boiler suits that came much later. No, we wore trousers, a jacket and a waistcoat – and a cap, mustn’t forget the cap.

The clock on the Rolleston Arms keeps poor time these days. I’ve just checked it against my pocket watch and its running five minutes slow. That would never have happened in Mr Cottell’s day.

The facts …

The Cottell family have left an enduring legacy with their clocks and watches, which occasionally appear for sale online, but unravelling their burial history has been less straightforward.

Image published courtesy of Local Studies, Swindon Central Library.

Buried in plot A174 is James Hall Cottell and his wife Ann. The family does not appear to have a long association with Swindon nor the clock and watch making industry come to that. James worked as a clerical assistant most of his life, later becoming a brewer’s manager. He died in February 1891 at Bedminster, Bristol. His father, James Cottell, was a Captain in the Royal Marines, as is mentioned on the headstone – see below.

Joseph’s son Arthur William Joseph Cottell pops up in Swindon on the 1881 census living at 32 Carfax Street. He is working as a Railway Clerk as is his eldest son also named Arthur William Joseph. The younger children are Charles 15, Lydia 12, Walter 10 and Frederick 7 who are all still at school.

By 1891 the census reveals that the family are now living in Regent Street where Charles and his younger brother Walter are both working as Watchmakers & Jewellers.

When Mary and Arthur died in 1892 and 1897 respectively they were buried in grave plot E8150.

Their son Charles James of clock and watch making fame died in 1916 and was buried with his grandparents in plot A174. His name was not added to the headstone, presumably because there was no room on the front.

Their only daughter Lydia married first Henry Herbert Oswald and secondly Frederick William Roger Williams. She died in September 1925 in Clapham Park. She is not buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.

Youngest son Frederick died in Swindon in 1953 but he is not buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.

Eldest son Arthur died in Worthing, West Sussex in 1958 and he is not buried in Radnor Street Cemetery either.

Arthur and Mary’s third son, Walter Henry, an engineer, died in 1968 in South Africa where he had lived for a number of years, apparently having forsaken the clock and watch making business, too.

For a family who once marked time in Swindon their individual deaths passed with little notice.