Who would live in a house like this?

Come and take a peep behind the shutters and find out what was going on in these desirable residences.

Frampton Villa, Devizes Road.

Read all about William Edwin Morris – a man of inexhaustible energy

The Limes, Croft Road

Read all about Mrs Ormond passed away two years ago

Mannington Farm

Read all about The Old Congregational Church

Oxford House, Victoria Road

Read all about No Place Like Home

William Ormond – Swindon solicitor

This fulsome account of the life of William Ormond pretty much says it all. However, in 1890 William and his wife Georgina were at the centre of the much publicised case of their daughter Marion and the scandalous Rev Newton Ebenezer Howe, Vicar at Christ Church, which you may like to read here.

Death of a Swindon Solicitor

Mr W. Ormond passes away at the age of 82

A well known and highly esteemed gentleman, who practised as a solicitor in Swindon for many years, has just passed away, in the person of Mr William Ormond, at No. 1. Devizes Road, or, as it is now known, Croft Road. The deceased gentleman, who attained the advanced age of 82 years on the 1^st of last August, had been in failing health for some time past. Still he was able to get out and about, and displayed almost wonderful vitality right up to the end.

About three weeks ago, however, weaknesses incident to old age became more and more pronounced and eventually Mr Ormond was compelled to take to his bed, although even then he expressed his intention of getting up and attending Church only last Sunday, when he was obviously in an unfit condition to do so. The wiser counsels of those about him prevailed, and Mr Ormond remained at home. His condition became perceptibly worse, and at times he exhibited a tendency towards delirium and was at other times oblivious to things about him, bordering on unconsciousness. On Thursday it was observed that the end was not far off, and at 6.50 this morning Mr Ormond passed peacefully away.

The deceased gentleman was born at Wantage, in Berkshire, on the 19^th August, 1826, and it is a fact worth recording that, until old age compelled him to lay up, he had never, to the knowledge of his family spent one day of illness in bed.

In the month of October, 1849 he went to Abingdon, where he settled down as a solicitor, working up a good practice, which he continued to hold until 1855.

In March of that year he removed to Swindon, entering into partnership with Mr J.C. Townsend, and taking offices in High Street. Many years after he was in practice by himself, with offices in Victoria Street.

In May, 1858, Mr Ormond married, at North Road, Cheshire, Georgina Mary Lamprey, formerly of Marchwood, Southampton, and the newly married pair, after the honeymoon, returned to Swindon. Eight children were born to them – one son and seven daughters.

The son served his country in South Africa. He became a Lieutenant of the Imperial Light Horse, and died a soldier’s death at the hands of the Boers at Naaupoort on Jan. 5^th, 1901.

Of the seven daughters, four are living. The second daughter died in 1861; and the youngest daughter, Winifred, who became the wife of Mr Frank Chapman, of the firm of Messrs Spencer, Chapman, and Co., solicitors of London, died on the 21^st May, 1907.

Mrs Ormond passed away two years ago.

The deceased gentleman never took any active interest in public affairs. He was somewhat of a retiring disposition, and was highly esteemed and greatly liked by all who enjoyed the privilege of his acquaintance.

He retired from active professional work about seven years ago. The deceased gentleman was one of those who performed many acts of real charity in a quiet and unostentatious manner – even in a secret. In a word, he delighted in doing good by stealth as many can testify. The last striking example of this was in his recent gift of £400 to the Parish Church for a Men’s Club, which was referred to as recently as Wednesday night by Canon Estcourt at the Parish tea.

The funeral will probably take place on Tuesday, and the family desire, in deference to the deceased gentleman’s expressed wish, that no flowers should be sent.

The Swindon Advertiser, Friday, November 27, 1908.

Mrs Ormond passed away two years ago

William Ormond, a solicitor, and his wife Georgina lived at a property called the Limes for more than 45 years. The road in which it stands has been variously known as Short Hedge, Horse Fair Street, Devizes Road and is now called Croft Road.

In the late 1880s Marion Ormond was at the centre of the scandalous case of the Christ Church vicar Rev. Newton Ebenezer Howe. Marion 23, one of Georgina and William Ormond’s large family (seven daughters and a son) was a Sunday School teacher and a district visitor.

Rev. Howe, a married man with a young son, arrived in Swindon to take up the post of vicar at Christ Church in 1887. Trouble began almost immediately. In 1889 there was a mishandling of money for the various Church and National School charities of which he was a trustee. Then came the accusations of misconduct involving a church volunteer, Marion Ormond.

The accusations against Howe intensified, yet despite all this Marion continued to visit the vicar and his wife, until eventually it was just the Vicar she was seeing. They began to meet in secret but they had been spotted.

On June 21, 1890 a notice of inhibition (an inquiry into the conduct of the vicar) was served on Howe while the matter was investigated.

For three consecutive evenings protesters gathered outside the vicarage, shouting and throwing missiles. Of course, Howe had made sure he was out of town and Marion had also left Swindon and was staying in Reading.

A public inquiry took place at the town hall in Old Swindon on August 15, 1890 where Howe was charged with adultery and improper behaviour. The hearing took place in a packed courtroom and lasted 5 hours. Marion was called to give evidence during which she became very distressed and had to leave the courtroom to compose herself. Her letter to the court defending Howe was read out.

Following the hearing Georgina submitted a letter to the local press in support of her daughter.

The following letter has been addressed to the Editor of the Devizes and Wilts Advertiser by Mrs Georgina Mary Ormond:

Sir, – In the absence of a word in favour of my daughter Marion in Mr Bucknill’s address to the Commission of Friday the 15^th inst I hope you will allow me space in your paper to state in justice to her that she is not the immodest girl she may have appeared. Her visits to the Vicarage were always made to Mrs Howe, by whom, against her parents’ expressed wishes, they were deliberately encouraged, as well as her visits to Mr. Howe at the Vestry room, and the girl’s disobedience no doubt paved the way for all that followed. Mr. Howe represented himself as a cruelly persecuted man, and my daughter believed it her duty to cheer and defend him, trusting him entirely, and utterly unsuspicious of evil in his attentions to her.

The letter read in Court was written impulsively in the hope of freeing Mr. and Mrs. Howe from the imputation circulated against him. In order to make some reparation to her family for the disgrace she has brought on them, and to atone in some measure for her deceit and disobedience, she wished to tell all at the enquiry, and did her best, but the sight of Mr. Howe’s face with its agonised expression (which she saw whenever she looked at the counsel addressing her) so unnerved her that it is hardly to be wondered at if at the moment she failed to give the concluding details of her evidence. Moreover, she had good reason to believe that that part of her evidence would be allowed to be given in writing. In the hope that your readers may see in these details some extenuation of my daughter’s fault, I have troubled you with them.

Devizes and Wilts Advertiser, August 28, 1890.

The case was referred to a Consistorial Court at the Chapter House of Bristol Cathedral where on December 12, 1890 Howe pleaded guilty to all the charges. The Bishop suspended Howe from all duties for 3 years and he had to pay the costs of the hearing.

But amazingly this wasn’t the end of the Rev. Howe. In late 1893 he returned to Swindon where he began another affair and moved Miss Mary Roskyll into the vicarage. He was delivered with a second notice of inhibition and eventually served a 12 month prison sentence with hard labour.

Marion’s last address was the Old Haslings Hotel, Warninglid, Sussex. She died on February 25, 1942 at the Haywards Heath Hospital.

Her mother Georgina died at her home on May 29, 1906 and was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery in plot E8626 on June 1. William Ormond was buried in the same plot following his death two years later.