Tag: Turner Street

Thomas and Eliza Uzzell – continuing the family story

Today I am continuing the Uzzell family story with Thomas Henry Uzzell the son of that ‘country rogue’ David Uzzell and his wife Fanny.

By 1901 both David and Fanny and their son Thomas Henry were living in Swindon. Thomas had been here since 1897 when he married Eliza Pamela Fisher. The couple lived first at 23 Turner Street and then at Cambria Bridge Road before moving to 6 Morley Street. In 1911 Morley Street comprised more than 35 red brick terrace houses, home to railwaymen and their families and looked a little different then to now.

Their first child, Thomas Frederick Emmanuel died aged 15 months old at 23 Turner Street. He was buried in grave plot C814, a babies grave; one month old Charles Adams had been buried there just two days earlier. But, although this grave was never purchased by the Uzzell family it did end up the burial place of not only Thomas Henry but three more of their children.

Youngest daughter Mary May Doreen Uzzell was buried there on May 23, 1912 aged 11 months. The following year Thomas Henry himself died aged 39 years and was buried on April 12, 1913.

In 1919 David Henry Uzzell aged 20 was buried on October 22 with his father and two infant siblings. The last burial took place in 1938, that of Joseph Eli Uzzell, Thomas and Eliza’s 4th child. Just two of their children survived to old age. George William died in 1977 in his 70s and Lizzie Kathleen who married Arthur Ponting and died in 1987 in her 80s.

In 1919 Eliza went on to marry again. Her second husband was Thomas Choules but her home remained at 6 Morley Street until the end of her life. Eliza died in 1943 and was buried in grave plot B1966 in Radnor Street Cemetery where she lies with Thomas Choules.

Turner Street

Cambria Place cottages

You may like to catch up with some other Uzzell family stories:

David Uzzell – a bit of a country rogue

Maurice Uzzell, Louisa and little Lily

The Uzzell family and the Ball and Chain

Emily Lovelock and her two husbands

One of the first guided cemetery walks I went on was at Arnos Vale in Bristol where the guide introduced us to a ‘husband sandwich’; a man buried with his two wives. As an inexperienced ‘apprentice’ I was slightly shocked (especially by the term), but since then I have come across numerous ‘sandwiches.’ People are ever pragmatic and burials were expensive, making for some unlikely grave companions. Death is a great conciliator.

Emily was born in 1869 in the parish of Lydiard Tregoze, the daughter of George and Martha Lovelock. George was an agricultural labourer and the family lived at Flaxlands Cottages. George most probably worked at Flaxlands Farm, then owned by Viscount Bolingbroke of Lydiard House.

Emily’s childhood was a rural one; Lydiard Tregoze was then out in the sticks, four miles from the industrial town centre of New Swindon. She married Albert James Fry on June 8, 1889 at the ancient parish church of St. Mary’s situated in the parkland next to Lydiard House.

But by 1891 Emily was living in busy Swindon at 22 Carfax Street with her husband James and baby daughter Florence. In 1901 James and Emily were living at 25 Turner Street. James worked as a rivetter in the GWR Works and the couple had five children ranging in age between 9 months and 11 years.

In 1911 the family were still at 25 Turner Street. On the 1911 census returns women were required to include details of their marriage and we can see that James and Emily had been married for 21 years and they had 7 children of whom two had sadly died. We also know more about the accommodation in which they lived – 5 rooms, not counting the scullery, landing, lobby, closet or bathroom.

As we can see from this headstone, Albert James Fry died in 1915, by which time the couple had been married 26 years.

Two years later Emily married her recently widowed near neighbour James William Covey and moved down the road to live with him at number 21 Turner Street. Emily had a long second marriage as well. When James Covey died in 1942 they had been married for 25 years.

Emily’s two husbands were buried together and when she died in 1951 aged 81 years she joined them in grave plot B3321, to spend eternity together, amicably.