Swindon in the Past Lane

When Swindon Corporation bought the old Goddard mansion house and 52 acres of parkland, it also acquired the ruins of Holy Rood Church, the town's original parish church.   In 1947 the borough surveyor reported to Town Clerk, David Murray John on the sorry state of the burial ground and chapel at The Lawn.  Many of the tombs had been vandalised with the coverings and side slabs removed while the sheet lead covering on the Goddard family vault had been taken. "In the chapel itself, a number of plaques have been wrenched from the walls and a hole has been cut in the outer wall on the North Side," wrote the inspector.  Sadly even the stone font had been smashed and scattered around the Chapel. It is believed that a church had stood on the site of Holy Rood since Norman times but the earliest mention of one dates from the 12th century when it was given to the Augustinian priory of Southwick by the Pont de l'Arche family. Alongside the burials of Swindon worthi...

How many people coming across the name Goddard Vilett would assume this is probably a man? Well I did at first and very nearly overlooked yet another important woman in Swindon's history. I found a marriage entry dated 1710 in the Holy Rood parish registers when William Horne married Mrs Goddard Vilett, and I wondered if William was marrying a widow still using her deceased husband’s name, but no, that wasn’t the case.  The South Marston parish registers record that 'Mr Thomas Vilett & Mrs Elleanor Goddard were married December 11th, 1681.'   Their daughter Goddard Vilett was baptised at the same church on June 24, 1683, but obviously grew up in Swindon where her Vilett family lived. Eleanor's branch of the Goddard family settled in South Marston and the parish records include the baptism of James Goddard's eight children between 1657 and 1673 with Eleanor (Ellen) baptised in 1661. Sadly, Thomas and Eleanor's marriage was a short one as she died ...

In which I search for William Hall, who named his Swindon home Longford Villa after his Irish birthplace, and ended up in Jefferies Land. The inscription on an intricately carved Celtic cross in a prominent place in the Christ Church burial ground provided enough information to start my research. Examples of free standing Celtic crosses have been discovered in Ireland dating back to the 7th century, so it came as no surprise that this memorial was for an Irishman. William Hall was born on September 8, 1815. I found the first reference to him living in Swindon in the online UK Railway Employment Records 1833-1956 when he entered the employment of the Great Western Railway on January 1, 1846 as a clerk. By 1881 he has climbed the professional and social ladder. He describes himself as 'Accountant Loco Dept of GWRailway' and he now lives in an impressive property along The Sands (Bath Road) which he names Longford Villa after his birthplace. But as regular readers of thi...

Standing in a secluded space in the Lawn, the chancel is all that remains of Swindon's original parish church, Holy Rood. The foundations of the church date back to the thirteenth century with a makeover and rebuild in the 1748 when a brick built tower was added. However, by the mid nineteenth church the old parish church was proving too small for Swindon's growing population and by 1851 work had begun on a new building. Much of the fabric of the old church was sold off and it is believed that the Goddard's gazebo and ice house was constructed using recycled materials. Today the building is seldom open to the public but you can join us for a guided tour of the church and graveyard on Sunday July 23 at 2 pm. I have been studying the Holy Rood parish registers which survive from 1623. It was Henry VIII's right hand man, Thomas Cromwell, who implemented the introduction of a register recording the baptisms, marriages and burials in every parish. Although few of...

Learning about our local history was a walk in the park with the Prime Theatre production Painting the Past. Painting the Past tells the story of Sir John St John 1 st Baronet whose spirit is trapped at Lydiard Park unable to let go of the pain and loss of his life. The young time travelling painters who ‘swish, brush, etch and sketch’ celebrate the art he left behind, informing him that in 2019 people will come to admire the monuments and paintings in the church and learn about his family. There was a courtly Elizabethan dance on the front lawn and a ghostly Civil War re-enactment in the woods and my favourite scene - the History and Hers rap about the St John women who appear on the polyptych in the church. The well-researched and historically accurate production was performed in the parkland as part of the HLF funded St Mary’s Church Conservation Project. The young actors gave a mature, thoughtful and fun performance. Painting the Past deserves to be seen again and th...

Today marks the anniversary of Emmeline Pankhurst's birthday, although the date is still up for debate. Emmeline always celebrated her birthday on July 14 aligning her arrival with that other revolutionary happening, Bastille Day. It is more generally accepted that she was born in Manchester on July 15, 1858, the second of Robert and Jane Goulden's ten children. Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline's involvement in socialist politics began in the 1890s when she joined the fledgling Independent Labour Park with her husband Richard Pankhurst. Her conviction that the only way women could improve their situation, still very much one of subordination to men across every stratum of society, was to campaign for the parliament vote. In 1903 the widowed Emmeline and her daughter Christabel founded the Women's Social and Political Union in Manchester and three years later moved their organisation down to headquarters in London. Mrs Pankhurst under police escort On May 19...