Swindon in the Past Lane

Radnor Street Cemetery contains the graves of more than 100 service men from both world wars.  Men, who like Battle of Britain pilot Harold Morley Starr, performed incredible acts of bravery.  Then there are others whose sacrifice has long been forgotten, such as James Shopland, a young civil engineer. James was born in Purton in 1873, the eldest child of James Rew Shopland, also a civil engineer and his wife Laura. By 1900 James had struck out on his own and moved to the Southampton area.  On July 6 he was at the Southampton Sewage Works at Chapel, although it was pointed out at the inquest that he had nothing to do with the works but was assisting in the rescue. Three labourers working in the press house at the Sewage Works had attempted to free a blockage in a lime vat, firstly by ramming a rod down from the top, the usual way of clearing it.  However, when this didn’t work one of them went down into the ejector chamber and tried to free the pipe by undoing it....

In 1881 the population of New Swindon stood at nearly 20,000 and was rising. In just forty years building had spread out of the railway village, first along Westcott Place and then beyond the railway line to the north of the town. With the parish church of St Mark's struggling to meet the spiritual needs of its ever increasing congregation, another church was desperately needed, but the coffers were empty. Undeterred Canon Maurice Ponsonby stepped into the pulpit to give an inspirational Whitsunday sermon on June 9, 1889. Taking as his text Genesis Chapter 6, verse 14, he told his congregation to 'build me an ark' - and that's exactly what they did. Meetings held on two consecutive Wednesdays in June soon saw a band of sixty volunteers step forward. The men were rapidly organised into three groups headed by Cresser, Hayward and Wager, three carpenters and joiners employed in the GWR works. Work began immediately on a plot of land in Ashford Road gifted by...