Swindon in the Past Lane

When Ambrose Goddard married Sarah Williams it involved a lot of legal man hours and a very large document. The Marriage Settlement dated 12 August 1776 reads like a tour of eighteenth century Swindon with some very familiar place names, even now more than 240 years later. Ambrose Goddard released in trust to his kinsman Ambrose Awdry and Charles Penruddocke, Wiltshire neighbour and political colleague, the manors of Over Swindon and Nether Swindon and parcels of land called Walcot, Tismead and Oakus grounds. Also included were messuages (house and land) in Wanborough and Stanton, Westlecott Farm in Wroughton and the tolls of markets and fairs in Swindon. Sarah's father, the Rev. Thomas Williams was no slouch in the property stakes either and in an accompanying document released properties in Carmarthenshire in trust to Owen Brigslock. Ambrose and Sarah married at St James's, Westminster on August 17, 1776. Sarah was 26 years old and Ambrose 45. The couple had three son...

Priscilla Goddard was born in the village of Cliffe Pypard and baptised at St Peter's Church in June 1765. The entry in the register reads: Priscilla Daughter of Edward Goddard Esq & Joanna his Wife was born Sund: March 31. The Goddard family acquired the Manor of Cliffe Pypard in 1530 when it was sold to John Goddard of Aldbourne. The story goes that the Goddard family acted as rector presented to the living, but that Edward (Priscilla's father) was so dissatisfied with the incumbent cleric that he took holy orders himself and in 1780 presented himself for the job. Priscilla probably received an education appropriate for the daughter of the Lord of the Manor, either at home by a governess and then tutors or at a private school for young ladies. I can only guess at the events of Priscilla's life because - here I go again - there is no written evidence! She probably received music lessons and painting lessons. She could probably play the piano and sing and no dou...

You know you’ve got a bad case of this family history research malarkey when you spend hours trying to trace someone who died more than 280 years ago and who isn’t even a member of your family. I have recently set myself the task of researching all the women from the Goddard family called Priscilla (l know, it seemed a good idea at the time!) I began with Priscilla D’Oyley who brought the name into the family. Next, I traced her daughter Priscilla Sedgwick. All reasonably straightforward and very interesting. Then I came across a will written by Priscilla Vilett and proved in 1834. This will be nice and easy, I thought, coming across a whole bunch of names I recognised. ‘Priscilla daughter of Thos Vilett Esq & Mary [formerly Goddard] was baptised on March 18, 1754’ at Holy Rood Church, Swindon, according to the parish registers. Priscilla was one of quite a small family for the time and when her father made his will, he mentions just three children - a son Thomas...

How many women are there in the Goddard family called Priscilla? Well I can tell you - loads! Sadly few of them left us any evidence of their lives bar an entry in the parish registers, except for the woman I think of as Priscilla the First. The name originated with Priscilla D'Oyley who married Edward Goddard on August 13, 1611, in the parish church of Stadhampton, five miles north of Wallingford in South Oxfordshire. Priscilla was born in 1593, the daughter of John D'Oyley and his wife Ursula. Edward and Priscilla lived at homes in Inglesham and Box where Priscilla died in 1681. There is a memorial to the Goddard couple in St Thomas a Becket Church, Box. The Goddard family weathered the turmoil of the Civil War but like the St John family at Lydiard Park, they struggled with split loyalties. Edward was a Parliamentarian while his elder brother Thomas, Lord of the Manor of Swindon, was a Royalist and like the St Johns the war both divided yet protected the family and...

Today it is de rigueur for the about-to-be-married couple to circulate a gift list, but few would publish the results in the local paper.  Yet this was common  practice  among the great and the good of the 19 th  century and when the Goddard heir married he did just that. Captain Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, second eldest son of Ambrose Lethbridge Goddard married Mrs Eugenia Sutton, widow of Alexander George Sutton, at the Parish Church, Chippenham on June 1, 1895.  The wedding, described as being of ‘a very quiet character,’ was performed by Captain Goddard’s brother, the Rev. C.F. Goddard assisted by the Rev Canon Rich, Vicar of Chippenham and the Rev Canon Mayne, Rector of Christian Malford.  Following the wedding breakfast at The Angel Hotel, Chippenham the couple left for a honeymoon in Lynton, Devon. While the wedding might have been a low key event, the presents were in a different league altogether and were described in the Advertiser as ‘...

Regulars at the Southbrook Inn may be unaware that their favourite watering hole was once a dairy farm.  In 1986 the 18 th century building received a Grade II listing but a farm has stood on this site for much longer. When the property came up for sale in 1763 Thomas Goddard, Lord of the Manor of Swindon, was ready to sign on the dotted line, having informed his attorney, Mr Thomas Athawes, that he was ‘very well satisfied with the Title of Southbrook Farm.’ The Abstract of Title over which Thomas Goddard had cast his discerning eye dated from 1669 and is available for consultation at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham.  This document provides a detailed history of the property and its various owners and occupiers across nearly 100 years. The property in Rodbourne Cheney was included in the marriage settlement of local couple Thomas Richmond alias Webb and Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Sir William Thomson in 1690. By 1763 the p...

Following the initial building boom during the 1840-60s, development of New Swindon pretty much ground to a halt.   The reason given was a slump in the railway industry in the 1870s and the scarcity of building land in the centre of town due to the Goddard’s reluctance to sell their land. Another area of prime building land, the Rolleston estate, owned by William Vilett Rolleston, was tied up in the Court of Chancery for more than ten years.  It was not until 1885 that parcels of land came onto the market and were rapidly snapped up. Old Swindon jeweller Hubert J. Deacon bought the area on which Deacon Street was built and named in his honour.   Construction began in 1890 when builders William Crombey, a former engine driver from Durham, and John Horsell, who lived in neighbouring Commercial Road, got the ball rolling.   They soon began work on streets that would eventually be named Curtis, Crombey and Deacon Streets. At the time of t...

By the bandstand in Town Gardens is the perfect place to play, as the children pictured here reveal.  Following heavy early morning rainfall the sun came out and turned the bandstand into a shimmering playground for young and old alike. Three friends attract an admirer as they sit and eat their packed lunch and trade at the kiosk is brisk - no brown bread left when I order my cheese and onion toastie. In 1892 the Old Swindon Local Board paid £700 for a seven acre plot of worked out Purbeck limestone quarry between Bath Road and Westlecot Road owned by the Goddard family, long time Lords of the Manor.  Designed by local architect W.H. Read work was completed within 18 months and Town Gardens opened with a flourish in May 1894; the inaugural ceremony an exercise in Victorian pomp and self congratulation. Led by the 2nd Wilts Volunteer Band a procession of 19th century Swindon worthies marched from the Market Square to the new gardens by way of Newport Street and Springfiel...