Swindon in the Past Lane

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has recently erected new signage at Radnor Street Cemetery where work continues apace to commemorate the centenary of the Great War. The Community Payback Team is doing a marvelous job clearing overgrown areas and revealing gravestones long hidden while in the chapel boarded up windows have been replaced with Perspex. Unfortunately work on a small damaged area of the roof, promised by Swindon Borough Council some months ago, has still to be completed. The Swindon in the Great War team will begin guided tours of the cemetery next month with local military historian Mark Sutton talking about Swindon men who fought and fell while I will be looking at some of the other memorials and the stories behind the families. In August local historical societies will come together in to produce an exhibition in the cemetery chapel. Dates for your diary: Thursday, May 22 - An Evening Walk through Radnor Street Cemetery - 6.30 pm.  Saturday June...

During the 1930s building contractor E.H. Bradley was averaging more than 300 houses a year - and they also built Avebury stone circle as well! In 1939 when marmalade millionaire Alexander Keiller, owner of Avebury Manor, set about renovating the henge, he employed Swindon builder Edwin Bradley to reconstruct the Neolithic stone circle. Not the biggest project the firm would ever undertake but arguably the most prestigious. Apparently Keiller was to complain that he paid the bill while Bradley's enjoyed the glory. Edwin Henry Bradley was born at Iffley Road, Cowley in Oxford in 1865, the youngest of William and Helen Bradley's three sons. The son of a bricklayer, Edwin followed his father into the construction, but it was his marriage to milliner Caroline Hubert in 1894 that was to kick start his ambition. Edwin recognised the building opportunities in neighbouring Swindon and in 1896 moved his growing young family to a small terrace house in Quarry Road where h...

Today in the East End of London a group of dedicated people are trying to save the Smithfield General Market Hall - 'Behold the winged lion on the Holborn Viaduct looking down protectively upon the Smithfield General Market,' writes the Gentle Author on www.spitalfieldslife.com. 'as - over at the Guildhall the Public Enquiry that will decide the fate of this magnificent building designed by Horace Jones, the architect of Tower Bridge, reaches the end of its second week.' Read more about this threatened building by clicking the link - now read about Swindon's former market buildings, which sadly have also been lost. In the 1840s Old Swindon had a thriving shopping centre.  Blacksmiths, butchers and brewers rubbed shoulders alongside the Strange family's drapers store in the High Street and Sadler Bristow's ironmongers in Wood Street. But in the developing settlement at the bottom of the hill facilities for the early settlers in New Swindon were d...

Today is Jon Ratcliffe's last day behind the enquiry desk in Local Studies at Swindon Central Library as the busy department is reduced to one full time post and one part time. Jon has worked with the Local Studies team for two years, one year volunteering and one year as a member of staff. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and the many visitors to this fantastic archive who have benefited from his knowledge of local and family history research. His area of expertise has been the architecture of our town, both old and not so old and he has contributed some stunning photographs to the library online archive. When the latest round of restructuring hit the library we were assured there would be no further cuts to front line staff. However, Local Studies has been hit under the guise of back room efficiencies. I for one am not convinced by this argument as the immediate impact is a reduction in the number of hours the enquiry desk will be able to open. Visitors needing h...

Ironically the dedication on the official Swindon Roll of Honour reads 'Their Glory Shall Not Be Blotted Out, Their Name Liveth For Evermore.' Whilst it might not be exactly blotted out, the magnificent memorial lies hidden behind curtains in the dance studio at Swindon's Town Hall and today is seldom seen. The memorial was erected by public subscription and in the same spirit the Swindon in the Great War committee launched its own fund raising memorial project 'Adopt a Tommy.' You are invited to adopt one of the servicemen whose name appears on the memorial. For £10 you will receive a certificate based on the one the returning soldiers, sailors and airmen received and details of that man's service. I've 'adopted' Edward William Reginald Bevan. Why? He is no relation, but I share his surname and because he served at sea. My husband comes from Milford Haven, a small former fishing town on the Pembrokeshire coast. Generations of his ...

Debt collecting might not be an obvious career choice for genteel ladies but by 1915 the old social order was on the way out as women took to the streets demanding equality and the vote. In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst established the Women’s Social and Political Union at her home in Nelson Street, Manchester and at Oxford House, 57 Victoria Road, Swindon three sisters established their own financial business. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales set up in 1880, discussed admitting females in 1895.  However it would be 1919 before the first woman became a member. Rosa, Mabel and Florence Clarke were three of William Clarke’s four daughters. At the time of the 1881 census the family lived at 17 Wellington Street.  William worked as an Iron Turner in the GWR Works, but he was an ambitious, intelligent and determined young man. Ten years later William had moved his family up the social ladder and up the hill to a house in Victoria Road where he ...

When Albert Rebbeck travelled home to Wiltshire in 1910 the journey had been 40 years in the planning. Albert Edward Rebbeck was born at Lockeridge, near Marlborough in 1857, the fifth child of Cornelius, a land surveyor and his wife Caroline Knight. The Rebbeck Wiltshire family roots can be traced back to the 17th century but Caroline’s family appears to be more adventurous. In 1861 her brother James was living in India and before too long three of her sons would also fly the nest. In 1863 eldest son James Knight Rebbeck joined his uncle in Calcutta. Six years later and the couple’s next son Frank, then aged about 15 took off for America, followed by Albert. The two boys early period in America is difficult to navigate. It appears they may even have travelled first to Canada as in 1871 the census returns for Quebec include fourteen year old Albert Rebbick, born in England and working for Dominique Fox. In 1883 Frank married Mary Jane Bree and spent his later work...