Sam James

I first met Sam James when he was three. I was a play group assistant at Lower Shaw Farm and so was his mum, Madeline.  He enjoyed climbing and exploring – and painting, although we had to watch him as he liked to lick the paintbrushes. 

He’s come a long way since then and twenty years later I caught up with him at his Swindon home. Sam, who suffers from cerebral palsy, is the eldest of six children. He attended Robert le Kynge Primary School, transferring to Commonweal School, and then going on to Cirencester College and graduating from the Royal Holloway University of London.

In conversation Sam discusses education, his political beliefs and what the future might hold.

It was nice going to Cirencester (College) as there was a real separation between work and home. When I was at college I worked obsessively and when I was at home I vegetated in front of the television.  It was nice to have that separation.

I went to Royal Holloway University of London in Egham in Surrey. It was actually quite nice as it was 20 minutes away from London on the train. I was there for four years because I did my under grad in Politics and International Relations and then I got a scholarship to do a Masters in Democracy and Governance for a year, which was very fun. I enjoyed the Masters year very much, I would describe it as the most rewarding year of my entire education. 

Provisions for help were always enough. If I needed to do an essay I would call up someone on the list of student helpers and ask if they were available to work. The problem with that is often when I had pressing deadlines to meet the people I relied on for help were as well. Generally the provision was good. Universities are such a vast variant and disabilities are such a vast variant but I had an all right experience. 

I would say to anyone with a disability, or anyone at all really, don’t be put off university because you think you can’t do it. If you’ve got evidence that you can do well at GCSE or more importantly ‘A’ level there’s no reason at all why anyone can’t go to University. Universities are very wired in to access and equality so don’t be put off because you’re dyslexic or that you’re worried about getting into debt, that’s not the way it works. 

There’s absolutely no additional expense for those with special needs because that’s covered by budget that you don’t have to repay. Life is more expensive for a disabled person for various reasons, but that’s life in general.  I lived in halls, which worked very well because I was able to get fed on campus and someone came in to do my cleaning once a week; that was nice.

I’m now ready for something new - anything interesting. I don’t really want to work in the private sector; I would like to do something directly involved with politics or third sector, or trade unions; the old cliché of wanting to work to make a difference rather than making a profit.

I’m at the stage of getting a CV together and tapping into the limited contacts I have. It’s not the nicest time to be a graduate entering the labour market, but you’ve got to kinda go for it and I know full well I want to go off and do something interesting and if you don’t and if you don’t try you’re not going to end up doing something interesting. I’m determined to try and go with the flow. 

Last summer I went on a leadership course in Liverpool.  One thing they said was that there’s a great tendency, especially if you’re ambitious, to over plan everything and sometimes if you just go with the flow and see what happens you end up somewhere better and more interesting.

I’ve got a mentor I’ve been working with all the way through university, and who I continue to work with now. I’m signed up with a very good career service at Holloway.  I’m just largely going with what comes up. The ideal is to be on a graduate scheme so that I’m not just taking a random job somewhere. I’d like to be involved in something that is integrated into a wider career structure.

I’m qualified as a Youth Worker so that’s another string to my bow. And that’s just an opportunity that came up because I attended a youth club and then became a volunteer.  The Rowdy Bunch (Swindon based) is a very good organisation run by a wonderful woman named Jackie Stevens. It’s a youth club for people with various special needs. 

In 2007 Sam visited No 10 accompanied by South Swindon MP Anne Snelgrove.

It was a reception for gifted youth at Downing Street, I was very honoured and it was nice to meet Gordon Brown. It was lovely to go to Downing Street.  What surprised me was how relaxed they were, there was this beautiful furniture everywhere and they were completed relaxed about people putting their drinks down on it and leaving marks.

So what does Sam think about the present Labour Leader, Ed Miliband.

He’d make a much better Prime Minister than the present incumbent.  He has some interesting ideas to take the country forward.

When asked if he might stand for parliament Sam said ‘not now.’

I am an active member of the Labour Party, and I’m very committed to that. That has been the great advantage of being back in Swindon. Obviously being in rural Surrey there wasn’t much Labour presence, but I’ve taken the opportunity to get back involved with the local Labour Party. I’ve done quite a lot of canvassing. But I’m open to anything.  I don’t really want to be an MP at this stage but certainly at some stage it would be interesting to be a councillor maybe an MEP and I’d certainly like to work in politics.

Asked what tips he had for Labour MPs on how to engage the non voting public, Sam replied.

I think you’ve got to have a real sense of why you’re in politics and why you’re doing a certain thing. You’ve got to be full of empathy, an overused word, but you’ve got to be able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Certainly if you’re a Labour MP in opposition you’ve got to avoid the risk of doing anything silly.  There’s something in the adage that ‘oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them.’ So, don’t be spooked by the headlines, have a sense of the overall strategy of what you want to achieve and I think we can do that. 

I think New Labour was a natural response to four successive defeats.  No party likes being defeated. I can see why people are upset at New Labour and certainly not everything Tony Blair did was defensible and good.

Again we are living in a different environment under our post financial crisis.  We can’t go back to Old Labour because Old Labour for various historical and economic reasons tore itself to pieces. New Labour was what replaced that and it was successful for awhile and it achieved a lot. It’s not going to be Old Labour but it’s not going to be New Labour because New Labour wasn’t some messianic coming of a new religion - it was just a stage the party had to go through and now we’re evolving on to something, which can hopefully meet the challenge of the post crisis age much better.

You’re never going to get a perfect leader because they don’t exist, but you’re going to get a better leader – and you know Cameron isn’t evil, he’s just misguided.  I think he’s got the wrong underlying values and the wrong underlying approach to the problems to be solved. Miliband and Labour’s approach and values are much closer to what we need, but you know they’re not ideal, no one is ever going to have their ideal Prime Minister.

And finally ..

Things can be better under Labour and I think Ed Miliband is much more intellectually curious than any Prime Minister we’ve had since Thatcher really. I think he’ll examine the status quo in a much more fundamental and strategic way than Blair or Brown ever did, even Callaghan or Wilson. So I think there is a real opportunity if Labour gets in at the next election, certainly with a substantial majority, that Ed can look at the status quo in a fundamental and more far reaching way.

Swindon Heritage

Our second edition of Swindon Heritage is with the printers as I write and will be dropping through your letterboxes by the end of next week - that is if you are one of our fast growing list of subscribers. You can also buy it at various Swindon outlets (for list see below) but if you're wondering why you can't find a copy in the WH Smith Regent Street store read Mums in Media.

Readers thought our first edition was pretty impressive, but we think you'll find this one even more so. With a stunning photo of Diana Dors on the cover, our Summer edition has a swell 84 pages.

Nearly ninety year old former drummer Bart Hathaway shares his memories of the dance band era when the Johnnie Stiles award winning band delighted Swindon audiences.

And still on a show biz theme Mark Child looks at the history of the Empire Theatre, the subject of his latest book All for the Empire, co authored with retired librarian Roger Trayhurn.

But we're not all glitz and glitter and if football interests you there's an article on the origins of Swindon Town FC. And what about Swindon buses - yes, there's a feature on these as well, and then there's the article on ... Now I can't give too much away, can I?

Come and meet us during the Swindon Festival of Literature at the Studio, Arts Centre, Devizes Road on Thursday May 9, 12.30 where our editor Graham Carter will tell you of the trials and tribulations of producing a magazine that breaks new ground and why Swindon Heritage is ultimately a tale of triumph and optimism.

And then on Saturday May 11 come and meet us at Pen and Paper, 113 Victoria Road where we will be launching our second edition with some help from our Swindon Society friends.

Swindon Heritage is for sale at:

Central Library, Regent Circus
Clifton Street Post Office, 158 Clifton Street
MI Earle, Newport Street
Grange Drive Convenience Store, 142-144 Grange Drive
Havelock News, 49 Havelock Street
Lydiard House, Lydiard Park
Milton Road Newsagent, 7 Milton Road
Pen and Paper, 113 Victoria Road
Prospect Hospice Shop, 66-68 Commercial Road
RSN Stores, 3 Kent Road
STEAM Museum, Fire Fly Avenue
Victoria News, 115 Victoria Road

or you can buy direct from our website Swindon Heritage.

To Fitzroy and Eugenia with love - two Berkshire pigs and some meal

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 19th century and when the Goddard heir married he did just that.

Captain Fitzroy Pledell Goddard, 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 ‘numerous and valuable.’

Heading the list were those exchanged between the couple.  The groom gave the bride a sapphire and diamond horse shoe brooch, a sapphire and diamond ring, a sapphire and diamond bangle, silver brushes and a fur coat.  The new Mrs Goddard presented her husband with a gold and enamel pin, gold initial links, silver dressing case boxes, a ring, a silver cigar lighter and a silver hunting flask.

The groom’s parents were equally generous.  Ambrose and Charlotte gave them a brougham, a light, four wheeled horse drawn carriage.

The Townspeople of Swindon clubbed together to buy a silver tea and coffee service and tray and the tenants of the Swindon estate gave a silver salver while the Lawn servants presented the couple with a silver vegetable dish and a silver thermometer.

Intriguingly, included in the list of presents is a silver cigarette box given by the Hon. Mrs Keppel.  Could this be Alice, later mistress of Edward Vll and great-grandmother of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall?

Among the titled gift givers were Lord and Lady Swansea who added to the silver stash with an ink bottle and a sugar basin while Lady Peel, daughter in law of Sir Robert Peel Prime Minister and founder of the Metropolitan Police Force, gave a Chippendale table.

The more unusual gifts included some fantail pigeons from Miss N. Pegler while Mr Newman presented the newlyweds with two Berkshire pigs and some meal.

The couple never had any children of their own although Major Goddard acted as stepfather to Eugenia’s two children by her first marriage, Naomi who died aged 16 in 1910 and Thomas Alexander who lived at Westlecott Manor.

Major Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard died at his home The Lawn on Friday August 12, 1927 ending more than 350 years of Goddard family history in Swindon. 

Major Goddard’s widow continued to live at The Lawn for a further four years before leaving for America.  She died at her home, The Cottage, Buckland on June 8, 1947 and her funeral took place at Christ Church, Swindon two days later.

Having stood empty for several years The Lawn was requisitioned by the war office to accommodate American troops during the Second World War.  It was bought by Swindon Corporation in 1946 and eventually demolished in 1952 when it was declared unsafe.

The Lawn

 Major Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard in old age

Remains of the sunken garden at the Lawn

The gazebo and ice house at the Lawn

Remains of the Lawn

Goddard family vault in the remains of Holy Rood Church.

Old images of Major Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, the Goddard family and the Lawn are published courtesy of Swindon Local Studies Collection. Visit the website on www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal

Groundwell Farm

At the turn of the second millennium the future was looking bleak for the abandoned Groundwell Farmhouse.  Left to stand empty for several years, it looked as if time was up for the Grade II listed building, which had once served as both farmhouse and arts centre.

Elements of the coursed rubble stone house date from 1660 and during a survey made by the Wiltshire Buildings Record in the 1980s a 17th century fireplace was still in situ in the west bedroom.  The building was then described as typical of a late 16th or early 17th century Wiltshire Manor House.  But records for the Groundwell estate go back much further. 

This des res was already on the up and up in 1086, appreciating from 40s to 70s at the time of the Domesday survey where it was recorded that ‘Hugh and Girald hold Grendewell from Humphrey.  Ordulf held it before 1066.’ 

However, even earlier than this, the Romans had appreciated the sheltered aspect of Goundwell Ridge and excavations made during 2004 revealed a second century Romano British farm in the area.

Local landowner Simon Wayte brought his new wife Catherine home to Groundwell House following their marriage in around 1770 and immediately began work on a major rebuild.

At the end of the 19th century the farmhouse was said to have served as a parsonage for the Blunsdon St Andrew clergy, although other sources place farmer William Lush at Groundwell in 1899.

But by 1911 the property had returned to use as a farmhouse with Evan James Hoddinott, his wife and their young family in residence.

Farming has always been a family affair and in the 1930s the Wilkins brothers rented Groundwell.  Charlie Wilkins raised his own large family there and his brother Noel is remembered for riding his horse up the staircase.

Norman Painter was the farmer at Groundwell at the outbreak of war in 1939.  The harvest the following year was described as having been one of the easiest since 1921 and without the need to call on voluntary help as had been anticipated, according to the Evening Advertiser.   A photograph of stooking the corn at Groundwell Farm was published in the edition of August 10, with the farmhouse visible in the distance.

In the mid 1970s, with the vast area of north Swindon ear marked for development, Thamesdown Borough Council purchased the farm and the farmhouse was let to the Groundwell Arts Group. 

However by 2004 the property was empty and Robert Stredder, street entertainer and former Groundwell Arts Group resident highlighted the predicament of the building as dentist Patrick Holmes awaited the outcome of complicated planning approval.  The Seven Fields Dental and Health Care Centre eventually opened in 2007 and modern street names such as Farmer Crescent, Thresher Drive and Haywain Close recall the rural history of Groundwell Farm. 

ghostly outline of former farm building

coach house

Wartime harvest - stooking the corn at Groundwell Farm

Richard Woolford - sculptor, mason and convicted poacher

Was Richard Woolford motivated by criminal intent or poverty when he picked up his gun and headed off for Lord Bolingbroke’s land one winter’s night in 1834?

Records show that Richard was charged with ‘having in the night together with a great number of other persons armed with guns, and other unlawful weapons entered a certain coppice belonging to the right honourable Lord Viscount Bolingbroke for the purpose of destroying game at Lydiard Tregoze.’

At the time of Richard’s arrest, Robert Hiscocks was the gamekeeper at the Lydiard Park estate, a position subsequently filled by his son Harry who worked alongside him in the second half of the 19th century. Sporting rights across the estate were protected in the farm leases and the duties of the Lydiard Park gamekeeper included the rearing of his lordships pheasants.  Victorian gamekeepers were known to shoot at anything that threatened the birds under their protection.

Richard, a 21 year old labourer and stonemason, was married with two young sons and on that December night in 1834 his purpose was more likely to provide his young family with a meal.

But perhaps things turned nasty in the coppice on his lordships estate.  According to the Night Poaching Act of 1828  ‘such Offender shall assault or offer any Violence with any Gun, Crossbow, Fire Arms, Bludgeon, Stick, Club, or any other offensive Weapon whatsoever, towards an person hereby authorized to seize and apprehend him, he shall, whether it be his First, Second, or any other Offence, be guilt of a Misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be transported beyond Seas for Seven Years, or to be imprisoned and kept to hard Labour in the Common Gaol or House of Correction for any Term not exceeding Two Years.’ Despite having no previous convictions Richard was transported to Australia. Three hundred men were transported for poaching offences between 1788 and 1868.

Richard sailed out of Portsmouth on July 29, 1835 on board the Royal Sovereign along with 169 other convicts bound for Sydney.  He was described as being 5ft 9½ins tall with a dark sallow complexion, dark brown hair and hazel eyes.  Identifying marks included scarring above his left eye and left eyebrow and that the nail of the third finger on his left hand was split.

In February 1840 Richard was given a ticket of leave, a document granting him parole on the condition that he remained in the employment of John Terry Hughes of Sydney.  However a year later he was found stealing lead and his ticket was cancelled.

This did not appear to prevent him from starting up in business and trade directories of 1839-40 list him as a tombmaker.

Richard was eventually freed on November 28, 1842 and continued to work as a sculptor and mason.  In 1855 he was sufficiently prosperous to be able to pay for the passage of his sister Mary and her family to join him in Sydney.

On December 3, 1867 the Sydney Morning Herald printed the announcement of Richard’s death.  ‘On the 2nd instant, at his residence, Monumental Works, 81 Church hill, Mr Richard Woolford, in the 54th year of his age.  Much respected by a large circle of friends.’

Gamekeeper Henry Hiscocks

Ken White

An exhibition of Ken White’s work opens at The Post Modern, Theatre Square, Swindon on April 23 to May 2 where visitors will be given a glimpse into the artists’ archives, including the preparatory work for his murals.

Today you may find it difficult to track down one of Ken’s spectacular murals.  In the eighties Swindon boasted a fine collection. One at Cambria Bridge, the famous ‘Swindon Personalities’ in Union Street/Prospect Place, the King Class Locomotive Passing Through Swindon Railway Works at Henry Street. Just one mural now remains - the Golden Lion Bridge looking down Fleming Way.

And even more disgraceful is the fact that Swindon does not own a piece of Ken White’s art.  Now how on earth can that be?

In 2003 Advertiser journalist Shirley Mathias was asking exactly that question. Shirley wrote:

‘But the closest Ken has come to recognition by the borough was an invitation to hang two works in a display which is part of Think Art, an event sponsored by the borough’s Swindon Arts project together with, among other supporters, Nationwide, Westfield who own the Brunel Centre, and the University of Bath.

The paintings are currently being shown, along with 30 or so other works of art, in an empty shop near House of Fraser’s store in Canal Walk.’

Joe Kaempfer, chief executive of McArthur Glen, was so impressed by Ken’s railway paintings that after the Designer Outlet Centre opened he bought six.  But why are there none of Ken’s paintings in our prestigious Modern Art Collection.

Ken’s work continues to have a presence in the Great Western Hospital and the Commonweal School, but hey – come on Swindon. I know there's not much money in the piggy bank, but here’s a revolutionary idea.  Why don’t we sell a couple of the paintings currently in store at the museum that we never see anyway and buy one of Ken’s that we’d all love to see.

And now join the twitter debate to pledge a £1 at #swindonpublicpoundpledge and buy a Ken White painting for the Modern Art Collection currently held at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, Bath Road, Swindon.

The photograph of Ken in his studio was taken by Puttyfoot Photography

Two of Ken's paintings that hang in the Outlet Village.

Swindon Local Studies have a selection of Ken's posters. Visit the website on http://www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal/

You might also like to read

Golden Lion Bridge

The Railway Factory 

James Smith Protheroe

From local dignitaries and Victorian edifices to pageants and poets, photographer James Smith Protheroe and his partner Thomas Henry Simons captured them all.  But it could have turned out very differently.

One of tailor Thomas Protheroe’s eleven children, James was born in 1858 over the shop in Goat Street, Swansea, next door to the public library.  By 1871 13 year old James was already working alongside his father, described as ‘young tailor’ in the census of that year. 

But his artistic leanings had the support of his elder brother Thomas, an artist, who left Wales following his marriage to Emma Chapman in 1872.  Thomas moved to Bristol and by 1876 had his own photographic studio at 33 Wine Street. 

At around the same time James moved to Swindon and by the 1880s the brothers were advertising their joint ventures on the back of the popular carte de visite they sold for 5s a dozen.   While James established himself at 30 Regent Street, New Swindon Thomas remained in Bristol.   In 1881 the Protheroe studios won a first class silver medal for oil painting at the Plymouth Art and Industrial Exhibition and proudly declared royal patronage by HRH Prince of Wales.

Towards the end of the century Prothero’s sitters included Queenstown School teacher Edith New who would shortly leave Swindon to join the Women’s Social and Political Union and join the fight for Votes for Women. And in 1903 the GWR Hammerman poet Alfred Williams took his bride Mary Peck along to the Regent Street studio to pose for their wedding photograph.

By now James had taken his nephew into the business, Thomas Henry Simons, the son of his sister Elizabeth and her husband Henry, a commercial shipping clerk.  James had married Fanny Jane Redman, a dress mantle maker, in 1894 and the new century saw the family photography firm based at 96 Victoria Road.  The shop is caught in a view of Swindon’s tram disaster in 1906 by that other Swindon photographer William Hooper.

Although the Protheroe name still headed the firm it was Thomas who increasingly took care of the day to day business as James involved himself with the public life of Swindon. 

Conductor of the Baptist Tabernacle choir, Justice of the Peace and Wiltshire County Council member, Chairman of the Swindon and Highworth Board of Guardians and member of the Swindon Victoria Hospital Committee are among just a few of the organisations on which James served.

James died at Eirianfa, Newton Villas, Mumbles, overlooking Swansea Bay, in October 1929 aged 72. His body was returned to Swindon for burial in Radnor Street Cemetery.

His obituary published in the North Wilts Herald declared that ‘there was no busier man in Swindon, and few who will be more missed.’

To see more of the work of Protheroe and Simons and other Swindon photographers visit the Swindon Local Studies Collection on www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal

For more information about Alfred's life and work, see the official website of the Alfred Williams Heritage Society: www.alfredwilliams.org.uk

Edith New

Alfred and Mary Williams

James Smith Protheroe's grave in Radnor Street Cemetery