Armstrong monument in the south-west corner of the churchyard, Church of St Mark

Summary

Monument to Joseph Armstrong, 1877; and later inscribed to Sarah, George and Joseph Armstrong, his wife and children, and John Burdon.

Reasons for Designation

The monument to Joseph Armstrong, 1877, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:
* as a memorial to Joseph Armstrong (1816-1877); Armstrong served as the Great Western Railway’s Superintendent of Locomotives in its northern division from 1854, and then as Superintendent of both locomotives and the new carriage and wagon works in Swindon from 1864 until his death in 1877.

Group value:
* with the Church of St Mark (listed Grade II), in whose churchyard the monument lies, and with all the listed buildings of the Swindon Railway Village to its east and south, created as part of an overall plan to provide the staff of the works and their families with integrated housing, health, welfare and leisure facilities.

History

The Great Western Railway works in Swindon were established in 1841, to provide a central repair facility for the various locomotives which had been sourced to run on the railway line from London to Bristol, whose construction had begun in 1840. The Great Western Railway (GWR) village was established in Swindon from 1841, aiming initially to provide 300 homes and associated health, welfare, lodging and education facilities for a new community of workers and their families arriving from across the country to staff the railway works, which came to house an extensive and integrated design, engineering, construction and repair plant for locomotives and other rolling stock, and rails. At its peak in 1925, the workforce numbered over 14,000. The works remained in use by GWR and, following the nationalisation of the railways, British Rail, until 1986.

Joseph Armstrong (1816-1877) was a locomotive engineer who had worked as a driver on Robert Stephenson’s Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and became foreman at the Hull and Selby Railway, gaining experience with pioneering locomotive engineers. In 1847, Armstrong was appointed assistant Superintendent of Locomotives at the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway and later also the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway, with which it amalgamated its stock. The GWR incorporated both railways in 1854, and Armstrong took charge of the locomotives in its northern division, overseen by Daniel Gooch (later Sir Daniel Gooch, 1816-1889). When Gooch resigned from his post as Superintendent of Locomotive Engines for the GWR in 1864, Armstrong took over in Swindon, and was in addition made responsible for carriage and wagon works, bringing these to Swindon for the first time. Armstrong involved himself extensively in philanthropic and company work in New Swindon, chairing the New Swindon Board until his death, and involving himself in the running of the Mechanics’ Institution, the cottage hospital and the GWR Medical Fund Society among other endeavours, in part motivated by his strong Methodist beliefs.

Armstrong died in 1877, and his funeral at the Church of St Mark was attended by a total of around 6,000 people, including some 2,000 staff from the GWR works. The monument was set up after the funeral.

Details

Monument to Joseph Armstrong, 1877; and later inscribed to Sarah, George and Joseph Armstrong, his wife and children, and John Burdon.

MATERIALS
Polished pink granite.

DESCRIPTION
An obelisk with a shaped foot with Greek key carving; atop a slightly tapering plinth with a moulded cornice. The plinth has a moulded base and stands on a square granite platform. The inscriptions are carved in relief on the faces of the plinth, within shaped recessed fields. The principal inscription, on the southern face, reads: IN LOVING / MEMORY OF / JOSEPH ARMSTRONG / WHO DIED JUNE 5th 1877 / AGED 60. Inscriptions to the other faces commemorate Sarah, George and Joseph Armstrong, Joseph’s wife and children, and John Burdon.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

318714

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cattell, J, Falconer, K, Swindon: The Legacy of a Railway Town (RCHME), (1995), 165

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