Box People and Places
Latest Issue 31 Spring 2021 
  • This Issue
    • Celebrity Visits
    • Middlehill Tunnel
    • Doris Pepita Chappell
    • Local Roman Finds
    • Gingell
    • Jut the Ticket
    • Straightening & Levelling
    • Tottle Family
    • Rudloe Part 2
    • Bowdler
    • Bullocks Worldwide
    • James Shell of KIngsdown
    • Bill Peter Recalled
    • Rudloe WW2 Remnants
    • More Stink Pipes
    • Northey Tankard Found
  • Early Medieval
    • Britain in Late Antiquity
    • Box after AD 350
    • Why Speak English?
    • Art and Craft
  • Previous
    • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
    • Issue 28 - VE Day
    • Issue 27 - Northey
    • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
    • Earlier Issues 1 - 25 >
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • Series
    • Northeys >
      • Early Family
      • World of the Northeys
      • Unpaid Bill: Smith & Northey
      • Family Tree
      • George Wilbraham
      • Life in Box
      • George Edward
      • Safe & Steady Son
      • Army Life
      • Theatrical Events
      • Rolls-Royce Pioneer
      • Northey Donkey Cart
      • Other Children
      • Later Family
      • Selling Up
      • Northey Legacy
    • Box School Series >
      • Box Charity School
      • Formation of Box Schools
      • Schools WW1 to WW2
      • Box Schools, 1920s
      • Boys' School, 1927
      • Evacuee Schoolboy 1941
      • Box School 1945-83
      • Class of 1954
    • Box Farms >
      • Weavern Farm and Mill
      • Old Jockey Farm
      • Hill House Farm
      • Coles Farm
    • Box Library Project
    • NATS Trails >
      • Heritage Trails 2019
      • Conservation Areas
      • Box NATS Trails 2018
      • Alcombe and Shockerwick
      • Mills on Box Brook
      • Saxon Footpaths
      • New History Trails 2017
      • Roman Road
      • Box Hill Trail
      • Georgian Middlehill
      • History Trails 2016
      • Mad House
      • Thomas Railway
      • Market Place Origins
    • Prehistory >
      • Kingsdown's Menhir Secrets
    • Roman >
      • Early History Hoard
      • Roman Road Finds
      • Ancient Discovery
      • Roman Mosaics in Box
    • Early Medieval
    • Feudal >
      • Magna Carta in Box
      • Monk's Tale
      • Norman Conquest of Box
      • Tracing Bartholomew Bigod
      • When it Rained and Rained
    • Late Medieval
    • Tudor & Stuart >
      • Box in Civil War 1642 - 51
      • Wolf Hall and Box
      • Marsh Family
      • People during Civil War
      • Original Box Revels
      • Tudor Local Government
      • Ordinary People
      • Religion in Box, 1475-1660
      • Where You Live in 1626 >
        • Ashley
        • Central Box
        • Ditteridge
        • Hatt, Old Jockey and Blue Vein
        • Hazelbury
        • Henley and Washwells
        • Kingsdown
        • Middlehill
        • Rudloe
      • Hugh Speke Shaped Box
      • Walter Bushnell
      • Reformation in Box, 1535
      • Ten Tudor & Stuart Mansions
      • Death at Thomas à Becket >
        • For Whom Box Bell Tolled
      • Tudor & Stuart Timeline
      • John Aubrey's Box
    • Georgian >
      • Napoleon versus Box
      • Revolutionary Times
      • Coaches in 1830
      • Agricultral Census 1803
      • Tithe Apportionment
      • Slavery Families
      • Mullins Family, Schoolmasters
      • Box Churchyard
      • Sheridan's Duel
      • Tree of Life at Middlehill
      • Box's Highwayman
      • 1752: Very Odd Year
      • Witches, Quakers and Chapels
      • The New Road, 1761
      • Vulgarity in Box
      • Rebuilding the Village
      • Speke Family
      • Georgian People
      • Georgian Timeline
    • Rail & Quarry >
      • Crane 57
      • Railway Men Remembered
      • Old Clay Pipe
      • Recalling Box Quarries >
        • Oily Series
      • Quarrymen and their Families
      • Built in Stoneyards
      • Quarries in 2000
      • Single Ticket
      • Trainspotting in Box
      • Light Through Box Tunnel >
        • More Light on Tunnel
        • Brunel Myth
        • Sunrise at Box Tunnel
      • Marl at Middlehill
      • James Moodey
      • Railway Staff in Box
      • Impact of Railways
      • Vivash Follow-up
      • Underground Quarries
      • Lambert's Stoneyard
      • Cranes at Work
      • Railway Policeman
      • Terror in Tunnels
      • Vivash Family
      • Railway Buildings and More
      • Why Railways Came to Box
      • Box in 1830
      • Building Box Tunnel
      • Boxing and Quarrymen >
        • More Jem Mace
      • Clift Quarry Steam Loco
      • Timeline 1830 - 1870
      • Trial Shaft
      • Underbridges
    • Late Victorian >
      • Edwardian Love Story
      • Northey Estate Sale 1912-1923
      • Box Fete & Friendly Societies
      • Methodism in Box
      • George Reeves, Quarryman Ganger
      • Dipsomania in Box
      • 1870 Start of Era
      • Victorian Farming
      • Ashley Leigh
      • Steam Mill and Cottages
      • Class Division
      • Grove Inn
      • Box House
      • Celebrations >
        • Jubilee Mug 1887
      • Parish Magazine History
      • Postcards of Box >
        • Postcard Solved
      • Skeate, Speck and Ponting
      • 1899 A Year of Festivities
      • Valens Terrace
      • Village Outings >
        • Excitement for Outings
        • Cycling Craze
      • Timeline 1840 to now
      • Local Pubs
    • Great War >
      • Photos 2014
      • Cecil Lambert's War
      • VAD Working Parties
      • After the War
      • Box School Research
      • School WW1 Projects
      • List of Servicemen
      • Embroideries
      • In Memoriam
      • Never Forgotten
      • Where They Lived
      • Christmas 1913 and 1914
      • Children in WW1
      • Neighbour Against Neighbour
      • Home & Far Away
      • Finding Private Hall
      • Box Before the War
    • Inter War Years >
      • Shops in 1920s
      • Fascism
      • Sports Day 1931
    • WW2 Index >
      • Land Girl Remembers
      • World War 2 Scrapbook
      • Box in 1943
      • Aircraft Factories
      • D Day Implications, 1944
      • Peace
      • VE Day 1945
      • After the War
      • Epitaph to WW2
      • Wartime Memories
      • Wartime People
      • Bath Blitz 1942
      • Invasion Threat 1942
      • Children in War
      • Air Raids on Box
      • Military Camps
      • Royal Visits
      • Your WW2 Tributes
      • Dunkirk Evacuation
      • Box Home Guard >
        • Home Guard Names
      • Life at Home
      • Evacuee Children
      • Village & Ammunitions Depot
      • Memories of WW2
      • In Service at Home
      • At War
      • Lead up to War
      • Servicemen & Women
      • Timeline 1939-45
      • VE Day Remembered
      • Dennis Moss >
        • Hazelbury Air Crash
        • Air Crash Wreath
        • Flight Crew Lost
        • Graham Brayshaw
      • Evacuated From Belgium
      • WW2 Resting Place
      • Sherman Tank Disaster
    • Modern >
      • Modern Art
      • Centre of Commerce
      • Shoe Sculpture >
        • Stiletto Sculpture
      • Characters in 1940s
      • Teenage Rebels, 1960s
      • Swingin Sixties or Not?
      • A Box Childhood
      • Box People from 1950s
      • Shops in 1950 Box
      • Box in 1950s
      • Village in 1950s
      • Summer of 1959
      • reCollections
      • Residents After the War
      • Coach Trips 1950s
      • Never Had It So Good !
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
Picture

The Franklin Family Story

Do You Ever Get Déjà Vu?

John Franklin, May 2014

Sometimes we find that events seem to repeat themselves but it is rare that they keep on doing so. However, that happened to John and Maureen Franklin after they read our article about the Gale Family in Issue 1 which told the story of David and Caroline Gale with brief details of their children and their neighbours, the Franklin family.


Photos and newspaper cuttings courtesy John Franklin

John and Maureen arranged to visit The Old Jockey in Box to see the home of their maternal and paternal ancestors a century earlier. We pick up John's story after a brief recap of the history of the Gale family.
David and Caroline Gale (Great Grandparents)

The story of this charming couple is related in The Gale Family in the first issue of the website. It tells of their life in Victorian Box, of the changes made when Old Age Pensions were started and of their diamond wedding celebrations in 1936. These newly-found pictures give us a glimpse of this delightful elderly couple.
Picture
David Gale (1851 - 1939) and Caroline Ellen (1856 - 1938) married in 1876 in Chippenham District.They had two daughters: Beatrice E (b 1876) and Emily Ellen (b 1879). It was the younger daughter, Emily Ellen Gale, who married into the family of her next door neighbours at The Old Jockey, the Franklins. Emily's story is given later in this article.

The photograph (left) shows Emily (holding baby) with her husband, David Franklin, and parents, David and Caroline Gale (front). On the right is Emily and David's son, Len (father of the baby). We wonder if the lady on the left is Beatrice, the older daughter of David and Caroline.

The Franklin Family

The Franklin family came from Box and several stayed in the area most of their lives. There were eight children in the family: Harry, Bill, Edward, Lena, Lucy, Francis, Arthur and David Herbert Franklin.

Harry George Franklin (1869-1947) remained single and the 1911 census shows him living at Old Jockey with his widowed mother and brother, Frank. Family folklore says Harry was a tramp and too idle to work! Probably the Harry Franklin referred to in Katherine Harris' history Up the Hill and Down the Hill.

William (Bill) James Kingscott Franklin (1870-1961) was born at Atworth. Records show that  he married Harriet Ricketts (b 1857) in London and in 1901 they lived in Devizes Road, Box where he worked as a quarryman. They had a daughter, Nellie, born about 1894. In 1911 they lived in Turnpike House, Devizes Road, Box where William was employed as an underground stone sawyer.  We have now found a 1961 diary by David which tells us that brother Bill’s funeral took place in 1961. Death records prove that he had died in Christchurch, Hampshire, at the age of 91 where we think his daughter lived.

Edward Victor Franklin (b 1877) married Ada in 1903 and in 1911 they lived at Bradley Road, Southwick, Trowbridge.

Evelina (Lena) Augusta Franklin (1881-1974) was working as a parlour maid at Ashton Lodge, Long Ashton, Somerset in 1911 until she married Samuel Marshman in that year.  After their marriage he and Lena worked at a golf club in Scotland where Sam was the steward.  It is understood that Lena had a persecution mania and her behaviour meant they had to leave. There are fond memories of Aunt Lena - diminutive, rather eccentric, and fun.  She ended her life in Beechcroft Care Home in Swindon.

Lucy Ella Franklin (1884-1965) married Sidney Sheppard, also of Old Jockey, in 1905.

Little is known of the other children: Francis Frederic Franklin (1885-1980) and Arthur Henry Franklin (b 1888). It is through David Franklin that the story continues.
Picture
David Herbert Franklin and Emily Gale (Grandparents)

David Herbert Franklin (born 19 August 1879) married Emily Ellen Gale in 1905 and they lived at London Road, Fairford, where David worked as a postman in 1911. There are family recollections that David was in the regular army and served in India, but we can find no record of this.  He was wounded in the first battle of Ypres, serving with the 1st Wiltshire Regiment, and discharged. They had five children, seen here in about 1930 (left to right:
Roy, Len, David Herbert (father), Edie, Emily (mother), Rex and John).

At some point David and Emily moved to Southbrook Street, Swindon, where David continued his role as postman. Emily died in 1955 and David remained in the house with his son, Jack until Jack’s marriage and move to Old Town. The house was then sold and David divided his time between living with Jack and Hazel and with Rex and Edie in Upminster. His grandchildren saw a lot of him during this time. Eventually more care was needed for David’s failing health and he became a patient at Roundway Hospital in Devizes, where he died in 1966.

PictureRoy outside the shop
Roy and Phyllis Franklin (Parents)

David and Emily had five children: Roy, Len, Rex, Edie and Jack. John is the son of Roy.

William Roy Franklin (1912-2005) started work with Frederick Wright, tobacconist, in Cheltenham, travelling from Swindon, daily, by (we think) a motorbike.

In about 1936 he set up, with help from his father, a small confectioner/tobacconist shop on the corner of Manchester Road and Whitehall Road, Swindon.

He married Agnes Phyllis Mary Culling (1912-2005) who lived in Northern Road, Swindon on 3 July 1937. As children, both had lived in Southbrook Street.

Roy ran the shop until about 1960 when he sold it. It was not making money - traffic lights on corner, double yellow lines and other shops now selling tobacco - and they needed a regular income as there were now three children. He took a job as a checker at Pressed Steel, Swindon until his retirement in 1978. For much of this time he worked night shifts.

PictureLena, Roy, Phyl and Maureen in about 1967
Roy and Phyl bought 45 Churchward Avenue, Swindon when they married in 1937 (we understand for a deposit of £25) and they lived there until November 2004. By this time Phyl was incapacitated with arthritis and Roy had become her carer, with a lot of help from their daughters and others. 

A family decision was made to move them into care together in Wroughton.  Four weeks later, on Christmas Day, Phyl had a stroke which hospitalised her until her death on 31 January 2005.  Roy had not easily accepted the move into care and deteriorated rapidly. He died at the care home on 14 February 2005. They are buried together in Whitworth Road cemetery, Swindon.

Uncles and Aunts

David Lennox (Len) Franklin  1908-1991 married Iris May Bullock (1904-2000). They lived at 141 Moredon Road, Swindon throughout their married life. Len worked for the GPO in Swindon. They had two children:
Malcolm H (1937-2002) who remained single; and Margaret (b 1945) who married Terry Barnes (Barnes Coaches, Aldbourne) in 1968. They now live in Somerset and have a son and a daughter and have grandchildren.

Ernest Rex Franklin (1909-2001) married Edie Hood his next-door neighbour in Southbrook Street, Swindon. He worked for Customs and Excise and lived in Upminster, Essex until his death. They had one daughter, Judith, who married Andy Small in 1968 and they still live in Upminster. Judith and Andy have two sons, Richard and Thomas and two grandchildren.

Lucy Edith (Edie) Franklin (1907-1989) married Jack Parker and they lived in Wootton Bassett where Edie became a local councillor. They had one child, Linda, who died in 2003. She married Paul Caudell. They had no children.

John (Jack) Franklin (1911-2000):  Little is known about Jack’s early life. During World War 2 he served in the Merchant Navy, North Atlantic Fleet, and post war he trained as a secondary teacher and taught at Pinehurst Secondary Modern and then Ferndale Secondary Modern. He left teaching to work for Radio Rentals in Swindon. Later in his life he married Hazel - the marriage was short and there were no children. He lived at Tythe Barn Crescent, Old Town and eventually moved into an Abbeyfields Care Home in Swindon until his death.

Picture
This Generation

Roy and Phyl had three children: Jane, John and Julie (pictured in July 1997 on Roy and Phil's diamond wedding anniversary). Sadly, there are no grandchildren for Roy and Phyl. The Franklin name from this branch of the family will die out with John.

Peter John  Franklin was born in 1944 and it was he and his wife Maureen who visited the village in 2014. John graduated from Manchester University in 1965 and taught for four years in Swindon. 

He married Maureen Ann Pettit on 20 December 1969. They moved to Hampshire in August 1970 following promotion to a new secondary school in Havant. This was followed by a couple more teaching posts in the area and a house move to Chichester followed. John retired from full-time teaching in 2002.

Julie Ann Franklin (b 1940) trained as a PE teacher and later worked as a Personnel Officer for a pharmaceutical company which was relocating to Swindon. Her local knowledge was valuable. She then returned to peripatetic counselling for Swindon Education Authority. Jane Noelle Franklin (b 1953) trained as a beauty therapist at Cannock and returned to Swindon where she set up her own salon. A move to Cornwall saw a second salon. She now lives in Highworth.

Three Times Under the Old Jockey Archway

For those who remember the heading of this article about history repeating itself, this is the proof. Having gone their separate ways from Box, you might expect that the family lost all contact with the village. But you would be wrong. Some family memory or anecdote brought them back as they wished to capture the connection with their forefathers.

First under the arch were David and Caroline Gale in 1936, celebrating their diamond wedding (left). Next to complete the pilgrimage to the Old Jockey was Rex Franklin who came from Essex in 1993 and posed with Yvonne Johnson, who was born at The Old Jockey (middle). Finally we had the pleasure of meeting John and Maureen in 2014 (pictured right).

Picture
Photo Katherine Harris
Picture
Photo Yvonne Johnson
Picture
Photo Carol Payne
John and Maureen would love to hear from you if you have information about other branches of the Franklin family.
Back to Issue 4