All Saints Church, All Cannings, Wiltshire

By 1871 the Hibberds' three eldest daughters had left home. Jane had married George Rose Hiscox on 16 April 1868 at All Cannings. Ruth and Susan were domestic servants in the household of John Deverell, a baker, of 68 New Park Street, Devizes. Whilst Ruth would still be there ten years later, Susan married Mark Knee, a labourer, on 26 May 1877 at the Parish Church, Southbroom and was living in Devizes. 

That left just Thomas, Josiah and Ellen at home with their parents when the 1881 census was taken. Thomas had become a horsekeeper and was recorded as being married although with no wife or children. We have been unable to find a marriage or trace what became of him. Josiah was a bricklayer's labourer and Ellen was an agricultural labourer. Elizabeth Hibberd died in 1883 aged about 64 and after Ellen's marriage to William Ponting, at All Cannings on 20 July 1889, George Hibberd went to live with his daughter and son-in-law. Josiah might have left All Cannings at about the same time.

In the 1891 Census Josiah was in lodgings at 36 Aldred Street in Eccles, Lancashire. He was still single and was recorded as a general labourer. Like many in that town, he may have been working on the construction of the nearby Manchester Ship Canal which at that time also included dam building and diversion of rivers and railway lines. There was plenty of work for bricklayers and their labourers. Work on the canal had begun in 1887 and continued until 1894, the dates overlapping those of the construction of the Totley Tunnel. We know from other examples we have looked at that some of the tunnel navvies had earlier worked on the ship canal. They were usually to be found working from the western portal at Padley rather than at the eastern Totley end of the tunnel.

For Josiah to be injured in 1892, he could have only been in our area for a matter of a year or so. We have been unable to find any further mention of him, except perhaps, for one item in the Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser for 9 February 1895. Mr Baldwyn Fleming presented a report to the Devizes Board of Guardians about issues arising from his visit to the Devizes Workhouse. Mr. Fleming said: 

Josiah Hibberd, in the male Infirmary, asked me if there was any rule that letters written by him should not be sent daily. He was only allowed to send out letters once a week. This seems to me to be an unreasonable restriction. I can see no reason why letters should be detained after they are written. Hibberd also stated that he thought it hard that when people came from considerable distances to see him on visiting days there should be a rule that they should only stay 20 minutes. The Matron told me there was such a rule, but frequently it was not insisted upon. I think, however, that the rule is not a satisfactory one. Subject, of course, to the directions of the Medical Officer and the nurses, in any particular case, it is desirable that visitors should have every reasonable facility for seeing their friends, so far as is consistent with the maintenance of proper discipline and order in the wards. Hibberd did not complain, but only asked that these rules might be revised. He said he was grateful for the kind treatment he received.

It seems most likely that this newspaper report refers to Josiah Hibberd, the Totley tunneller. He appears to have been in hospital for some time and with the prospect of a further lengthy stay to which he was fully resigned. This seems to be consistent with the inscription on the gravestone. There were only five other men named Josiah Hibberd in all of England at this time and only one in Wiltshire and he was living at Steeple Langford, well outside the Devises Poor Law Union.

Sadly, there is no newspaper report of Josiah's death, not even a family announcement, but by then his father had also died.

March 2021