"Rosegrove"

The address/house name for Richard Finch in Severn Beach seems to be "Rosegrove" and situated at Ableton Lane. Now that name seems to have some meaning for Richard as it is also the name of the railway station in Burnley.

It is probably the case that Richard worked from this Burnley station in his career as an engine driver and we start to become closer to the real Richard Finch as he moves from the hard industrial North-West to leafy Gloucestershire. We also start to see Richard as a man 'soaked through' with the railway even to the point of naming his house after a railway station even when he was so geographically far away. Perhaps Richard was similar to the archityple British Imperial explorer of the period in India who called his hill-top bungalow after a distant town in Surrey. Perhaps at the end of our days we all hark back to our earlier days and life times when we were happy and fulfilled.

I find myself asking why Richard was so associated with Burnley when he was born in Standish and was probably well known to Wigan. Richard, clearly, made a decision to move away from Wigan and an ealier posting details his house ownership in both towns. However, despite a point when he owned houses in both towns; Richard moved on.

The death of his wife in Burnley in 1917 allowed Richard to marry again and start his new family in the Bristol area. We don't yet know when Richard moved to Severn Beach although we can be certain that it was post 1920. I'm working under the hypothesis that Richard bought a new property in the new town of Severn Beach and moved there with Ellen. Richard, who had been surrounded by poverty and family members being incarcerated in the workhouse or psychiatric institutions, possibly found security for the first time.

The great surprise is that Richard does not, in his will, apparently leave monies for his wife or second family. Richard remembers some, if not all, of his older children living in Burnley. He does not remember William Finch in the will although he remembers Mary Finch a person that he is said to have (at some points) disliked. The reasons for this choice may be lost in time and never to be known.

"Rosegrove" is a place that leaves a lot of questions unanswered in relation to Richard whilst answering others and the greatest puzzle left is the last resting place. Where is Richard buried? Richard does not appear to be buried in Burnley next to his first wife although this would be very unusual especially for Ellen Finch. Richard is not buried in the parish in which he died and this is unusual.

"Rosegrove" is interesting in that it tells us something about Richard and humanises him to some extent.