Introduction

William Park began his career as a farm labourer. When he was about 21 years old, he married Elizabeth Genge, a widow with five children, who was about 17 years older than him. Elizabeth was probably an intelligent woman with a strong character. She was the daughter of a farmer and the widow of a gamekeeper, and later taught in the village school. Under her influence, William became a railway labourer. In the early 1880s, they moved to Bridgend, where William tragically lost his life due to an accident.

Birth

William was born at Hardington in 1827, the fourth of six children born to Edward and Joan Park. His father, Edward, was a carpenter.

Marriage

In 1848, William married Elizabeth Genge. William was about 21 while Elizabeth was about 38.

Elizabeth was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Barrett. She was a widow whose first husband, John Genge, had passed away in October 1846, leaving her to care for their five children.[1]

Early married life

William and Eliza’s first child, Rhoda, was born in late 1848 or early 1849.

By March 1851, the family lived at White Vine Farm, where William worked as a farm labourer. A few months later, their second child, Maria Elizabeth, was born.

On 13 May 1852, William’s stepson, Francis John, died from rheumatic Pericarditis at the age of 17.

Around 1 October 1858, William’s daughter, Maria Elizabeth, fell ill with influenza. She died 14 days later at the age of seven.

By that time, William was working as a railway labourer, a position he held for the next twenty years.[2] The 1861 census shows the family living at Hardington Marsh. Elizabeth was by then working as a schoolmistress.

Bridgend

In the early 1880s, William and Elizabeth moved to Bridgend. By September 1885, they were residing at 24 Nolton Street, and William was employed as a deliveryman for a soda water manufacturer.

A terrible accident

On Wednesday, 30 September 1885, William spent the day making deliveries in the Ogmore Valley, eight miles north of Bridgend. Around 7 pm, he called at the Blandy Arms in Tynewydd High Street. As he left, the landlady’s son, William Davies, observed what happened next. After William climbed into the cart, the horse backed over an embankment. As a result, both the horse and cart rolled down the bank and into the river below. The boy went to get help, and men were soon on the spot. Finding William unconscious and under the cart, they pulled him out and took him to the Blandy Arms. There, two doctors treated him for his injuries, which included three or four cuts on the back of his head, one of which was quite large. The following morning, he seemed better, so someone took him home in a wagonette. Unfortunately, his condition gradually worsened, and he died on October 5.  The inquest jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death.”[3]

Elizabeth’s later life

Elizabeth remained at Bridgend and passed away there in December 1888, at the age of 78

Children

He and Elizabeth had two children: Rhoda, born in late 1848 or early 1849, and Maria Elizabeth, born in 1851. Maria Elizabeth died in October 1858 at the age of seven.

References

[1] Death certificate of John Genge.

[2] Death certificate of Maria Elizabeth Park.

[3] Bridgend Chronicle, 9 October 1885, p.3. This newspaper report states William’s age as 48 when he was 58.