The story begins in 1844, when Mary Swidenbank gave birth to Robert Swidenbank, the last of her 12 children with her husband Anthony. They had raised their family in the small village of Grayrigg in the then county of Westmorland, located some 10 to 15 miles north of Kendal. Anthony was a jobbing tailor who travelled around the locality carrying out repairs and tailoring work for the local community. Meanwhile, Mary ran a small greengrocery from the family home. Of the 12 children, one of them, John, had already left home to live in South Wales, where he found work as a grocer’s apprentice. Soon two of his brothers would follow: Thomas taking up the tailor’s trade and Edward becoming a grocer’s apprentice.
As a young man, Robert followed his brothers to the South Wales mining valleys, becoming a grocer’s apprentice in one of the iron companycontrolled shops. In the 1870s Robert had married his wife Sarah Ann Aubrey and became the shop manager. In 1871 their only child, Morgan Anthony Swidenbank, was born. He was a bright child who did well enough academically to earn a place at the local established and highly regarded boy’s school in 1883.
During this time, the business Robert managed for Andrew Buchan’s Rhymney iron works and
