Sheila Constance Povey (16 Aug 1927 - 20 Dec 2017)

I write on behalf of the Richard Jefferies Society who will be eternally grateful to Sheila for all she did to promote the Victorian writer and for being such a warm generous spirit.

Sheila was related to the Richard Jefferies’ family, was a schoolteacher by profession. An expert on the history of Swindon, she carried out much valuable research on both the town and the Jefferies family.
She and husband John were mainstays of the Society for many years. Both were key-holders to the Coate Museum and always ready to help, whether it was offering the use of their home for Council meetings, putting up members overnight or showing visitors around the Museum. Andrew Rossabi recounts:

‘Sheila was always most welcoming and hospitable, and used to ply me with sandwiches, cakes and tea after the meeting to fortify me for my journey back to London. It was she who pointed out an ‘all-green’ (i.e. all grass) route back from Farleigh Crescent to the coach-stop opposite the Museum. She was interested in the walks I had taken in the morning before the meeting and most informative about local history. She was a warm, open-hearted, friendly, and extremely generous person.’

It is thanks to them that we have so many photographs of Jefferies-related material. For many years Sheila and John were Executive Council members and Sheila was the Society's membership secretary. The couple can be seen in the ‘Jefferies Land’ film made by John Webb in 2001 for the Society.
Sheila met John when, as a young plumber, he was working in her parent’s house. Sheila was toiling over a needlework exercise in smocking stitch for her school homework. John offered help – his Aunt Mag had been making smock garments for years. Under John’s tutelage Sheila became very adept at smocking – one of her beautiful farmer’s smocks is displayed on a dummy at the Richard Jefferies Museum together with a dairymaid’s bonnet she made.

Sheila and John married in 1948 and moved to a house in Edinburgh Street, where their sons Robert and Ian were born. The Swindon Ex-Servicemen’s Housing Society, which the Poveys had joined, was short of a plumber for their project of self-build homes. John became their plumber; the Farleigh Crescent houses were soon built; and John and Sheila moved into Number 20, where they stayed.
When John died in February 2008, the Society planted a white damask rose in the Coate Farm back garden – not only a favourite rose of Richard Jefferies but a thank-you to John and Sheila for all they had done for the Museum and Jefferies’ memory. The rose is still thriving and has beautifully-scented blooms.

Sheila became housebound and was unable to get to meetings for the last few years. We missed her contributions. She was made an Honorary Vice President of the Society in recognition of her work.

Goodbye Sheila and thank you.