Hilda Barnett (née Swindley) was the daughter of Thomas Swindley and sister of Leonard Swindley. The two seem to have rarely seen each other, living their separate lives.
Hilda was contacted by Emily Nugent in March 1964 after Leonard suffered a breakdown. He had led a passionate campaign against Laurie Frazer's plan to open a gambling and drinking club in the basement of Elliston's Raincoat Factory and one-by-one seen his supporters drift away as local tradesmen were paid to supply the club's conversion in readiness for the opening night. The final straw was when Niklos Papagopolous, his boss at Gamma Garments, ordered him to supply the curtains for the club, only for Laurie to humiliate him in front of the residents as he told him he'd found a cheaper alternative. Swindley wandered the streets in a dazed state, left the shop door opened and caused his devoted assistant Emily Nugent to be worried for his health.
She summoned Hilda to come and take care of her brother. Ena Sharples had vague memories of her as being a member of the Salvation Army, who wore her hair in a bun and was their best singer and a collector of donations on the proffered plate who gave up the organisation after she married. Ena was with Swindley when Hilda arrived to take him home with her, keen to get going as she had a taxi waiting outside his house. Hilda objected to him taking his cello with him as her husband didn't like it, nor a book, and a vase of begonias from the residents but Ena easily over-ruled her.
Swindley returned in two months' later when he heard that Martha Longhurst had died, admitting to Emily that he had enjoyed his sister's company and was having problems adjusting being on his own again however just a few weeks later he had to break the news to her that Hilda disapproved of their sudden engagement and consequently she was not present at their wedding service in July 1964, when Emily changed her mind at the last minute and jilted Swindley at the altar.
- The part of Hilda was played by Anne Dyson who between June 1968 and March 1969 appeared in the regular role of street resident Effie Spicer. In Episode 337 (4th March 1964), Ena Sharples refers to Hilda as "the married one", perhaps indicating that Leonard Swindley had one or more other unmarried sisters.