Generations and generations on one stone – some stories we know, some we don’t, and some we can only guess at.
Zechariah Astin was born in Rossendale in 1782, and Betty…unknown last name…was born in Leeds in 1787. These Astins are the famous Astin and Barker Astins, even though they did live at Harley House at one point next to the Aspdens, so we know very little – and these Astins seemed to be allergic to mainstream churches or chapels because a marriage record between Zechariah and Betty has yet to be turned up and only their last child, James, was baptised in a church. James’s baptism was in 1838, eight years after his birth! A clue might be in their daughter Grace’s marriage in 1837 to Robert Sutcliffe, as Robert himself was born to an Independent family who attended Eastwood Chapel. It would also explain living next to the Aspdens, another Independent family who worshipped at the Inghamite Chapel at the bottom of Ferney Lee. But we digress!
According to later census returns the Astins were resident in Todmorden by 1822 when their second child we know of, Elizabeth, was born (Grace was a few years older). In neat two-year spacing after Elizabeth came William, Sarah, Henry, and finally James as before. The entire family were cotton weavers and lived in the Blind Lane area of Todmorden for many many years. In 1859 Betty died and was buried here, followed by daughter Elizabeth in 1865. Zechariah continued on living with children Sarah and James until his death in 1870. A whistlestop tour of these first three names and lives but that’s all we have; they were born, they came here, they were weavers.
Now we move through some other family members to get to the second half of the story. Henry Astin, the second youngest, moved back to Rossendale at some point and there he married Elizabeth Law in 1851. He later brought his wife back to Todmorden and they settled back at Blind Lane, surprise surprise. Their third child, Elizabeth Alice Astin, married Thomas Sutcliffe in 1878 at the relatively young age of eighteen and they had three children together: Sarah Hannah, Charles William, and Albert, born in 1883. And so the second half of the story begins.
Albert would be a familiar feature in the newspapers later on due to his career as a talented and popular local cricketer, but his first newspaper appearance was memorable for less pleasant reasons. In August 1891 some boys from Roomfield School were playing on a plank which local contractor Benjamin Lumb had had placed across the river at Tipside to cross back and forth while working on a job. One boy, Samuel Sebastian Fielden, fell in and was swept away and drowned. Albert was the last boy there with him and to see him alive, and he was dragged before the coroner at the inquest to give his account of what happened and then be challenged (albeit lightly) about his story having changed in the meantime. He was only a boy, it’s hardly a surprise, and everyone was of the same opinion that he was overwhelmed by the experience. He was a child who saw a friend die.
Albert lived, finished his schooling, and went on to become a cricketer playing for the Lancashire League, as well as a cooper – maybe our only cooper in the graveyard? The first one we’ve come across at least! Cricket was serious business and at one point in 1904 Albert missed over a month of work because of getting a broken thumb at a game in Nelson. The club had collections for him at games and raised quite a few pounds for him, which just shows how clubs and supporters were willing to rally round for their lads. They understood that sometimes families relied on sportsmen to bring home a wage…and we’d like to see you make a barrel with a broken thumb. Albert loved the game though and seems to have kept playing, serving as wicket keeper for a spell, until his marriage in 1908 to Sarah Jane Wadsworth.
Sarah Jane was, like her great-grandparents in law, an offcumden, but this time hailing from the wilds of Scammonden near Halifax. She was the eldest of two children born illegitimately to her mother, Leah Wadsworth, and an unknown father – her sister Florence was two years younger and it’s unknown whether the two shared the same father. Whoever he was he wasn’t the type to settle down, and Leah moved to Todmorden where she and the girls lived with her sisters Sarah and Matilda for some time. By 1901 their parents Thomas and Mary had given up their farm at Hill Top in Barkisland due to bankruptcy and also come to Todmorden, where they moved in with Matilda and Sarah Jane and Florence…but Leah moved out, and was living with her cousin Mary Love on Store Street. This was probably because Leah had met James Crowther, a widower thirteen years her senior, and was getting ready to marry him. They wed in the autumn of 1901 and the couple had a son, and as for Sarah Jane and Florence? That was that. It would be interesting to know what James knew and didn’t know.
(as an aside, when Florence got married later on to Jesse Coupe – they’re buried at 15.4 – she gave her father’s name as Thomas Wadsworth, which also begs the question of how much she knew…or was willing to admit. Sarah Jane meanwhile left her father’s name and occupation blank on her own marriage, and the only family member to witness it from her side was her cousin Samson.)
We know that Albert and Sarah Jane had a daughter, Hilda Alice, at some point after 1911. Little Hilda’s birth and death were never registered so it seems as though she was stillborn – still named, still loved, and still remembered on this stone by someone honouring the couple’s wishes after their deaths and ensuring her name was included. Is she buried here? Good question. Her burial isn’t recorded and so we don’t know.
During WW1 Albert found himself in a reserved occupation due to his work with J. W. Helliwell at Millwood, making barrels for munitions (chemicals and gas), so he avoided being drafted. He continued on in this work after the war but eventually sought out something that perhaps didn’t pain his cricketing injuries too much – don’t forget about those broken thumbs – by becoming a baker’s assistant working for King and Crossley’s on Burnley Road, where the cafe is now. He was also busy on the Todmorden Cricket Club’s committee (as was Sarah Jane) supporting the club where he’d spent almost a decade playing some serious cricket. But his health began to go downhill even further and in 1945 he stepped down from the committee. Albert died in 1954 with Sarah Jane following him two years later. He had an obituary; she did not. But we can maybe guess who made sure Hilda Alice was remembered when it came time to add everyone’s names to the gravestone here – Mrs. Coupe, aka Florence Wadsworth, her sister.
