Stansfield: one of the most common names in Todmorden, and one which supposedly originates specifically from Todmorden. This story was difficult to research at times for that very reason, as you will see.
First, our man Thomas. Thomas Stansfield was born in 1807 on the Lancashire side of the border. He was probably from Walsden. For the portion of his life we have information for he was a resident of Knowlwood and Shade, so he probably didn’t stray far from his roots. Thomas was described as both a labourer and a cotton weaver, and probably he was one of many who took on multiple sources of work at a time. Whatever was going, he did it.
In 1831 he married Betty Greenwood at St. Chad’s in Rochdale. Ahh, Greenwood, another surname that makes tracing difficult. Betty was born around 1812 in Rochdale, but by the time of her marriage was resident in Todmorden. Neither she nor Thomas were literate enough to sign their own names on their marriage banns, but that was hardly uncommon. It took a few years but their first child, their daughter Ann, was born in 1834. Then came David, John, George, and finally Greenwood in 1846.
Here’s an example of why stories like this, of people with common names, can sometimes throw a less seasoned family researcher off. The 1841 Census for Knowlwood has an interesting quirk. Two properties apart were two men named Thomas Stansfield, both aged 30; both with 25 year old wives named Betty; both men cotton weavers; both with a one year old son named John; and one with a son named Greenwood. But of course our Greenwood here was born in 1846 so we know the second Thomas isn’t our Thomas. Still, it made you pause for a second didn’t it?
Thomas would have only had one year to enjoy little Greenwood’s existence as he died in December 1847. He must have had parents buried at St. Mary’s as he was buried there, rather than in the “new ground” of Christ Church. Betty had to scramble to figure something out. She decided to stay single and not remarry, and she moved nearer to the town centre. 1851 finds the Stansfields living at Hanging Ditch. She wasn’t the only widowed Betty Stansfield living at Hanging Ditch but look, we’ve already made the point, you don’t want to hear about more similarly named families. This Betty had a talent for baking bread and so she became a baker rather than the usual occupation for widowed women with low education and skill, a servant or charwoman. Where did she bake? That we can’t tell you. But it was a living. The children worked of course, with eight year old George at work as a factory hand, and Ann (who was now 18) working as a power weaver. Little Greenwood at least was still able to go to school.
Come 1861 and the family had changed considerably. The Stansfields had moved back to Butcher Hill and Betty was no longer working at all. Ann, perhaps feeling the pressure as the eldest daughter to stay home, had shunned a marriage, but had given birth to two illegitimate children: Thomas in 1855 and Priscilla in 1857, and they lived at home her. David had married Mary Bramley (now both buried at 32.36) and they were living there too, helping support Betty. John, George and Greenwood still lived at home too. You hope that there were enough rooms in this house but it’s likely they lived in cramped quarters. Especially given that poor Priscilla had some serious health difficulties which would later manifest in a left leg that was much shorter than her right. She wasn’t prevented from working later but it will have made her life hard in so many ways, back before “accessibility” was something enshrined in law.
The Stansfields continued to move further towards the heart of Walsden, and by 1871 John had married and moved on, and young Thomas had moved out to find a trade. They were now at Alma Street in Walsden where they would stay for the rest of their lives. Betty, Ann, George and Greenwood – the others here in this grave – and poor Priscilla. In 1880 Betty died and was buried here – actually here – and in 1887 George followed her. Ann, Greenwood and Priscilla stuck together, and continued to cohabit at 19 (and later 23) Alma Street until 1902, when first Ann and then Greenwood died and were buried here.
Their names, as we said, make it hard to know much about them from newspapers unless their address is also mentioned, but there was one single tidbit we could scour from the record; George was an amateur gardener, although the family lacked the space for equipment. In 1884 he entered the “window plant” category of the Walsden Floral and Horticultural Society, designed for those without the space for a greenhouse or growing frame, and took third place.
Priscilla had worked all this time as a cotton weaver and after her mother and uncle’s death she moved back to 19 Alma Street with two of her cousins, Thomas and Smith, and retired from the workplace. Her lungs weren’t so good and eventually she died in 1925 after falling down some stairs while Smith was at work. Her inquest is where we learn about her shortened leg and her status as “crippled”, not that it stopped her working as a cotton weaver during her prime. For obvious reasons we’ve struggled to trace her brother Thomas, so his story remains a mystery. We can’t find everyone sadly!