This stone was readable in 2006 but no more; one day we’ll get that fixed, but for now, at least we’re able to tell the stories of those here.
This grave in fact links back with another, shorter story- that of John and Mary Scholfield and their granddaughter Mary Halstead. Mary, you see, is the daughter of John and Sarah (Scholfield) Halstead here, and John Sutcliffe is her younger brother. If you recall from their story (and if not then go and read it!) Sarah was John and Mary’s only daughter, as Mary died less than a year after her birth and John in 1844, when Sarah was six. John Scholfield was a stonemason and chose not to remarry after his wife’s death, which meant that Sarah had to be raised by others. She was taken in by Alice Lord, who was Sarah’s aunt but on which side we couldn’t say. Alice was a widowed shopkeeper who ran a grocery just along from Gauxholme where John Scholfield was working. Sarah grew up with Alice and her much older cousins. Remember that her parents married late, so her cousins were of marriage and childbearing ages already when she was born. Alice remarried before 1851 and Sarah stayed in the home at St. Peter’s Gate in Walsden with her and her new uncle, Thomas Sutcliffe, who as far as we know is no relation to her future husband’s family.
Who was her future husband? John Halstead of Cross Street. He was the eldest child of John Sutcliffe Halstead and his wife Mary, and grew up in the town centre in relative comfort due to John Sr. being a cotton manufacturer. Not a large one – he had only five men and three boys in his employ, according to the 1861 Census – but enough of one for the younger John to get the education and experience he needed to become a partner with his father in the future. In 1864 Lord Brothers bought Stackhills Mill, where the Halsteads were running their business, and they had the chance to take over the running of Pudsey Mill in Cornholme. They jumped at it and the family moved. By this time though John and Sarah had met and fallen in love; in 1862 they were married at Walsden St. Peter’s.
As in the other story, they started a family. Their first child, Henry/Harry Scholfield Halstead, was born in 1865 and is also buried at Christ Church, under a plot marker at 9.41. They weren’t so lucky as some with their children. Mary, as we know, died in 1870 and is buried with her grandparents. Their last child, named for his grandfather, also had a short life. Little John Sutcliffe Halstead died aged two in 1875 and is maybe buried here but more likely buried elsewhere in the yard, since this part of the “grid” doesn’t include 1875 burials. This left John and Sarah with just three children, Harry and their two daughters Alice and Annie. John was busy helping his father run Pudsey Mill and running for a place on the Cornholme Local Board, and Sarah was tasked with the raising of the children. She did her best but for various Victorian reasons her health was dodgy at times. In 1874 John had built a home for them called Springfield House, tacked onto the end of some existing cottages at the bottom of Frieldhurst Road, and this was where Sarah would see out her final days. She died in 1881 at the age of 43 and is almost certainly the first burial to take place in this grave.
(note: we tried to order her death certificate, but were greeted with a quirk of the digital scanning system, which was that the GRO very helpfully sent us the bit of the page where it mentions that she’s the first person on the page…not her actual section of the page. The joys of automation and AI!)
John was one of the rare widowers who didn’t remarry even though he had young children. Some of that is because he could afford not to, and hired a housemaid/nanny named Susan Law to come and live in and assist with the children when they weren’t at work or school. Certainly no one else seemed to ever catch his eye after this. In Halstead and Sons took over running Lineholme Mill in Lydgate and John helped there for a time, but by 1889 he had decided to move on from Springfield House. Sad memories? Or wanting to spread his wings? Because John had a secret that only his obituary revealed to us: he was a fluent French speaker thanks to his good education, and by 1891 he had taken on a new role, that of commercial traveller for Lord Bros. at Canal Street. His father had died in the meantime and perhaps the family loyalty was less strong now. The Halsteads moved to Wellington Road and Susan Law continued to look after the house while John travelled back and forth to the continent.
The connection with the Lord family continued, with Annie going to work for William Lord as a domestic nurse for a spell. Alice trained as a schoolmistress before marrying Thomas Sagar, the headmaster at Walsden Board School. Annie moved home after the Lord children got a bit older and as John’s health deteriorated. That deterioration isn’t speculative as his obituary made reference to an unnamed illness that left him confined to his bed for the last two years of his life, saying that he “suffered almost a martyrdom”. His release from it came in 1905 when he died and was laid to rest next to his wife.
His death registration reveals the mystery of his ill health. First, mitral/aortic stenosis, aka heart failure via the valves narrowing and preventing proper blood flow. Secondly, fibroid phthsis, aka when your tuberculosis causes healthy lung tissue to die and be replaced with connective tissue that prevents comfortable breathing or oxygenation. And finally – finally! – syncope, aka fainting and dizziness, probably because there’s problems with circulation and breathing. It sounds dreadful. Sometimes death really is a release and we wouldn’t fault John for being ready when his time came.
