From Walsden to Wales – this grand grave holds two generations but the inscription spans three.
The story begins with Mary Ogden. Mary was one of many born to her parents, James and Alice (Haigh) of Watty Hole. James died before 1841, and as usual Alice was left being supported by her children. He had been a corn miller and sometimes that means a family is a little better off; it’s hard to tell in this case. Mary was harbouring a small secret when the 1841 Census was taken though…she was pregnant out of wedlock with her one and only child. Jane Ogden was born in the autumn of 1841 and baptised six months later at Christ Church. Surprisingly her father, warehouseman and factory bookkeeper Ely Crossley, consented to being named as her father at her christening. There are no records to indicate whether or not this was voluntary or whether Mary had a bastardy order against him for child support purposes. Mary and Ely never married – he married an Elizabeth in 1843 – and Mary either couldn’t move on or couldn’t be bothered and would remain single for the rest of her life.
Mary worked as a weaver and went to live with her brother William and half-sister Susan Haigh, bringing Jane with her. William’s household was a hodgepodge of extended and illegitimate family members and clearly they all felt a loyalty to each other that kept them close. William was a widower by 1851 so Susan and Mary took both helped raise the children in the house. By 1861 William’s children were grown and he was remarried, and so Mary, Jane and Mary’s niece Alice rented a house at Water Bridge, Gauxholme, along the canal and near the old Navigation Inn. Mary was now a little more free to pursue another occupation, that of dressmaker.
Over the road and up the hill, near where Knowlwood Chapel would later be built, was (and still is) a row of houses called Rock Terrace. John Fielden lived here. No, not that one, and no, not the other one…this John is in fact impossible to identify without the aid of a marriage certificate, as there are so many of them who could be born in the 1840-41-42 range. John and Jane were married in September 1863 at York Street Wesleyan Chapel, and that’s his story’s starting point for the purposes of this story.
John’s occupation on the 1871 Census is an interesting one: “stone mason and draper”. Two rather different things! Which came first; did John have two jobs and he met Jane via Mary, or did he decide to become a draper off the back of Mary’s talent and a penchant for learning quickly? He did awfully well at it for him to have come at it as a complete novice. John and Jane had three children in ten years – Sarah, Samuel and Alice – and Mary stayed with them until her death in 1880 to both help with the children and with the business. Mary was the first person into this grave, and would be here on her own until 1924.
After Mary’s death John and Jane moved to Gauxholme Place and John dropped masonry from his job title altogether. Jane also took on a great deal of the business although John retained a sense of traditional masculinity on the censuses. In 1901 he is a draper, and Jane has no occupation…but if you were to open a copy of the Todmorden News and Advertiser or the Todmorden and District News, you would find MRS. John Fielden advertising her fancy wares.
John was good at business and he had a not-so-secret weapon in not just Mary but also Jane.
Samuel, their son, was more than happy to follow in both parents’ footsteps and became an assistant in the business. The girls married and moved out, Sarah to a hairdresser and Alice to a picker maker. Sarah and her husband, John Barker, moved to Colwyn Bay for him to open his own hairdressing business there on the road leading up to the train station. The building still stands and is now a WHSmith’s. John and Jane visited the Barkers regularly and began to start thinking about a life outside of the area, and by 1911 had decided to retire from the business altogether. Jane and Samuel’s handiwork and John’s (we suppose) financial stewardship meant that from what we can see all three of them retired. The business and house was sold on to another local dressmaker, Mary Taylor, and the three moved to the Carleton area of Poulton-le-Fylde on the Wyre River. On the 1911 Census the family is split with John visiting the Barkers in Colwyn Bay and Jane and Samuel back at their home at Whiteholme Croft (now sadly gone).
John Barker took a leaf from his in-laws’s book and retired in 1914, and the next set of tragedies to strike the Fieldens was to come. John Barker died suddenly on December 8th 1915, and in an unexpected turn of events John Fielden, who again was visiting them, died the following day. Sarah was bereft and for reasons that will have made sense to her and Jane at the time, both Johns were buried together at Bron-y-Nant Cemetery in Colwyn Bay. Jane’s grief was overpowering and by March 1916 she too had died, and went to join her husband and son-in-law.
Samuel could have gone to Colwyn Bay to be near one sister, or come home to Todmorden to be near another, but he decided to stay on in Poulton-le-Fylde. Like so many children who go into business with one or both parents, and then devote their lives to being there for those parents, he found his wings after their death and became a gardener. It took a few years but in 1922 he married Maud Louisa Yeomans, a widow who originally came from London and had been born Maud Whittam in 1876. Maud’s life hadn’t always been easy; her first marriage to Willie Yeomans of Rochdale had ended up childless after all their children died young, and Willie had died in 1921 leaving her with a bit of money but late enough in her life that she had few family of her own left. We hope her and Samuel were happy because they didn’t have much time together in the end. Samuel died at the end of January 1924 after a battle with throat cancer, and rather than ending up in North Wales he ended up back here with his grandmother Mary. He was well remembered here and someone, either Maud or his sister Alice or both, ensured that a fine granite ledger was put up to commemorate not just them but also the parents who had stood in between.
Again, the newspaper only recalls Jane having been in charge of the drapery, not Jane and John. We also learn that Samuel was a gardener and interested in cultivating flowers. Forget his money, he sounds like a nice catch and it’s no wonder everyone’s sympathies were with Maud.
Maud remained in western Lancashire, dying in Lytham in 1951. She never remarried. Samuel had left her £1850 so with a bit of careful management she was able to manage with only the occasional lodger to help things go more smoothly.