Two widows, two different experiences – what a difference a handful of half-grown children makes. Everyone in this story were born outside of Todmorden, so be patient and kind, their stories deserve telling too…
Up on the Mytholmroyd hills, in 1832, Richard Crossland was born. Richard’s father Joseph was a stonemason from Dewsbury and Richard followed the same path, going into business with Benjamin Whitham of Todmorden. The Crosslands lived at the Oddfellow’s Hall in Mytholmroyd and Joseph’s other sons also became stonemasons. His connections with Whitham were what drew Richard towards Lancashire and to Todmorden, where he met Fanny Slater of Gauxholme. Fanny had been born in Hebden Bridge but her father George was a wharfinger, ie. marina manager, and this took the Slaters all up and down the country just like Richard’s father. George was from Halifax and all the Slater children were born along the way from Halifax to Hebden to Rochdale and back again. In 1861 they were living at Gauxholme at Canal Wharf and Fanny was contributing to the family as a cotton weaver. She caught Richard’s eye and the pair were married in 1862. The following year Richard and Benjamin’s quarrying and building contractor business was dissolved and Richard and Fanny embarked on the journey that followed Richard’s new chosen occupation: a life on the railway.
They first stayed in Walsden before heading to Rochdale in 1869 right before going back the other direction again to West Vale near Elland in 1871. Here Richard’s occupation was “proprietor of works”, but later he would be described as a railway inspector. The family moved back and forth a few times before staying for a few years in Lightcliffe, and then finally returning to Todmorden. Fanny’s family were fairly well to do, at least in a small way, and with eight children she will have appreciated their support. Sadly before they could return to Todmorden they lost one of their eight – Walter, who is buried at St. Michael’s in Mytholmroyd even though he’s remembered on the stone here. 1877 seems to be the year the Crosslands began returning to Todmorden as that year Richard joined the Harmony Lodge of Freemasons here, although he still gave his address as being in Lightcliffe. In 1879 Richard made the move official by buying seven “cottages” on Industrial Street. The same year Fanny’s father George died. Fanny may have finally been back amongst her family but her grief would not be over soon; Richard died in 1880, aged 48.
The case was cirrhosis, although no reason for it was given. He could have had a problem with alcohol or he could have been unwell for other undiscovered or unknown-at-the-time reasons. Lupus isn’t exclusively a women’s autoimmune disease.
The Crosslands were living at Eagle Street and after Richard’s death took advantage of his timely purchase and moved over to 56 Industrial Street. Fanny had four children of working age and this plus the income from Richard’s houses meant she could keep things going and look after the younger three – Mary, Herbert and Arthur. Mary had been born in 1871 so wasn’t yet working but by 1891 was working as a slipper machinist (making slipper), and she and four other siblings were all at home supporting Fanny so that she didn’t have to go back to work. Fanny and Mary were close and even though Mary was growing up, the two were inseparable.
In 1899 Mary married George Hartley, a railway telegraph operator from Wakefield. George came from a family of railwaymen and his father Absolom Hartley was a steam engine mechanic who was well known in Wakefield as Liberal party supporter. George likely met Mary through some late acquaintance of Richard’s – it’s hard to pin down precisely when he came to Todmorden from Wakefield – and after they married George entered the household on Harley Street where Mary’s niece Emma Crossland (her sister Sarah’s illegitimate daughter) also lived. It’s interesting to see that even though George was the main earner in the household Fanny is listed as the head, and under occupation she has given “living on her own means”. She did inherit seven houses on Richard’s death and even though her children stayed close and supported her for years, perhaps it wasn’t fully necessary. Maybe she was a widow in the rare position of being able to provide for them rather than the other way around!
Either way, the story of George and Mary is a short one. George seemed to have a good career ahead of him at the railway station here in Todmorden and only appeared in the newspapers as either a witness in a pickpocketing case or as contributing to the stationmaster’s leaving present; no naughty business. He and Mary had a single child, a daughter named Gladys Louisa, in the autumn of 1904, but we aren’t sure he ever met her. That’s because George had a secret…one that, like Richard’s illness, we don’t have any clues as to the origin of. In May 1904 he was admitted to the asylum in Wakefield for an unspecified mental disorder which must have started around February of that year – not long after Gladys was conceived. He died in August 1905 after having been at the asylum for over a year, with the cause of death given as “general paralysis of the insane”.
No contributory factors such as syphilis or brain injury are mentioned, so whether that’s just laziness on the certifying doctor’s part or what, we can’t say.
Poor Mary was left entirely adrift. She hadn’t just lost her husband, but also her mother, as Fanny died in July 1905. It was just Mary and little Gladys. Fanny’s estate needed sharing out amongst seven children and it’s clear that no house was left to Mary as by 1911 she had moved to Mytholmroyd with Gladys and Emma to find work. She ended up working at Helliwell and Sutcliffe’s on Scout Road as a sewing machinist, with Gladys also finding work there when she was old enough to leave school. This is what we meant by two widows with very different experiences. Without the inherited properties and several working-age children that Fanny had benefited from, Mary’s life alone involved going back into the workforce, and Gladys was also then required to work when she was old enough to leave school rather than having any sort of choice.
The pair ultimately settled at Cleveley Gardens and stayed together until Gladys married Arthur Ainley in 1943. Mary found Mytholmroyd to her liking and had long since become an active member of the Women’s Guild at St. Michael’s. She had an impressively long run compared to those who enter this grave before her, and died in 1955 aged 84.
Whatever George Hartley’s faults she, and Gladys, to the very end made sure that Mary’s relationship to him was named. It’s a small thing but it speaks for him and leads us to conclude that whatever sent him to the asylum was a thing understood and accepted, and not his “fault”. No one was trying to move on from their connection with him, quite the opposite.
Due to Richard’s involvement with Freemasonry, this grave has been “adopted” by members of Studley Lodge in Eastwood. The repairs it needs will be complicated as the vault topping has been wrecked by a tree which was allowed to self-seed and grow from the grave space. This is yet another reason why graveyards need careful and consistent management and maintenance. The cost of disregard here will run to the hundreds, and that’s just one grave out of the over 1,000 marked graves in the public area alone. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound (or a few hundred pounds) of cure…