Hoyle is an old name in Todmorden, and while these Hoyles weren’t the landed manufacturer sort, they still left their mark. If you live in one of the back-to-backs off of Harley Bank particularly then you owe the very fabric of your home to John and his masonry skills. Hopefully that’s a good thing!
John Hoyle was born in late 1838 in Bacup, to Thomas and Ann (Hardman) Hoyle. Thomas was a farmer. Later John would describe him as a stonemason but this could be a misremembering of his father. He certainly would remember very little as Thomas died in the summer of 1839. John had been Thomas and Ann’s only child, or at least their only child who lived long enough to be baptised (they had only married in June 1835). Ann remarried in 1841 to another mason, widower James Heyworth, and they added some children of their own to his family. It may well have been James who taught John the trade.
The family remained for the most part in Bacup, living at Rockliffe, but John would spread his wings and move down the valley to Todmorden in 1861. The reason? A lass, of course! Mary Ellen Atherton, in fact, another offcumden to the town. Mary Ellen was born a year after John in Manchester, the eldest child of Michael and Margaret (Cunliffe) Atherton. Michael was a weaver from Wigan but Margaret had been born in Todmorden, and the Athertons moved back to Tod in 1850. On the 1851 Census they were living at High Street in Shade. By 1861 they had moved to Meadow Bottom and, presumably, a larger house since the Atherton siblings now numbered eight. Mary Ellen was the first child to fly the nest. At her and John’s wedding, a sibling of each acted as their witnesses. Only John was able to sign his name.
Being literate would have been helpful for a manual labourer, even one with a trade, and John did well for himself. He was engaged as a builder and mason on a number of building works, some of which were commissioned by the Town Board, and only once was his work called into question. The houses at Harley Bank, twelve back-to-back buildings forming 24 houses, had some chimney issues and John was called as a witness to explain their construction and the flue sizes and angles. Unfortunately his testimony didn’t help convince the magistrate that errors had been made in the chimney construction. We think that these houses might be what are now Broad and Bride Street – so if you’re reading this and have any problems with your chimneys, now you know who to blame.
John and Mary Ellen had five children together – first Thomas in 1863, and last John Richard in 1876. John Richard was the first into this grave when he died in April 1878, just a month shy of his second birthday. John had been doing well for himself (plus Mary Ellen continued to work as a cotton weaver – two incomes are better than one) and the Hoyles lived on Victoria Road, almost certainly with more space for the family than Mary Ellen had experienced during her Atherton childhood. There was even space by 1881 for her father Michael and her youngest sibling Harriet to lodge there. But doing well for yourself didn’t exempt you from the infant mortality rate. This graveyard is proof of that.
In what must have been a shock for the children, John died in 1882 and Mary Ellen in 1883. Both were only in their forties. Both were laid low by a lung complaint; bronchitis, pneumonia and “collapse” for John and phthsis for Mary Ellen. The informant for both deaths was one of their chldren, Margaret Ann for John and Thomas for Mary Ellen. So far we’ve not covered Thomas, but his story more or less begins now.
Thomas was a cotton weaver but he was also one of our very favourite sort of people: a fireman. In fact this list of names from 1885 will be very familiar to devotees of the yard: Fred Davis from V7.8, James Henry Langstreth from V7.5, and James Hardman from 12.4 might stand out to them. Is it a coincidence that Fred Davis’s first lost child, Eva, is buried next door to the Hoyles? Well, probably. But you can be forgiven for pretending there’s more to it. Anyway, we thank Thomas for his service even though it was short and he resigned in 1887.
All four of the Hoyle children moved to a house on Broad Street, which might have been a sentimental nod to their father’s handiwork if he was involved in the building of those houses too…and they remained a unit of four until August 1891 when Thomas had some surprising news from his sweetheart Mary Alice Stansfield of Pexwood. The pair married on August 22nd 1891 and two months later their daughter Maggie was born. Maggie did not thrive though and she joined her grandparents here in October 1892. Three months later she was joined by her father.
So then they were five, then they were six, and then they were four again. Maggie was 11 months old and Thomas was 29. Poor Mary Alice; she went back to her parents and never remarried. She lived to the age of 87 and is buried with her parents at 18.33.
William Henry stayed in Todmorden his whole life and died in 1929 and is buried at Christ Church but his location is unknown; perhaps he’s here too? Margaret Ann married Alfred Hollows in 1892 and moved to Lydgate, with James in tow. After Alfred died James stayed with her and they lived together until his death in 1943. He’s buried here too, wherever in the yard “here” is. Margaret Ann died in 1954 and is buried with her husband and eldest daughter Alice at Cross Stone.