A lot of people are remembered on this stone, although they aren’t all buried here – at least one is at rest over the pond. Abraham Crossley, the patriarch of this grave, might be a familiar name to you already. Fast forward and he was one of the two men killed when a fireplace they …
Read more “56.44 – Abraham, Susan and John Crossley, and Susan, Mary, Sutcliffe and Willie Mitchell”
This is another of our graves that was missed last time around, and that is linked to other graves within the yard. Who were these people? Elizabeth Ann Helliwell was born in 1863 to William and Hannah (Normington) Helliwell of Square, Walsden. Her baptism at St. Peter’s was on September 24th of that year and …
These Lords were Shade through and through, and this grave spans 68 years of burials, those of a couple and three of their daughters. Moses was born in 1824 to Charles and Sally (Stott) Lord of Walsden. He was one of seven children whose parents were cotton workers and who almost all became cotton workers, …
Read more “56.46 – Jane, Sarah Hannah, Moses, Annie, and Jane Lord”
Ann is the graveyard’s oldest resident. Not because of when she was born but because of her age when she died; not only is she our oldest, but she’s our only centenarian, having died at the impressive age of 104. There are many people buried in this grave and at V11.8 whose lives were very …
John and Betty rest here, and hopefully they are resting. The end of John’s life in particular held a particular sort of embarrassing heartache. John Forrester was born around 1805 on the Lancashire side of Todmorden, as was his future wife Betty Ratcliffe. We know nothing of their lives prior to their marriage apart from …
This stone posed a few questions, not least about the date of Mary’s death. But Betty turned out to be a mystery all her own as well… Mary was born around 1801. That’s all we can say with any certainty up until 1841. The following is pure supposition. Mary’s surname at birth was Lord. This …
The only Jabez at Christ Church rests here with his two wives. But the stone here doesn’t tell us about a man with two wives – it tells us about three people who were connected in life and death by their children biological and assumed. Jabez Taylor was born in 1814 in Newchurch, specifically at …
This previously unmarked ledger announces the beginning and end of a very short little life – that of Grace Whitaker, who from her stone we know was buried here in late 1852 aged 18 months. Like little Sarah Taylor, her parents went to great expense to mark her grave, but then never ended up here …
This is one of the stones we liberated from a few inches of soil behind the Garden of Rest. It doesn’t tell much of a story, but do you always need there to be a story? James Nuttall was born in 1770 or thereabouts and grew up in the Stansfield ward area of the larger …
Read more “57.50 – James, Mally, Isaac and Elizabeth Nuttall (previously unmarked)”
Ten plots from her lover/almost-husband and her son lies Margaret Howorth, and another woman whose relationship to Margaret is entirely unknown. As discussed in the story of Richard Newsome, he nearly (but never quite) married Margaret Howorth or Howarth of Todmorden in 1834. Margaret was, when we were researching that story, something of a mystery…and …