John Arthur Woodhead was born in 1889 in Todmorden – in 1891, he was living at 12 Shade Street with his parents, 5 siblings and maternal grandmother. His father John Herbert Woodhead was a clogger with a mildly chequered past; serving time at various points for stealing and unpaid debts, with the theft being from …
You could be forgiven for missing Peter Carroll – his name is on the plinth of a larger, newer stone, whose inhabitants lived very long lives and whose names are picked out in black. But Peter is the reason this grave gets freshened regularly – he is one of the seven servicemen whose died in …
Read more “17.3 – Peter Carroll, Gilbert and Elizabeth Halstead”
There are only six graves in the graveyard which we can access that are Commonwealth War Grave Commission graves. The 7th is on the grounds of the school, the extension built around it in a way that allows the stone to still be visible and visitable, and in that grave over there is Eric Mitchell. …
This was listed as “unmarked”, but look – initials carved into the sidestones. JC, MC, KC and AC. We know that Michael Coleman (d. 1908). Kate (Catherine) Coleman (d. 1943), and John Coleman (d.1951) are buried there…but who is AC? Michael and Kate had a daughter named Annie, who married William Mayers and died in …
Read more “9.7 – John, Michael, Kate, and Annie Coleman (previously unmarked)”
Charles Stansfield and Mary Crowther were married by banns on 10th October 1822, in Heptonstall St. Thomas. Mary was originally Mary Jackson and had married Thomas Crowther in February 1817 in Halifax, with their daughter Sarah being baptised in September of the same year (whoops) at both Cross Stone and St Mary’s in Todmorden even …
Read more “39.36 – Charles, Mary, Maria, Mary Ann, and Jane Stansfield”
“Here let him lie in his quiet grave while other men shall carry on the work in which he took a sincere and active interest. Here let him lie until the final hour shall come for the grave to give up its dead.” Another stone on the back slope whose inhabitants played an important part …
“In Memory Of Wildsmith Burchell, Native of Arundel, Sussex, who died August 3rd 1839 aged 20 years. This Stone was placed by his disconsolate Mother, to perpetuate the Memory of a beloved Son, the youngest of 10 Children, suddenly left Orphans in the Year 1820“ With that name and that epitaph, you have to ask …
This grave was previously unmarked as the cross had gone missing and the plinth unceremoniously tumbled into another plot before decades of ivy grew over it. Rather than tell the story of little Orah, who was 17 months old when she died in February 1888, we will tell the story of why she’s the only …
Read more “33.19 – Orah Marion Stacey (previously unmarked)”
As part of the transcript update/rechecking process, as we’ve gone along I’ve added the address info from the sexton’s book (or, if missing, from the burial register) into each entry, so if you want you can find your street/house on there and see if anyone was buried at Christ Church. When I got as far …