Death of a Volunteer. This magnificent gravestone is Frank Ashworth’s. He was one of the founder members of the Todmorden Company, 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers which was formed in 1877. The newspaper clipping details his grand send off – imagine a funeral like that in the town today. It just wouldn’t happen. From the …
While checking the TAS transcript we discovered some tumbled sidestones that marked a previously “unmarked” grave. The sexton’s book had already told us that Elizabeth (Stringfellow) Bradbury was here, but no one had recorded Charles Martin and Nellie Saville’s burials here except for on these stones. Nellie was Elizabeth’s daughter. How they all got here …
Read more “21.41 – Elizabeth Bradbury and Nellie and Charles Martin Saville (previously unmarked)”
This headstone is in many parts illegible, and is in the part of the graveyard where a sexton’s book was no longer in existence at the time of the first MI transcript’s creation, so we don’t have any information on those in marked graves beyond what’s on the stone, or indeed who is in the …
Read more “53.54 – Betty, John, William, John Barker. and Charlotte Crabtree”
This is the grave of Atkinson Wilkinson – great name – and his wife Mary Ann (Sunderland) Wilkinson. Researching this couple was quite straightforward and drama free. There’s a newspaper snippet from 1902 documenting their silver wedding anniversary together. In 1911 they lived with their 3 grown up children at 423 Bowed Row, Lydgate. Atkinson …
Sarah Jones was born Sarah Taplin in 1824 in Preston on Stour, Gloucestershire. She appears to be the only child of John, who was 53 when she was born, and Margaret, who was 48 when she was born. They had been married 9 years at this point, and it puts me in mind of the …
“Can a woman’s tender care eyre forget?” As you can see from the inscription, this marker was erected by a mother to the last memory of her children. That mother is Martha Sunderland, and her story is a sad one. Draw close and listen, and maybe at the end you’ll say a little prayer for …
Read more “26.27 – Agnes, Jess, George, Wilbert, Martha Ellen and Herbert Sunderland”
This grave was highlighted as part of our first Holocaust Memorial Day tour, due to Fred’s membership of the Freemasons – more information has been added to flesh out the lives of the others in this distinctive double vault, with its two identical crosses engraved with Celtic knots. Picture a summer dawn, 1862, Dobroyd. The …
Read more “V6.5 – Alan, Fred and Hannah Maria Dennett, and Thomas and Margaret Dennett”
Rather than type all their names into the title, here lies seven of Elizabeth and John Ashton Greenwood’s children – Sarah Elizabeth, Evelyn Josephine, John Ashton, Florence, Sybil, Theresa, and Elizabeth Ann. So many children. Elizabeth Ann Greenwood was born Elizabeth Sykes in Preston in June 1860. She is hard to track down before 1881, …
This mother and son grave is probably the most distinctive grave at Christ Church, even more so than the Hardman grave with its ornate but broken gothic spire. This is the angel. Here we have a lady by the name of Christian Stephen. Yes, the name is Christian – really unusual! She was born on …
This post initially focuses on Jack Clegg, one of the subjects of our 2023 Holocaust Memorial Day tour. Following his story below we will return to the rest of his family – and don’t think it isn’t worth continuing to read, because we’re going to touch on a number of famous (occasionally infamous) figures. It …
Read more “4.2 – Ruth Harcourt, Samuel, Emily, Walter, Clara and Jack Clegg”