If you walk past without looking closely, you’d think this was just part of the border of the path. But it’s not – it’s someone’s burial marker. We looked closer. John William Yourn was born in 1875. His father, William, was originally from Chacewater in Cornwall, near Truro. His mother Betty was a local girl. …
Born Jan 5th 1896, died Dec 4th 1896. “Thy Will Be Done” Francis was the firstborn son of Harold “Harry” Slaney and his wife, Mary Eleanor (Lambert) Slaney. Harry was one of 7 children born in Acton, Staffordshire, that number including a younger brother named Francis. Harry’s first profession was that of gardener, but in …
There are lots of Arthur Marshalls in this graveyard, and this is one of them – this Arthur was a fairly unremarkable man, but not everyone in here has a grand story. Some stories are fairly straightforward ones. We were glad to be able to verify this inscription before the stone finishes delaminating and becomes …
Read more “35.6 – Arthur and Ellen Marshall, Thomas and Mary Ann Greenwood”
This grave is one of a small number at Christ Church which contains a father and son who served in the World Wars, and only one is buried here – but the one missing is not, as is more commonplace, the WW1 veteran. Jack Ingham was born in Todmorden on the 15th September 1919, the …
Julia was born a Crossland in 1860, and was first married to John William Howarth in 1879 before marrying James Taylor in 1885 after being widowed a year earlier. James was from Shawforth, born the same year as Julia. In 1888 they set sail for the USA, for reasons we can’t quite work out, and …
Read more “3.26 – James, Laura Ellen, and Julia Virginia Violetta Taylor”
Bridget Greaves was born Bridget Stanton in 1849 in Dublin. Because a lot of Irish records were accidentally destroyed over time, it can be hard to track people down before they arrive in the UK or some other country. The first time we find Bridget here is in Newchurch, Bacup, in 1871, lodging with the …
Read more “2.15 – Samuel and Bridget Greaves, James Luke Stanton”
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 (although the mechanism by which this was achieved is …
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)”