This plot marker has two sets of initials, and thanks to them we can be pretty sure of who’s in here. It’s not the usual story of children whose parents moved on. Henry Smith, a cotton weaver, married Mary Stansfield in Rochdale in 1835. The couple were based at Sandhole in Walsden (later Knowlwood) and …
Read more “39.28 – Abram Smith, and James Henry and Abraham Pearson”
This grave is one of the very, very small number of table tombs in the yard. Does that denote someone special? Not many people in this town have a street named after them, but then, if you’re the one who built it then you get to do as you please. Hammerton Terrace is named for …
Read more “39.29 – William Holden, Adam, Alice, Robert and James Mills”
Blind Lane royalty, or rather, Blind Lane lifers. Three generations of Dawsons are here and their stories are brief, but still interesting. Thomas Dawson and Esther Fielden (or Fielding) were married in April 1838 at St. Chad’s, only a short time before the birth of their son James. We can’t go further back than that …
Read more “39.34 – Thomas, Esther, Amelia, Susy, Thomas and Arthur Dawson”
Yes, this is going to get confusing very quickly. We’ve already sort of met Thomas Fielden before, via his brother James and their parents Joshua (aka “Old Jossy”) and Betty (Haslam) Fielden of Platts House. Thomas was the second to last child of Joshua and Betty, with Betty dying after the birth of their son …
Read more “39.35 – Three Sarah Fieldens, Ann Sutcliffe and Mary Coates”
This grave holds a father and son, and moreover, a father who was part of this church and graveyard’s history – unlike other clerical graves, it might escape your notice entirely if you were idly walking through, as on the face of it it’s just another flat lancet. Even when it was upright only the …
This story was a wild ride, a tale of the dangers of drink and of one woman’s progress from Todmorden to Chester and back again. Plus there’s a cougar. First though, we start with ostler Edward Greenwood. Born in 1803, he married Ann Whiteley in 1824 by banns at St. Chad’s and Heptonstall, since she …
Read more “40.7 – Edward and Ann Greenwood, and Mary Thorpe”
Oyez, oyez, oyez! Gather round and hear the tale of the OG Tod Town Crier – or what we know of it anyway. Thomas Greenlees was born in 1783 and while his early life is a mystery, we know that he started out as a cotton spinner who made a career for himself working for …
The Closes were an interesting family – active, clever, and helpful people, even despite all their losses. Henry Close was born in 1824, the last of John and Susannah Close’s children to be born, which is no surprise since Susannah was 46 years old at his birth. They forgot to baptise him though which rather …
Read more “40.8 – Maria, John, Richard, Emma, Ann and Henry Close”
Brother and sister, the only two of Young and Ann Ashworth‘s children to survive to adulthood – this is a story about sticking together. You know about the story so far; Young and Ann suffered many losses. This might have been one of the reasons why Harriet and James stayed close, well into adulthood. Were …
“Also of five infants” always hurts a little to read, and while four of these infants have their names back, one looks to have never managed to have a name at all… Some of Young Ashworth’s story you will know from that of his parents and sisters at 40.9. He was the second youngest, the …
Read more “38.5 – Young and Ann Ashworth and their children”