This is a large section of the Ashworth family, parents and four daughters. One son is at Heptonstall and the other is also at Christ Church, but they were the ones who flew the nest…these sisters stayed put, for the most part. Thomas Ashworth was a Stansfield lad and Grace Uttley was a Langfield lass. …
Read more “40.9 – Thomas, Mary, Grace, Hannah and Ann Ashworth, and Susan Greenwood”
Three generations, a “curse” – and a question about who chooses who goes where. Betty Hirst has appeared in some of our stories before – her daughter Ann became Ann Livsey, we learned about her husband John Lord’s career via the story of her mother in law Martha, and probably there are countless other Lords …
Read more “37.2 and 40.11 – Betty, John, Priscilla, John and Annie Lord”
Another plot marker discerned, although there are many other unlocated Thorps in this graveyard which raises the question…why here? And who here? The Thorp family hailed from Heath Charnock, between Chorley and Bolton, and most of the children of James and Alice (France) Thorp were born there. The couple had a love of fancy names …
Henry was an interesting chap in his own right, but this is yet another grave where side quests are inevitable and unavoidable when you’re trying to piece things together. When we first began clearing the yard we found a saucepan near this particular grave and someone distractedly balanced it on top of the lancet, with …
Farmers, weavers, and spinners – and more importantly, hard workers, not-so-secret lovers, and independent spirits. Daniel Ogden was born in Todmorden in 1789. Seven years later his future wife Hannah Fielding would be born in the town as well. The couple got married in Rochdale in February 1816, seven months before their first daughter Mary …
Lineholme Mill is gone now, as well as these four people who were part of the place’s history – just a car wash, curry house, garage and a few buildings left from what was there before. But what was there then? Back in the day, back in the early 1800s, Lydgate was beginning to form …
A family who were swept up in the Poor Law Riots, and an emigration that ended in tragedy. Henry Atkinson – the man of the house here – was born in Bowling, Bradford, in 1802. His father was a farmer but Henry was good with his hands and found himself apprenticing to a shoemaker, whose …
Read more “40.40 – William Sager, Henry, Thomas and Rachel Atkinson, and Ellen Horsfall”
This story is dedicated to those who adopt or foster, and to those who work hard to make sure that one generation’s sins don’t carry on to the next. If you’ve read our other stories about the Lord family – John and Sam’s story in particular – then you’ve already heard a little about Sarah …
Read more “41.ii – Abraham and Sarah Ford, Benjamin Elwell, and Hannah Champion”
This post isn’t a story so much as it’s an example of how we can try to use available records to identify mysterious burials, like plot markers – and how as more research gets carried out, previous assumptions need to be revisited and revised. A colleague of mine [researcher Sarah] asked me if I knew …
The Haighs left Todmorden for the distant wilds of Lightcliffe, but left three…yes, three, of their children behind. Reuben Haigh was born in 1817, the illegitimate son of Samuel Ogden and Eleanor Haigh. There are a lot of well-known Reuben Haighs in Todmorden but this one was neither a farmer nor a weaver nor a …