This grave holds two sisters, the only children of their parents and another testament to how one’s presence in a particular graveyard isn’t about how much time you spend in a place but about what happens in that time. Charles Raper was from Spalding Moor, and Elizabeth Hides was from Conisbrough, but the two began …
These Crossleys would have had us well and truly stumped without the help of Bluetit1802’s Ancestry tree, which has long been a gentle prod in the right direction for us when we’ve gotten stuck. It’s fair to say that for every mystery we’ve solved without help, there have been ten or more that we wouldn’t …
If you’ve been following for a while then you’ve already met quite a few of these Fieldens, but here’s some from another generation back. Charles Fielden was born in 1842, the son of Abraham and Mary (Gibson) Fielden of Wadsworth Mill, Shade. He was their second child and second son and his time on this …
Not every grave has a long story – some are pretty short, because we have so little to work from. This is one of those graves. Maybe you know something we don’t? John Willan and Alice Eckersall were both from Whitefield in Prestwich, and their journey here was probably purely down to the Industrial Revolution. …
There is only one person named on this low, sinking gravestone – Sidney (or Sydney) Jackson – but he may not be on his own. Sidney was born in Lion Street, Todmorden on the 3rd October 1863. Only his mother, Ann Jackson, is named on his birth certificate, his father’s name is left blank. He …
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 …