From a tiny village in North Yorkshire to bustling busy Todmorden, this family’s journey was really something. Hammond Geldard Metcalfe was born in 1777 in Carlton, a little ways southwest of Leyburn. The current population is estimated at about 232 people and is also the largest village in Coverdale, so you can only imagine how …
Read more “41.8 – Jane and Hammond Geldard Metcalfe, and James and Alice Stansfield”
These stones, one in the public area and one in the private, contain most of what was once one of Todmorden’s more well off families; mill owners, teachers, railwaymen, and housebuilders (and that’s just to start). Once upon a time, 1787 to be exact, there was a building at the bottom of Ferney Lee Road …
Anyone who stands at the fence between the Garden of Rest and the church will now be able to see the two impressive needlepoint spires of the twin Lord family monuments, which mark two enormous vaults holding family members of the Lord Brothers who once owned and operated most of the mills at Derdale and …
Read more “41.15 – James, Elizabeth, Sarah, Charles Edward, Angelina and Martha Lord”
Another grave with Chartist links – this corner truly does have a fantastic selection of radical townsmen! Jakeh Butterworth was born in Oldham in 1804. He was baptised Jackey, and his name morphs over time and changes back and forth between Jackey, Jackeh, Jacky, Jakey, and finally Jakeh. How was it pronounced? It might be …
Read more “41.16 – Betty, Ann, Jane, Mary and Jakeh Butterworth”
Two people who lived a quiet life – not a lot of story to tell here – and two of their three infants who now have their names back. Sutcliffe Greenwood was born at Rodwell End in 1810 to William and Ginney Greenwood. He was baptised at Cross Stone where the register notes William’s occupation …
Read more “41.27 – Hannah, Sutcliffe, Samuel and Sutcliffe Greenwood”
This is the story of a merry widow who had a second chance at happiness, and her only child. Susannah Mitchell – you guessed, didn’t you – was born in 1795 to Joseph Mitchell and an unknown mother, we know not where. We know only that in June 1818 she married Samuel Holt at St. …
Sisters in law and a tiny son – these women hailed from afar and their husbands didn’t stay long…but this grave is linked to one of Todmorden’s greatest railway landmarks via one husband, and it’s a shame that the story of these women will be light on details when there’s so much to tell about …
Quaker and bread baker Robert Walmsley was one of Todmorden’s many offcumden residents over time who made their home here; this story is short on detail about the people buried in the grave mostly due to their ages, but his first wife Sarah also suffers from the usual lack of records and roles for women …
Mary Ormerod, in this triple-sized grave, gets a story page all of her own. Why? Because Mary is a unicorn in the graveyard, and because she is the quintessential “lost woman” in her family’s story. Mary was born Mary Stansfield, in 1815, to corn miller William Greenwood of Scaitcliffe Mill and…well. This is why she’s …
The three Wilson children in this grave are another example of children whose families moved on and never came back – and also a reminder that access to medicine or medical knowledge wasn’t enough to save you back then. It’s also a mystery all of its own for other reasons… Matthew Wilson was born in …