This is one of our mysteries of the graveyard, and a tale about the power of grief and shame. Caroline Coles was not a poor woman, and her husband not without some local prestige; so where’s her grave, and where are her two children who are buried here? They might be at this plot marker …
Read more “Caroline Elizabeth Coles and her children (location unknown)”
There are five members of the Spencer family in this grave, William, Grace his wife and three of their seven children. We don’t know much about William Spencer; according to the information from the census he was born in 1796 in Stansfield and in his adult life was a farm labourer – that’s all the …
Read more “40.0 – William, Grace, William, Hannah and Grace Spencer”
More continuity here for those with an interest in the Freemason’s and later Weaver’s Arms on Blind Lane – maybe you remember William and Martha Jane Sutcliffe under the school’s story? Well this is how they got there (or at least how Martha Jane got there). We have go back a bit though. Let’s start …
Schoolmaster – land agent – house builder – railway inspector – all in one? How?? Burnley lad Thomas Newton was born in 1812. There he grew up, and a good brain (not family financial support – his father was a carter) meant he was able to find a better job than most young men in …
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 …
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”
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”
“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”
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”
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 …