“To Mrs. Dean, with kindest regards from the People’s Warden of Todmorden Church, Jn Barker, May 5th /12” This inscription was inside a copy of Ramshaw’s “Concerning Todmorden Parish” belonging to one of our researchers, and they were curious who Mrs. Dean and John Barker were. Mrs. Dean remains a mystery, but John Barker has …
Vault area graves hold a lot of interments, and this is no exception. The entire Hartley family rests here along with Horace’s wife Nellie. The stone itself has a unique, elegant font on it which isn’t repeated anywhere else in the graveyard, and if there wasn’t so much knotweed plaguing the area you would want …
Read more “V12.11 – Richard, Martha, Nellie, Lilian, Sybil, Horace and Ella Hartley”
You know when sometimes you just…know? Well, we didn’t. We had no idea there were two stones side by side here. John Holt Jr. was, according to the lost sexton’s book, buried in the same plot as little Sarah Taylor just below John and Mary Ann. Actually though he was on the side of his …
Read more “40.38 and 40.39 – John, Mary Ann, and John Holt Jr.”
This unassuming grave, like so many others, had quite a story behind one of the deaths it announced. In chronological order, we shall begin… Arthur Gibson was the first of two of Sam and Elizabeth Ann (Greenwood) Gibson’s children to be buried here. Neither he nor Emily were baptised at Christ Church but their parents …
A married couple named Joseph and Mary – no jokes please! This beautiful cross in the vaults was all but swallowed up by the most incredible, but destructive, crown of ivy. As we cut it back further and further, we realised that the cross itself was this close to toppling forwards – not ideal when …
There was a week in Todmorden where it was noted that there had been a succession of deaths amongst ‘highly respected townsmen’. One of these men, Alfred Barker, is buried at Christ Church. Alfred was a grocer, and his shop was at 51 Halifax Road. He married Ann Greenwood and they had three children : …
This post initially focuses on Jack Clegg, one of the subjects of our 2023 Holocaust Memorial Day tour. Following his story below we will return to the rest of his family – and don’t think it isn’t worth continuing to read, because we’re going to touch on a number of famous (occasionally infamous) figures. It …
Read more “4.2 – Ruth Harcourt, Samuel, Emily, Walter, Clara and Jack Clegg”
“Gone To Rest” “Rest after weariness. Sweet rest at last.” Those epitaphs are for the first two people buried here – Henrietta, who was only eight when she died, and her mother Emma. Thomas Richard Sparks and his wife Emma (maidenly Elston), were both originally from Devon. By 1873 they had moved to Todmorden, and …
Read more “25.32 – Henrietta, Emma, Thomas Richard and Thomas Newton Sparks”
Owners of Todmorden Album Vol. 5 or of many older Almanacks will possibly recognise the name of Bowden. Two generations of Bowden had shops on Water Street and Burnley Road advertising their decorating business, and Anthony John is one of the “sons” in Bowden and Sons. The baptism record for Anthony John Bowden from 3rd …
Read more “V1.4 – Anthony John, Sarah Alice, and Mary Bowden”
Three children, ages 3 to 17, all dead within 19 months of each other. No news to us in the graveyard. These three sisters were the eldest and two youngest daughters of Matthew Wilson and his wife Elizabeth (nee Scholfield). Matthew was born in Dumfries, Scotland in 1793. He married Elizabeth in Haslingden in 1817. …