More of the smithing Greenlees family here, this time two brothers and the wife and son of one of them. How much ironwork in the town can be traced back to them and to the Scholfield family? Someone ought to take a count at some point. We’ve already discussed some of this family’s origins at …
This war grave is one of our Remembrance Sunday 2024 stories, sitting alongside that of Percy Smallwood. Percy died only five weeks before WW1 came to an end; Harry here died about seven weeks after. John Helliwell was born in Walsden in 1852. His father John was a railway porter and he and his wife …
Read more “V1.8 – Fanny, John, Harry, Charles Henry and Ann Horsfall Helliwell”
This story, we thought, would be a relatively straightforward “war grave” story to post in time for Remembrance Sunday 2024. Instead, the background work on John William threw up a horrible sad story of its own; that of a soldier who was found guilty of one of the worst crimes and who was able to …
Here’s a war grave that encompasses quite a bit more than “just” WW1; here we have wealth gained, wealth lost, new starts, domestic violence, and a little bit of Russian and Canadian intrigue. The story begins with George Hirst and Harriet Rowlandson of Knottingley, who married at Christ Church in East Knottingley in July 1851. …
Read more “15.30 – William, Thomas and Sarah Elizabeth Lord, and Joe Hirst and Mary Ann Shackleton”
Following on from our story about Sarah Elizabeth and Mary Ann Hirst, enjoy another Hirst story. The story of these two is straightforward, but this grave contains a mystery: who was Maria Hudson? We’ll get to her at the end. Firstly, though, a recap on Arthur Hirst’s childhood. His parents George and Hannah Hirst came …
Read more “15.25 -Arthur and Hannah Hirst, and Maria Hudson”
This story is mostly already told over on the Todmorden and Walsden website, where an entire page is devoted to the Scholfields of Todmorden. Scroll down a spell and you’ll come to Samuel and some of his story. We’ll tell the rest though, because Susan and Martha here are lost in the story there. Samuel …
Meet William and Sarah, who had a very modern relationship indeed… William Whitehead was born in 1827, the youngest of the three sons of John Whitehead of Todmorden. He and his older brothers George and Henry lived at Hal Ing, where with their father they worked as tinplate workers and metalsmiths. John was smart, and …
Read more “46.52 – William, Sarah and Charles Edward Whitehead”
The story of the Leah family buried here is mostly told through advertisements and notices – sometimes when public records don’t come through these are your best bet for fleshing out the life of an individual. Robert Leah was born around 1803 in Erringden, and we don’t know much more beyond that. When he married …
This stone now lies flat, but the grave it marks is one of the “sweetest” graves at Christ Church. This confectioner, his wife, and two of their sons helped keep the town supplied with biscuits and candies. Abraham Crossley was born in Todmorden in 1832 to Abraham and Esther (Haigh) Crossley. Abraham Sr. was a …
Read more “38.14 – Abraham, Margaret, Esther, Mary, Deborah, William, John and Mary Jane Crossley”
This is another post about the Davis family, this time following one of Fred and Rachel’s sons with a less tragic life trajectory than his brother George, but certainly not untouched by it. And also his wife Betsy Ann, whose only presence in the newspapers was down to the curious terms of a will. Thomas …
Read more “11.24 – Bertha, Frederick, Betsy Ann and Thomas Davis”