Two William Henry Robinsons are buried here, or rather one is buried here but two are named. A father and son who both died young, the wife and mother left to mourn them, and the second man in her life (and the only one who outlived her). The first William Henry Robinson was born in …
Read more “28.28 – William Henry Robinson (x2) and Alice and James Thomas Highley”
The people above are buried here, under this lancet-laid-flat in the lower yard. Emma Jane is last in the title of this story but she’s the thread that ties everyone else together. This grave contains her first and third husbands and her two sons and a daughter in law, as well as four unnamed infants. …
An only child and her parents rest here, next to the child’s grandparents and aunt and uncle. Graveyards are family affairs. Hannah Proctor’s early life story is told in the story of her parents and siblings next door, but a quick recap: Hannah was born in 1850 and became a dressmaker, living with her family …
Read more “46.50 – Mary Ingham, Frederick and Hannah Woodhead”
These four were in a grave with three Scholfields, and at first the connection wasn’t obvious. Thankfully the story of the Scholfields of Todmorden helped us figure out the missing link – William and Mary Scholfield of Church Street. This story will explain why an older stone has a more modern inscription on its lower …
Read more “47.58 – John and Alice Marshall, and Albert Edward and Mary Ann Alletson”
Another infant gets their name back; Mary Kay, who died in April 1878 only two weeks old. First, though, her parents. James Kay was born in Rochdale, Hopwood in fact, in 1835. His father John was a tailor and his mother Catherine was a silk hand loom weaver, and he grew up with seven siblings …
Read more “46.63 – Mary, James, Ellen, John and Elizabeth Kay”
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”
We usually cover family graves separately from each other, but this is an exception – the Davis family unit here is very important to our group for a number of reasons. Fred and Rachel’s grave reads “Dead, Yet Speaketh” at its base, and what else are we doing here if we aren’t giving the dead …
Read more “V7.8, 31.43, and 47.60 – Frederick, Rachel, Eva and George Davis”
The last of our Leek graves is here, and we rejoin the story of Jeffrey Leek and his family. As you might recall, one of his children is buried with his mother and father in law, and we briefly touched on the family there; now we return and discover a story of apparently amicable separation. …
Read more “32.39 – James William, Ann, Edith and John Henry Leek”
These two graves aren’t strictly side by side – at least we don’t think they originally were, even though now their stones are – but they contain the majority of a large family unit; that made up of Thomas and Sarah (Stansfield) Scholfield, their children and a grandchild, and Sarah’s brother and sister-in-law Barker and …
These striking sidestones were tumbled over and half-buried when we arrived, and the grave itself recorded but not fully; we’ve put it back together as best we can for now, and despite its humble appearance it holds one of the town’s storytellers: Frederick Lee, of the Todmorden Advertiser and protegee of Richard and Thomas Chambers. …
Read more “51.58 – Frederick, Sarah Ann, Ann, Helen and Alice Lee”