This grave holds two parents, Charles and Sarah, and six of their eight children – Emily, William Campbell, Mary Jane, John Walter, Mabel, and Amy Elizabeth. Christopher Hiley’s excellent family history blog has already told Charles and Sarah’s stories so we’ll let you go there and read all about them. But what about the two …
Read more “43.52 – Charles and Sarah (Chaffer) Hiley and family”
This double plot has two gravestones, and each one names a host of people. It “begins” with Fieldens but also incorporates Hollinrakes, so strap yourselves in for an occasionally convoluted tale of leatherworking, firefighting, early deaths and ripe old ages. Most of all it’s the story of one of the church’s most fierce and loyal …
Read more “43.56 and 43.57 – Thomas and Esther Fielden and family”
Like the story of Jane Chalcroft, this is one of a mother who followed her daughter to Todmorden and lived her final days in a school environment. Not noteworthy in itself maybe, but the fact that it’s the second such story is always interesting. Are there any coincidences in the graveyard? Harriot – yes, that’s …
Read more “44.60 – Harriot Yates and Elizabeth and Henry Stansfield”
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. …
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”
There are many people named Pickles in the yard but these Pickles here hailed from Bradford – and one is actually buried there! James Pickles was born in April 1816 in Haworth, near Bradford, home of course of the Brontës. They weren’t there yet (they were still in Thornton, not too far away) but even …
Read more “46.54 – James, Rachel and Emmanuel Hudson Pickles”
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”
“Other than that, Jane seems to just vanish” – and that’s why we’re here. You could stop reading now, frankly, but you can continue if you want. This grave’s story is of a grandmother and grandson, one with a life and one whose life barely got started before it ended. Jane Kendall, or Kendell or …
Read more “52.54 – Jane Chalcraft and Frederick John Radcliffe”
This story was told as part of our “Dead for the Holidays” 2023 tour. I love this story for one main reason—John Turner was a teacher. It seems he was not just any teacher, either… he was someone who was absolutely dedicated to his profession, and had an impact on many lives. It is all …
Read more “33.41 – John Joseph, Mary, John, Sarah Ellen, and Charlotte Turner”