This is a story already half-told, at a grave further back in the yard – a now-flattened ledger commemorating Susanna (Marshall) Barker and some of her children. That stone also remembers the three children of John and Mary (Smith) Barker, who are buried here. A first wife who looks after her replacement’s children in death; …
Did you know about this stone? Even if you walked the path to and from the school every day you might not always see it, due to it being laid flat in a natural dip which means all rain and leaf fall covers it with mud and muck and renders it invisible very quickly. Putting …
Next time you wander up Stansfield Hall Road and stop to smell the flowers, ask yourself who might have been smelling them 120 years ago…and who might have been planting them then too. This grave’s story starts in Child’s Ercall, Shropshire, in 1836 with the birth of Richard Green. Richard grew up in a household …
This story was at times frustrating, but still fascinating – given that it spans 141 years that’s hardly a surprise! James Turner was born in Spotland in 1773. He grew up a weaver, of course, and made his way to Walsden and to Knowlwood specifically. At some point he married the first of his two …
Read more “39.3 – James and Betty Turner, and John and Sarah Ann Sunderland”
Two rows down from his brother John lies Edmund Holt (Jr.) and some of his own family. Edmund Holt was John Holt’s younger brother and so his early life was much the same as John’s – life up at Lumbutts – and also in terms of employment – the Fielden family. While John went down …
Read more “41.i – William, Robert, Sarah and Edmund Holt, and Sarah Ann Ingham”
Here are some more members of the Lord family of Canal Street Works fame, but from a slightly lesser known Lord brother: Abraham. The story here starts with his first wife, Emm. It also covers the lives of two of her sons…one to be proud of (or at least not disappointed by), and one to …
Read more “41.12 – Andrew, Emm, Mary Ellen, Sam, Willie and John Lord”
These stones, one in the public area and one in the private, contain most of what was once one of Todmorden’s more well off families; mill owners, teachers, railwaymen, and housebuilders (and that’s just to start). Once upon a time, 1787 to be exact, there was a building at the bottom of Ferney Lee Road …
Anyone who stands at the fence between the Garden of Rest and the church will now be able to see the two impressive needlepoint spires of the twin Lord family monuments, which mark two enormous vaults holding family members of the Lord Brothers who once owned and operated most of the mills at Derdale and …
Read more “41.15 – James, Elizabeth, Sarah, Charles Edward, Angelina and Martha Lord”
Another grave with Chartist links – this corner truly does have a fantastic selection of radical townsmen! Jakeh Butterworth was born in Oldham in 1804. He was baptised Jackey, and his name morphs over time and changes back and forth between Jackey, Jackeh, Jacky, Jakey, and finally Jakeh. How was it pronounced? It might be …
Read more “41.16 – Betty, Ann, Jane, Mary and Jakeh Butterworth”
This is another multigenerational grave: this time it’s a grandmother, grandson, and a beloved sister and aunt who spent most of her life in service to others, one way or another. Mary Holt, or Mally as she’s known on this grave and in the record, was born in 1785 on the Lancashire side of the …