freemason – F.O.C.C.T.

43.59 – Walter, Richard and Fanny Crossland, and George and Mary Hartley

by admin December 25, 2024No Comments

Two widows, two different experiences – what a difference a handful of half-grown children makes. Everyone in this story were born outside of Todmorden, so be patient and kind, their stories deserve telling too… Up on the Mytholmroyd hills, in 1832, Richard Crossland was born. Richard’s father Joseph was a stonemason from Dewsbury and Richard …

44.56 – Margaret and Frank Nuttall

by admin December 16, 2024December 16, 2024No Comments

This grave holds two people from very different backgrounds, who both met a sad and early end – and of course, as with so many stories like this, there’s also the story of one person in particular who they left behind… Frank Nuttall, the second person buried here, was the first person born to this …

44.60 – Harriot Yates and Elizabeth and Henry Stansfield

by admin December 7, 2024December 21, 2024No Comments

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 …

V1.5 – Charles Henry, Sarah and Alice Greenlees, and Arthur and Henrietta Corbett

by admin November 18, 2024November 18, 20242 Comments

Right at the front row of vaults stands this cross commemorating four siblings and a man who married into their family – the branch of the Greenlees family that was concerned with shoeing and veterinary practice at Der Street. This story is one of sisters who were doing it for themselves and a brother whose …

V2.4 – Maria, Percy and John William Smallwood

by admin November 8, 2024No Comments

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 …

18.24 – Richard, Frank, John Albert and Agnes Scholfield, and Benjamin and Emma Jane Shepherd

by admin October 25, 2024October 28, 20242 Comments

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. …

39.27 – James, John, Elizabeth and Thomas Nash

by admin September 27, 2024One Comment

This grave has one story partly told in the story of Samuel and Susan Scholfield, as Elizabeth is their sister. She was born in 1814 to William and Mary Scholfield, ironmongers who had a shop on North Street (Burnley Road) and Church Street (Rochdale Road, opposite the gates to St. Mary’s) and so grew up …

11.24 – Bertha, Frederick, Betsy Ann and Thomas Davis

by admin August 5, 2024August 5, 2024No Comments

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 …

V7.8, 31.43, and 47.60 – Frederick, Rachel, Eva and George Davis

by admin August 2, 2024August 5, 2024No Comments

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 …

51.62 – George, William, Nancy Ann and Anthony Whitehead

by admin May 24, 2024September 17, 2024One Comment

In many graves here at Christ Church you can find children mentioned whose existence is often lost in the search for ancestors; they may or may not have been baptised, and if they were born and died between census returns then it’s easy to miss them. This grave is one such grave. Their father was …