The graveyard is full of stories where good, bad, neutral and unknown meet and combine, and this grave is (possibly) a perfect example. Sarah Grindrod, her daughter Doris, and an unnamed and unknown grandson rest here. Sarah was once Sarah Halstead, born in 1879 to Reuben and Lucy Ann (Dean) Halstead. One of the younger …
2.11 has traditionally been marked, at least with a stone, as the resting place of Arthur Marshall, one of our seven CWGC graves at Christ Church. But as you’ll know if you’ve read Arthur’s story, he isn’t actually buried there. Who is? John Mitchell of 113 Knowlwood Road, who was buried there on September 20th …
As researcher Holly put so much care and compassion into her FB post about this grave, it’s been copied over in full here. Located not far from the middle pathway to the school is row 31, along here at plot number 36 is an unmarked grave (one of many unmarked). From the sexton records we …
This grave turned out to be a case of incorrect assumptions taken by the teenage transcribers in the 1980s, and is an excellent illustration of why projects such as ours matter. John Law was born in 1821 in Walsden. We don’t know much more than that; there was at least one other knocking around at …
Plot markers can be difficult things to work out – sometimes the initials are of the plot owner, sometimes of the person buried there. Christ Church’s fairly regular grid pattern allows us to occasionally make an educated guess, and in the case of the mysterious W.H.G. under the school, we can guess that it’s William …
Another instance of two graves which might only be one – and at least one error that leaves us in the dark about what’s actually happening in these two plots. Bridget Faulkner is the oldest person in this story – born sometime around 1833, in Leeds by her accounting, Bridget only appears once on a …
Read more “S6.1 and S6.2 – John and James Thomas, and Bridget Faulkner”
Several generations in one grave – this story takes us from Preston to Liverpool to Todmorden and surrounding areas. It even includes an honourary member of the family. John Johnson is the eldest member of this family buried here. Born in 1814 in Chorley, he was a mule spinner, and his children would all follow …
Read more “S3.3 – Catherine, John and Mary Johnson, and Margaret Moore”
Elizabeth is buried a long way from her family, and alone, here in Todmorden – we know little about how she got here, but she is one of a long line of working people who dared to stand up for their rights and as such deserves our respect. The image above is a list of …
Miranda (Scholfield) Duggan is at S2.10, under the school…well, she isn’t under the school, not really, because (in theory) that row and plot are above ground still. She lies next to the wall that drops down to the cricket club. It seems as though we know she’s there thanks to the sexton’s book rather than …
This is one of a very few stones under the school whose faces are visible, and readable, in the few photographs that were taken of the construction site prior to the new extension reburying them from sight. And as with so many of the stones under there, the initial 1980s rough transcription bears little resemblance …
Read more “S4.7 – The Sefton family, Frances Jane Scrivener, and John Stott”