Another one of our eroded stones that needed Ancestry’s help to decipher. Also another suicide contained within. Before we start, a word about holly. Holly is our least favourite plant in the graveyard. Not even ivy is capable of causing such damage. Ivy might crack stones, but holly erases everything it touches. Something to do …
Read more “37.27 – Lydia, George, Grace, Hannah, William and Hannah Lingard Marshall”
It’s tempting to spend a lot of time talking about someone who we think might be buried here but aren’t sure about – John’s second wife, a different Mary – we’ll start with those who are here, though. Ann Coward was born in Knottingley in 1839, and met John Pettyt Barraclough of Pontefract probably sometime …
Although it is in extremely poor condition, we are fairly confident that our researchers have discovered the identities of those on this stone. It’s a good thing we came along because this was previously not transcribed and is on the verge of becoming entirely unreadable. We believe that this is the headstone for three children …
Read more “36A.22 – Peter, Mary and Elizabeth Ann Murray (previously unmarked)”
Ici repose Mademoiselle Maria [Marie-Antoinette L. J.] Vanhoey nee a Malines le 17th Novembre 1877. Pieusement decedee a Todmorden le 5th Janvier 1915. (Refugiee Belge.) Priez pour elle! Todmorden gave refuge to a number of Belgians during WW1 and this lady is one of them. She died from bronchitis three weeks after arriving from Belgium, …
While checking the TAS transcript we discovered some tumbled sidestones that marked a previously “unmarked” grave. The sexton’s book had already told us that Elizabeth (Stringfellow) Bradbury was here, but no one had recorded Charles Martin and Nellie Saville’s burials here except for on these stones. Nellie was Elizabeth’s daughter. How they all got here …
Read more “21.41 – Elizabeth Bradbury and Nellie and Charles Martin Saville (previously unmarked)”
Sarah Jones was born Sarah Taplin in 1824 in Preston on Stour, Gloucestershire. She appears to be the only child of John, who was 53 when she was born, and Margaret, who was 48 when she was born. They had been married 9 years at this point, and it puts me in mind of the …
Rather than type all their names into the title, here lies seven of Elizabeth and John Ashton Greenwood’s children – Sarah Elizabeth, Evelyn Josephine, John Ashton, Florence, Sybil, Theresa, and Elizabeth Ann. So many children. Elizabeth Ann Greenwood was born Elizabeth Sykes in Preston in June 1860. She is hard to track down before 1881, …
This mother and son grave is probably the most distinctive grave at Christ Church, even more so than the Hardman grave with its ornate but broken gothic spire. This is the angel. Here we have a lady by the name of Christian Stephen. Yes, the name is Christian – really unusual! She was born on …
This stone betrayed a small part of this story in the naming: Mary Ellen’s surname, specifically. William Hudson and Sarah Howorth married on September 29th 1860; Mary Ellen was born in September 1860, probably during the first or second week of the month as she was aged 13 weeks old at her death on December …
Read more “39.4 – Mary Ellen Howorth, Sarah and William Hudson, Alice, Percy, and Fred Marshall”
“Gone To Rest” “Rest after weariness. Sweet rest at last.” Those epitaphs are for the first two people buried here – Henrietta, who was only eight when she died, and her mother Emma. Thomas Richard Sparks and his wife Emma (maidenly Elston), were both originally from Devon. By 1873 they had moved to Todmorden, and …
Read more “25.32 – Henrietta, Emma, Thomas Richard and Thomas Newton Sparks”