offcumden – Page 17

21.41 – Elizabeth Bradbury and Nellie and Charles Martin Saville (previously unmarked)

by admin July 2, 2023No Comments

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 …

17.33 – Sarah Jones (previously unmarked)

by admin June 30, 2023No Comments

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 …

27.20 – the children of Elizabeth Greenwood

by admin June 30, 2023June 30, 2023One Comment

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, …

V2.3 – Christian and Thomas Cowley Stephen

by admin June 29, 2023One Comment

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 …

39.4 – Mary Ellen Howorth, Sarah and William Hudson, Alice, Percy, and Fred Marshall

by admin June 27, 2023No Comments

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 …

25.32 – Henrietta, Emma, Thomas Richard and Thomas Newton Sparks

by admin June 27, 2023July 4, 2023No Comments

“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 …

41.34 – Mary, Agnes and Elizabeth Wilson

by admin June 26, 2023February 3, 2024No Comments

Three children, ages 3 to 17, all dead within 19 months of each other. No news to us in the graveyard. These three sisters were the eldest and two youngest daughters of Matthew Wilson and his wife Elizabeth (nee Scholfield). Matthew was born in Dumfries, Scotland in 1793. He married Elizabeth in Haslingden in 1817. …

10.19 – Mark Brennan

by admin June 23, 2023No Comments

Information taken from the “Annals of Todmorden”, an impressive and invaluable book put together by Dorothy Dugdale which is a compilation of all the local trivia included over the entire course of the publication of the Todmorden and Hebden Bridge Historical Almanack. “On this day [1st October] 1901. About 6pm, a shocking accident occurred at …

15.33 – John Glynn, Mary Ann, Mary and Thomas Kendall (previously unmarked)

by admin June 22, 2023November 6, 20235 Comments

“Previously unmarked” is underselling things; this was one of the most frustrating graves we’ve come across at Christ Church. Some stones were buried, some were dislodged, and only a great deal of investigative work across all available online family history platforms allowed us to reassemble the sidestones and ensure they were where they belonged, and …

V3.8 – Thomas Maden

by admin June 22, 2023August 31, 2023One Comment

TEETH! TEETH! TEETH! Thomas Maden is the only person buried in this vault tomb, which is somewhat unusual. Thomas himself is less unusual, and local history enthusiasts will immediately recognise the address – Dental Villa – as being one of the several noteworthy aspects of Maden’s business advertising over the years. That’s because Maden was …