The Holts and Crowthers were people who loved the high windswept places, and sometimes thrived there…sometimes not. James Holt was born in Todmorden in 1814, two years after his future wife Sally Crowther. Sally was the sister of James Crowther, whose story you might have heard before, and her family were firmly ensconced on the …
Read more “38.16 – James, Sally, James, Greenwood and Sarah Holt”
Another plot marker discerned, although there are many other unlocated Thorps in this graveyard which raises the question…why here? And who here? The Thorp family hailed from Heath Charnock, between Chorley and Bolton, and most of the children of James and Alice (France) Thorp were born there. The couple had a love of fancy names …
This is a short story, since these two people were brief interludes in the life of someone else who is part of a large double vault grave – the Ratcliffs at V11.8 and V11.9. If it weren’t for Betty here though some of those people would never be born, so even though her entry is …
A father, a son, and a daughter in law – and a telling gap in the engraving that raises a question…where’s Sarah? Abram, or Abraham, Stansfield was born in Todmorden in 1811 to parents whose names we can’t be certain of. There are only 14 Abraham Stansfields on a census return in 1841, and thanks …
Read more “41.7 and 33.20 – Charles, Abram, Betty and Sarah Stansfield”
One of the more impressive plot markers in the yard here, it consists of a full-sized flat ledger with two initials at the base: G on the left side, F on the right. The year for the stones along from it is 1835, so we went looking, and there it was… The story begins with …
This plot marker is marked W. D. for William Dawson (maybe), Mary Alice’s father and the owner of the plot…but she was buried first, and she and (probably) her sister and father are the only members of their family unit in Todmorden soil. Or even in British soil, as it turns out. And, finally, a …
Read more “47.59 – Mary Alice, Edith and William Dawson (and maybe Willie)”
This plot marker started a spiral down countless search term variations and speculative rabbit holes, as we tried to trace the lives of the people most likely buried here – James, Elizabeth, and John James Laithwaite. Many thanks to the recordkeepers of the 1800s for their many creative spellings of this surname. We appreciate it. …
Read more “49.55 – The Laithwaites (or Leithwites, or Lethwhites…)”
This plot marker labelled B. A. denotes a grave belonging to Benjamin Ashworth of Shade. In it is definitely his sister Sarah, and probably another B. A. – his wife Betty. But what of Benjamin himself? Read on… Sarah Ashworth was born in 1815 in Chadderton to William and Ann Ashworth. She was the eldest …
This plot marker confused us, and still confuses us; is C.M.P. Mary Catherine Pearson? If so, why would it be in an 1878 row? Would they really have gotten her initials wrong? Well…if you’ve seen the “aged 42 yeabs” stone in the private area, you know that all sorts of errors can be made in …
This plot marker took a while to discern, having to manually rule out all the known V surnames in the graveyard and their immediate families. We still aren’t 100% certain about who is in this plot – we have guesses – but we’re certain that F. V. refers to Fielden Varley, and it’s likely that …