Charles and Sally have many children and grandchildren buried at Christ Church, and if we tried to link them all in we’d get very tired. But a good place to start to catch a little of their story is to read about the children we’ve written the stories up for so far: Richard, Hannah, Henry, …
Read more “38.23 – Mary, John, Charles and Sally Stansfield”
Men who died young and women who didn’t – a not uncommon scenario here in the graveyard. So who were the Eastwoods? What was their story? Who rests here under this laid-flat lancet with an unusual rose emblem carved at the top? This family’s stories start with two people and two extremes. John Eastwood was …
Read more “37.24 – John, Ada, Lucy, John Henry, Alice and Emily Eastwood”
A Todmorden couple who crossed the border to Burnley, but held on to their Todmorden links to the end. Alice Stott opens this story as the older member of the pair. She was born Alice Davies in 1827, the second youngest child of her father Peter and mother Hannah (Jackson). She grew up in the …
Schoolmaster – land agent – house builder – railway inspector – all in one? How?? Burnley lad Thomas Newton was born in 1812. There he grew up, and a good brain (not family financial support – his father was a carter) meant he was able to find a better job than most young men in …
Mourn not my friends, twas God’s decree, That I should leave this world of strife, From earthly danger shall I flee, To share with him eternal Life, Sudden fate so soon to sever, The tender thread of nature’s ties, From Parents, Friends, I’m hid forever, Yet we shall meet beyond the skies. But millions of …
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 …
These stones, one in the public area and one in the private, contain most of what was once one of Todmorden’s more well off families; mill owners, teachers, railwaymen, and housebuilders (and that’s just to start). Once upon a time, 1787 to be exact, there was a building at the bottom of Ferney Lee Road …
Sisters in law and a tiny son – these women hailed from afar and their husbands didn’t stay long…but this grave is linked to one of Todmorden’s greatest railway landmarks via one husband, and it’s a shame that the story of these women will be light on details when there’s so much to tell about …
Two husbands, four children; some of them are here, along with the woman whose affection they all held in common. John Binns was born in 1811 somewhere outside of Todmorden. The short time he was alive and the time he was alive in means we know nothing else about him apart from that he was …
Read more “42.16 – John Binns and Joshua, Betsy and Richard Taylor”
More Hiley/Highley graves which link to one another here in the graveyard; this one features the parents and siblings of Charles Hiley at 43.52. This branch of Hileys (or Highleys, depending on who wrote the name down at the time) were firmly Lumbutts and Causey Wood stock, but they hadn’t always been this way. John …
Read more “43.ii – James, William, Thomas, Hannah and John Hiley”