One of the first stories we told from under the school extension was that of the Dodd family – that was because on the two out of their three sidestones, which are unaccountably resting on the outside of the school extension, one included a hitherto unrecorded family member. Since then we’ve found unmentioned people, stones …
Read more “S2.9 – Herbert, John Robert, Betsy and Arnold Cunliffe, and Jack Uttley”
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 …
A pair of proud parents and a proud uncle are buried here – at least, the father and uncle would have been proud if they’d still been around to see their son/nephew’s success. A tale of offcumden who embedded themselves in Todmorden life. William and Charles Goucke were brothers who had moved to Todmorden from …
The Shackletons were longstanding residents of Patmos both as Shackletons and Sutcliffes – and on the Sutcliffe side, were deemed important enough to be included in John Travis’s geneaology of the family. His inclusion of their little family unit is prematurely, briskly brief – names, issue, and their marital status. But he was right in …
Read more “S7.1 – Alice Elizabeth, Mary, Sally, Thomas and Mary Ann Shackleton”
A father and son are buried here – the son first and the father second. James Greenwood was born in 1836 to William and Martha (Pilling) Greenwood of Horsewood, a farm that is still standing above Lumbutts. He was their only son. William was a cotton spinner despite living in a farm cottage, and while …
This musical family rests under a walkway, and there’s a mystery contained therein too – we think we know who Sarah is, but because there’s no formal transcript, there’s currently no way to be 100% sure, Lord Halstead – what a name! – was born in 1836 in Heptonstall to John and Mary (Lord) Halstead. …
Read more “SA.1 – Sarah, Susy, Tom, Lord and Jamie Halstead”
Buried here are a pair of Unitarian royalty – yes, here, not at the Unitarian – we believe underneath the external walkway around the back of the school extension. Joseph and Ann’s birth families are here at Christ Church and so they chose to rest here instead. Joseph Sutcliffe was born in 1840 to James …
Read more “SA.7 – Ruth, Mary Emmyline, Joseph and Ann Sutcliffe”
This grave is “bookended” by two small children, and in the middle lie a mother/grandmother and a daughter/aunt. And who’s really the last one in? Hannah Hollingrake was born in 1819 on the Lancashire side of Todmorden. Her father Abraham was a labourer. We know very little about Hannah prior to her marriage, or indeed …
Read more “SA.8 – Abraham, Hannah, Mary and Thomas Dawson, and Charles Henry Dixon”
A brother and sister together in the grave, keeping each other company for eternity. Hannah Farrar was born in 1825 in the Watty area of Walsden, near Bacup Road. She was baptised at Christ Church the same year by her parents, James and Mary, who were both cotton weavers at Wadsworth Mill at Shade. She …
The SA. and SB. indicators are for rows of graves which are on the school side of the fence, but are not under the extension itself. Some of these are still visible and readable from the school side and some are hidden in some way or other through overgrowth. The plot marker for this grave …