Another publican – and another Blomley – a surprise? Not really, because even though there’s a Blomley here, the trade was coming from inside the (public) house. John Suthers was born in 1821, the eldest child of Jeremiah and Mary (Bulcock) Suthers. Jeremiah was a publican, the son of one too; his own father John …
Read more “38A.31 – Samuel Mash, Annie Elizabeth, James Edward, Edmund, John and Sarah Suthers”
Two little girls and their sad father – this grave is yet another cautionary tale that would fit nicely into a temperance pamphlet. James Blomley was, like the Howorths and Greenwoods, part of a great Todmorden innkeeping family – but not from birth. His father Edmund would become the landlord of the Golden Lion sometime …
This story was a wild ride, a tale of the dangers of drink and of one woman’s progress from Todmorden to Chester and back again. Plus there’s a cougar. First though, we start with ostler Edward Greenwood. Born in 1803, he married Ann Whiteley in 1824 by banns at St. Chad’s and Heptonstall, since she …
Read more “40.7 – Edward and Ann Greenwood, and Mary Thorpe”
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 …
If you’ve ever had a pint at the Black Swan that was, or the Polished Knob that is, then next time you’re there raise another to this publican family who did their best by the place through good times and bad. This story begins with two Greenwoods – Robert, who was born here in Todmorden …
Read more “43.8 – Robert, Fanny, Henry, John, Sarah and William Greenwood”
We stand here by the unmarked grave of Minnie Rowland, Ralph Rowland and Charlie Rowland. Please be warned that this story contains graphic details about the death of two children. Their story touched us deeply, and left us with many questions. Maybe, after hearing this, you’ll want to talk about what we’d like to do …
Read more “15.17 – Minnie, Ralph and Charlie Rowland (unmarked)”
The Cardwells and Parkinsons are a good example of how migration from Lancashire to Todmorden had begun long before the Fieldens had become a powerful economic concern, and of the circuitous routes it could take! Thomas Parkinson was born in 1813 in Preston. Thomas’s father William was a weaver. A few decades earlier Thomas would …
Read more “53.60 – Thomas and Alice Parkinson, and Margaret and James Cardwell”
The graveyard is full of stories where good, bad, neutral and unknown meet and combine, and this grave is (possibly) a perfect example. Sarah Grindrod, her daughter Doris, and an unnamed and unknown grandson rest here. Sarah was once Sarah Halstead, born in 1879 to Reuben and Lucy Ann (Dean) Halstead. One of the younger …
Plot markers can be difficult things to work out – sometimes the initials are of the plot owner, sometimes of the person buried there. Christ Church’s fairly regular grid pattern allows us to occasionally make an educated guess, and in the case of the mysterious W.H.G. under the school, we can guess that it’s William …
“Thy Will Be Done” is seen on many stones here, but sometimes the line hits a little harder. This would have been a hard line to have engraved if it had been done at the beginning of the inscription. It would have been an even harder one to engrave after the last person we believe …
Read more “31.32 – Sabina, James Holland, Sarah and Henry Flint”