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)”
Sometimes you’re in pursuit of one person and you stumble across another. This name was too long to miss and the location of death, the White Hart Inn, indicated a travelled or outsider to the town. How Walter came to rest here, both while alive and dead, is a mystery. Join us in a brief …
The story of those buried here shows some of the interconnectedness of the yard; peeling apart each grave’s story makes seeing those links possible. It’s part of why we do what we do. The story of this grave can’t be fully told without also telling the story of the Charltons at 49.58, the Buttons at …
Read more “50.57 – Maria, Eveline, William, Isabella and William Thomas Heyworth”
Some gravestone epitaphs leap out at you and scream that there’s a story to be told here. There’s certainly one here. George Brammah was born in 1835 in Cudworth, near Barnsley. His father George was a quarryman and no doubt was working in one of the many mines or mine-adjacent industries in that part of …
This story was told on our Remembrance Sunday 2023 tour. This is a story of not just a soldier, but an entire family that were drastically affected by the events of WW1. But let’s start with the birth of a little boy that would one day die for his country. George William Rohrer was born …
Read more “15.4 – Margaretta, George, Leopold and Sarah Mary Rohrer”
This grave is in need of adopting, since the descendants of those buried here are all abroad; in fact, one of these four isn’t buried here at all. Josiah Stott was born around 1816, and his future wife Sarah Crossley was born around 1823. No marriage certificate can be found for them, and no 1841 …
This grave sparked a lively post on our Facebook group, when FOCCer Elaine noticed it one day while tidying and asked “so where’s George?” First things first, the people who are here. Maria Brown was born in 1844 in Coventry to David and Phoebe (Gilbert) Brown. She was baptised at the parish church there, St. …
This transatlantic grave had a larger story than met the eye at first. Mary Jackson (nee Ashworth) was born in 1813 at Roomfield Lanes, the daughter of Abraham Ashworth, a butcher, and his wife Betty (nee Barker). In 1834 she married Edmund (also known as Edward) Nuttall a cotton weaver, at St. Chad’s, Rochdale. In …
Read more “16.26 – Mary Jackson and Barker, James and William Nuttall”
A lot of people are remembered on this stone, although they aren’t all buried here – at least one is at rest over the pond. Abraham Crossley, the patriarch of this grave, might be a familiar name to you already. Fast forward and he was one of the two men killed when a fireplace they …
Read more “56.44 – Abraham, Susan and John Crossley, and Susan, Mary, Sutcliffe and Willie Mitchell”
This is one of the stones we liberated from a few inches of soil behind the Garden of Rest. It doesn’t tell much of a story, but do you always need there to be a story? James Nuttall was born in 1770 or thereabouts and grew up in the Stansfield ward area of the larger …
Read more “57.50 – James, Mally, Isaac and Elizabeth Nuttall (previously unmarked)”