travellers – Page 2

15.30 – William, Thomas and Sarah Elizabeth Lord, and Joe Hirst and Mary Ann Shackleton

by admin October 30, 2024No Comments

Here’s a war grave that encompasses quite a bit more than “just” WW1; here we have wealth gained, wealth lost, new starts, domestic violence, and a little bit of Russian and Canadian intrigue. The story begins with George Hirst and Harriet Rowlandson of Knottingley, who married at Christ Church in East Knottingley in July 1851. …

34.30 – Walter, Frank, Fielden and Fred Uttley

by admin September 23, 2024September 23, 2024No Comments

This is a grave that makes you stop, look and think, as there are four little brothers buried here. The eldest was only 5 when he died and the youngest just 6 months old. The parents of these boys were Young Uttley and Ruth (nee Stansfield). Young Uttley was born at Watty Hole in 1860, …

9.40 – Alga Smith, not Olga Smith (unmarked grave)

by admin September 23, 2024September 23, 2024No Comments

We like giving unnamed infants their names back – “also five infants” is a challenge, and we LOVE challenges – but sometimes giving them their names back is a slow process. The register and Sexton’s book for this plot both read “Olga Smith”, who were we to argue? Except they were wrong. Trust Researcher Sally …

47.53 – James and Mary Fielden and Rachel and William Clegg

by admin August 19, 2024No Comments

This is the tale of two Cleggs – siblings Mary and William – and their spouses, James Fielden and Rachel Marshall. Mary was the oldest daughter and William was the youngest son of John and Hannah (Shackleton) Clegg, both hand loom weavers from Todmorden. The pair had married at Heptonstall by banns in September 1828 …

47.59 – Mary Alice, Edith and William Dawson (and maybe Willie)

by admin July 24, 2024July 25, 2024One Comment

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 …

Walter Aldous Le Neve Arnold (location unknown)

by admin July 2, 2024July 2, 2024No Comments

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 …

50.57 – Maria, Eveline, William, Isabella and William Thomas Heyworth

by admin June 3, 2024July 18, 2024One Comment

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 …

5.7 – Rachel, George and Tom Brammah

by admin May 4, 2024November 22, 2024No Comments

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 …

15.4 – Margaretta, George, Leopold and Sarah Mary Rohrer

by admin April 28, 2024One Comment

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 …

53.57 – Ruth, Sarah, Josiah and James Stott

by admin March 29, 2024July 18, 2024One Comment

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 …