This handsome granite monument tells an interesting story – one of wealth, adopted families, and of course loss.
Melina Leah – the Melina Stansfield of our story – was born in April 1844, one of the many many children of Robert and Mary (Parker) Leah of Edge Nook, which on the 1851 Census comes just after Toad Carr so is one of those mysterious lost bits of the town centre that love to puzzle us here. Their story is told elsewhere on this website so here we’ll focus primarily on Melina’s experience. She was talented young girl and while many of her older siblings went into weaving, Melina took up millinery and dressmaking instead. It was respectable, useful, and paid decently. Other sisters took note and by 1871 not just Melina but older sister Sarah Ann and younger sister Betty were all three running a clothing shop on North Street. When Robert and Mary died the sisterly partnership came to an end and Melina moved on, taking on a premises at Pavement opposite the Golden Lion with her sister Mary Ann and her husband John Crabtree and their family helping to pay the rent on the accommodations that formed part of the shop which she renamed to “Paris House”. Her reputation as a high-quality dressmaker and savvy businesswoman would have made her seem quite the catch for any sensible men in the town, but she ended up catching the eye of one from out-of-town: Mytholmroyd grocer John Clegg.
John Clegg was born in Sowerby 1852, making him Melina’s junior by eight years. His father Joseph was both a cotton and wool handloom weaver who died not very long after John’s birth, leaving his mother Maria to raise their six children alone. She didn’t remarry, instead going back into the weaving sheds with the support of her family who lived only next door. This blended families approach meant that while the children who were old enough to work would, the youngest would still be supported without their mother at home. John grew up in the weaving sheds and in the 1870s the family moved down the valley to Mytholmroyd and Rose Grove just off of Scout Road. John’s brother Samuel had become involved with the local Methodist circuit and John had saved up to start his own business as a grocer. Perhaps he met Melina through a business social event, or maybe he was visiting Todmorden with family or friends and lost his gloves, or maybe he was looking for a gift for a sister…somehow or other he became aware of Melina Leah, and decided he wanted to know more, and found out the feeling was mutual. They were married in 1882 at St. John the Baptist in Halifax.
Meanwhile though, we need to skip backwards a few years, to the Crabtrees and their time prior to moving into Paris House. In 1867 Mary Ann gave birth to her last child, a daughter named after one of her sisters – Melina! Melina Crabtree was a precocious child and her first appearance in the newspapers was in 1879 at a fundraiser for Patmos Congregational Chapel’s building fund, when “Miss Melina Crabtree (a little girl, daughter of John Crabtree of Pavement) gave the quaint old Scotch song ‘Huntingtower’ in a very creditable manner”. She continued to perform at various events and were she born a few decades later probably would have had either a side hobby or actual career in the performing arts. But those times were those times and girls who wanted to respectably get somewhere weren’t encouraged too much. Even in a family full of businesswomen.
John and Melina Clegg, meanwhile, were busy with her business and – we presume – his too. But it’s difficult to tell because there was a John Clegg who was a grocer at Knowlwood who died in late 1883 who wasn’t him; filtering that John out, we only really find mentions of John in the newspaper when he was serving on juries for various court cases. He did help Melina in the business and also got her to be involved in the Wesleyan Methodists, as we see her appearing as one of the overseers of – unsurprisingly – the “plain and fancy needlework stall” at the Wesleyan Circuit Sewing Meeting’s annual Sale of Work in 1886. But she was a busy woman and wasn’t going to spend too much time away from work. Even when John died, she didn’t seem to pause…
John Clegg died in October 1888 and was buried at Christ Church on Halloween – spooky! – with no apparent fanfare. The newspaper would have reported on it if there had been, surely, given Melina’s status. He was only 36 years old and they had had only six years together, with no children to show for it. The cause was typhoid, which isn’t a surprise as 1888 was a bad year for it in the district, with many people having to be removed from their homes and isolated for treatment in an attempt to prevent it spreading. Melina threw herself into her work and the younger Melina came to live with her (the other Crabtrees had since moved out) and to work alongside her in the business. Paris House on the 1891 Census was just the two Melinas and their housemaid Emily Dale. Change is inevitable though and this situation wouldn’t last very long, because young, extroverted Melina had also been catching eyes in the community, and again attracted a young man from outside Todmorden – Thomas Stoddart, a chemist’s apprentice from Manchester who was lodging with her parents John and Mary Ann. They married in 1895 with a wedding that was so sumptuous that it filled up a significant amount of column space in the local news. An entire column in fact, top to bottom of the page, with some more on the next one to boot. This is the sort of coverage usually devoted to heated council meetings or dramatic inquests, or the weddings of minor royalty – it speaks a great deal to her popularity and to the sumptuousness of the wedding.
A friend of the researcher writing this was looking at the writeup and asking (a) why did Melina Clegg give Melina Crabtree away and not the girl’s father, and (b) why was Mary Ann Crabtree wearing black to her youngest daughter’s wedding when no one in the family had recently died? (A) can be answered probably as simply as “the person paying for the wedding had the honour”, although maybe that’s a bit snarky. John Crabtree had started out as a wood turner but by this time was employing some men so was able to contribute to this wedding, although it definitely wouldn’t have been this grand without Melina’s help. (B) is explainable by dispelling myths about black at weddings. Black was a mourning colour, black could be highly disrespectful to wear to a wedding, but black was acceptable wedding wear for mature women. And anyway the lavender broche silk trim would undermine any disapproving messages being sent by the dress. So no shade here, no drama, no tea to be spilled – just a nice dress for a 61 year old woman to wear to her little girl’s wedding.
Melina and Thomas went off to Manchester so he could grow his business and the older Melina was once more left alone. She had met widowed wine merchant Henry Stansfield through various business concerns (maybe even through catering for her niece’s wedding) and in 1897 they were married. It was three years since his first wife Elizabeth had died, and nine years since John Clegg’s death. Thomas Stoddart was one of their marriage witnesses, which is a nice family touch. But finally Melina either caved into societal expectations or to her own aging and reluctance to continue without her niece at her side, and she sold the building and business to tailor and draper Thomas Wilson and retired. She moved in with Henry and his four children into his business and home premises at 77-79 Burnley Road and finally became a lady of leisure.
Fifteen years passed. Thomas and Melina were happy in Manchester, and Henry and Melina were happy in Todmorden. But 1910 rolled around and death visited once again, and this time the elder Melina suffered most. First, in April 1910, the younger Melina died. She was only 42, and the cause was cirrhosis of the liver along with ascites (abdominal fluid buildup) and heart failure as a result. Her disease could have been from drinking or could have been a complication of an autoimmune disease like Lupus – it isn’t something we can know now. She and Thomas had no children together and he was left in 1911 in an empty house with just their older housekeeper to keep him company. Then in November Henry Stansfield died, and now the two people in the elder Melina’s life who mattered most were gone. The younger Melina came home to Todmorden to be buried next to John Clegg, and Henry was buried with his first wife and first mother in law.
Melina now leaned heavily on her stepdaughters for emotional support. She is impossible to find in 1911 but can be found mentioned in 1914 as contributing to the Hospital Fund along with Marian, Harriott and Annie. That’s all though, because even when she died in September 1915 there wasn’t a single mention in the newspaper. Not a death notice, not a thanks to all for their thoughts and flowers from a family member, not an in memoriam in the years after. It was as if Melina had vanished.
She hadn’t – what had happened was that she had moved to Wellington Road to be near to Annie Stansfield Stephenson and her husband Albert and time had caught up with her, and that September day she had suffered from a cerebral haemorrhage and gone into a coma as a result. No inquest was held and she was quietly buried with her first husband and niece, both of whom were clearly and dearly beloved to her. How do we know? For the younger Melina it’s obvious how. For John, you only have to look at the lettering on all three names. John’s lettering is clearly by a different engraver from the two women’s names which tells us that this splendid monument was put up when John died. Not later, when there was even the faintest inkling that it would also stand for another precious person, but for him and at the time of his burial or soon after. Sometimes only a few clues are left but if you look closer you’ll always see them…