Hiley Family History Blog
Stories, news, information and pictures about the family history of Hileys and Highleys and related families, along with other items of interest.
Thursday, August 28, 2025
The Hiley Y-DNA surname project newsletter
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
John and Mary Ann Bray Highley and their family (Part 8 - Mary Hannah and Beatrice Annie)
Two girls in the family, Mary Hannah and Beatrice Annie, lived into adulthood. They both outlived all their brothers.
They each married local Walsden men, who were both called John and worked as Picker Makers at Stoneswood Picker Works.Picker Makers at Stoneswood Picker Works (Photo shown with permission of Pennine Horizons Digital Archive) |
A picker was a strong leather attachment used in weaving looms to move the shuttle back and forth. These were essential items for the weaving process in the textile industry. Picker makers made them from Buffalo hide and the photo shows men at Stoneswood with their buffalo hides. Todmorden was one of the most important areas for its production in England.
Mary Hannah and her husband John Stansfield had 3 boys and a girl. They lived on Bacup Road near the Picker Works at Stoneswood. Beatrice Annie and her husband John Fielden had 3 boys. They lived on Sourhall Road off Bacup Road.
Monday, August 18, 2025
John and Mary Ann Bray Highley and their family (Part 7 - Thomas Arthur)
Thomas Arthur was the oldest of the 12 children. He married Ann Selina Lobb in 1899 and the couple lived next door to his parents John and Mary in Throstle Street, Walsden before moving to Littleborough. The couple had 6 children before war broke out.
Thomas Arthur was a very late entry into the War. This entry appeared in the Rochdale Observer on 22nd June 1918.Grade 2 was a common designation for men who passed the medical examination but were not deemed fully fit for front-line duties. We don’t know why Thomas Arthur enlisted at such a late stage of the War but he joined the RAF on 13th August 1918.
His enlistment document tells us quite a lot about Thomas Arthur, including some physical details which aren't available for his four brothers.
Thomas Arthur was attached to the RAF Reserve Depot which was a key unit for training and managing personnel. He worked in the Heaton Park Dispersal Unit in Manchester. This had the capacity for demobilising up to 3000 men per day.
He enlisted in August 1918, the war ended in November that year, he was transferred to the RAF reserve in February 1919, and finally discharged in April 1920.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
John and Mary Ann Bray Highley and their family (Part 6 - Richard)
The top one was part of the report shown in the last post about Charles William applying for an exemption. In fact the information about Richard having gone through the Dardanelles campaign is wrong because the 1st Devonshires weren’t involved in that part of the world.
The 2nd one is part of the report of Ernest Jackson’s death in July 1916, and shows Richard back in England at that time.
And finally a year later, in the report about Charles William’s death, we learn that Richard is still serving, and attempts were being made to release him from duties.
It appears that those attempts were not successful because Richard saw out the War. Although he had lost 3 brothers it was obviously felt that the British Army couldn’t manage without him. Richard’s medal card showed that he was entitled to the Victory medal, the British War medal and the 1915 Star. In the remarks it stated that he was placed in the Z reserve. After World War I, the Class Z Army Reserve was a temporary measure to hold discharged soldiers who were not yet eligible for full demobilization. They were required to return if called upon, but were otherwise free to return to civilian life. It was abolished the following year.
Sunday, July 27, 2025
John and Mary Ann Bray Highley and their family (Part 5 - Charles William)
But away from the seaside in the frontline trenches there was heavy fighting and Charles William was killed in action on 22nd June.
The burial return shows that he was identified by a piece of his boot which was stamped with his service no. 27557.
Sunday, June 29, 2025
John and Mary Ann Bray Highley and their family (Part 4 - Ernest Jackson)
Ernest Jackson, born in 1879, was two years younger than John Henry.
In October Ernest Jackson had 8 days leave away from Exeter and then sailed for France on 15th December 1915. He spent 2 months in hospital suffering from strain but was discharged in February 1916 and sent back to the Firing Line. At this time the Battalion were situated in a village near Albert in the Somme region.
The 8th and 9th Devonshires had the task of attacking German trenches below the fortified village of Mametz. They left their assembly trench and reached an area between Mansel Copse and the main road but the Germans had placed a machine gun in the cemetery in Mametz, a place called ‘The Shrine’. The Devonshires were exposed and caught by the machine gun fire and suffered heavy casualties. Ernest Jackson’s battalion suffered 2 officers killed and 47 other ranks killed or missing plus 7 officers and 151 other ranks wounded.
On 4th July surviving comrades of those killed returned to the trench where so many soldiers had been cut down and created an original war cemetery. 163 officers and men from both the 9th and 8th battalions were buried there.Despite the losses the attack was successful and Mametz was captured.
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Ernest Jackson's gravestone |
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Devonshire Cemetery, Mametz |
Monday, June 23, 2025
John and Mary Ann Bray Highley (Part 3 - John Henry)
John Henry was born in 1877, the second of John and Mary's children. By the age of 14 he was working as a Cotton Weaver in a mill in Walsden.
John Henry married Grace Speak in April 1900. A son Jesse was born later that year but died of measles at only 8 months old. They had 2 more sons, Herbert in 1909 and Jack in 1913.
It appears that John Henry and Grace had a stormy relationship, at least early on in their marriage. In December 1900, under a heading of ‘An Ill Matched Walsden Couple’, The Todmorden District News reported on a case where John Henry was summoned for assaulting his wife. Grace had gone to the Conservative Club where John Henry was playing billiards in order to fetch him home. She claimed that her husband had hit her outside the club and then again when they got home, all of which John Henry denied. He claimed that Grace had got her mother, brother and sisters to come and take all their wedding presents away to her mother’s house. The case was dismissed and the Mayor said that they must go home and live together again.John Henry died at the 10th Field Ambulance at Le Romarin on 1st November 1914 of wounds received in action. He had been in France for only 2 months.