The sad end of Jim Highley

The following article appeared in the Todmorden & District News on 28th August 1891.

The death of Jim Highley

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Jim was a grandson of Reuben and Betty Highley, and the sixth of their son John’s nine children. He was born in 1866 while the family were living in Millwood, an area of Todmorden beside the Halifax Road. In the 1881 Census, the family’s address was given as 94 Roomfield Lane, Todmorden. Father John, now a widower, was a Carter in a Corn Mill and Jim worked as a Corn Miller. Five of the children were still living at home.

By April 1891 Jim had been living in the Todmorden Union Workhouse for three  years. The Census record showed Jim as one of over a hundred ‘paupers’ in the Workhouse at the time.

Todmorden Union Workhouse c. 1906

Seen from the west. Stoodley Pike in the background

Jim was buried at Cross Stone Cemetery in Todmorden in the same grave as his parents and some of his brothers and sisters.