The Hilileigh graves at Hartshead

At the end of the 1390s a branch of the Yorkshire Hileys moved from Sowerby to Clifton, a village about 10 miles east near Brighouse. The family became prominent in the village. A number of Hiley baptisms, marriages and burials are recorded in the parish records of St Peter's Church in Hartshead, a short distance away.

St Peter's Church in Hartshead

In the well-kept graveyard are three Hilileigh graves. These are likely to be descendants of the first family members to arrive from Sowerby.

The 3 Hilileigh graves at Hartshead

In the middle grave were buried (both in 1628) Jennet Hilileigh and her son Thomas. Jennet was the wife of John Hilileigh, buried in the right hand grave in 1614.

Grave of Jennet and Thomas Hilileigh

HERE LYETH THE BODIES
OF JENNET HILILEIGHE
WIFE OF JOHN HILILEIGH
WHICH WAS BURIED THE
28 OF APRILL 1628 AND
THOMAS HILILEIGH THEIR
SONNE WHO WAS BURIED
THE 24 OF FEBRUARY
ANNO DOMINI 1628







Buried in the left hand grave was Robert Hilileigh. Robert was a great grandson of John and Jennet and died aged 15 in 1683.

Grave of Robert Hilileigh

The wording on the gravestones of Robert and John is in Latin. Robert's inscription and a translation are given below.

SUB HOC TUMULO TE                                                            Beneath this mound is covered
GITER CORPUS ROBERTI                                                      The body of Robert
HILILEIGH FILII THOMAE                                                    Hilileigh son of Thomas
HILILEIGH DE CLIFTON QUI                                                Hilileigh of Clifton who
OBIIT SEPTIMO DIE                                                                 Died the 7th day 
JANUARII ANNO DOMINI 1683                                            Of January 1683
ANNO AETATIS 15                                                                     At the age of 15

Charles Hiley

Charles Hiley, a great great grandfather, was born in Walsden near Todmorden, once part of Lancashire but now in Yorkshire, in 1822. As soon as he was old enough he started working in the Cotton Mill. All the official records during his lifetime show him as a Power Loom Weaver apart from the 1861 census when he was listed as a Hair Cutter.

Alma Street in Walsden - where Charles lived at the end of his life

Charles married Betty Harrison, the daughter of a Woodcutter, and between them they brought up 11 children. 

Until his marriage Charles’s surname was always spelt Highley, but after that he was generally known as Hiley. 

Lanebottom, Walsden. Wesleyan chapel and school

Charles helped to found the local Wesleyan Methodist Chapel and served it as trustee, class leader and teacher. 

He was a Radical and would walk for miles to listen to political agitators such as Feargus O’Connor, the Chartist leader.

No photo remains of Charles but there was a picture of him on the wall inside the Chapel, sadly lost when the Chapel was demolished in the 1960s.

Charles died in 1899 and is buried along with Betty and other family members in the graveyard at Mankinholes, a wild setting high up on the moors above the Calder valley. The Todmorden Advertiser remembered him as ‘one of those quiet, unostentatious men who are welcome in every community.’

The graveyard at Mankinholes

Written at the bottom of the gravestone are the words ‘They Rest From Their Labours’.

(This article appeared in the 'Persons of Interest' series on the website of the Guild of One-Name Studies.)

Reuben Hiley

John Travis

The following is a story from John Travis’s ‘Notes: (Historical and Biographical) mainly of Todmorden and District’, published in 1896.

Among his many accomplishments, Travis, born in Walsden in 1822, was an author, antiquarian, architect, handloom weaver and master in an iron foundry. His ‘Notes’ were the culmination of a lifetime spent observing the towns of Walsden and Todmorden and their inhabitants.

Reuben was born at Stoneswood Bottom, Walsden and baptised on 7th April 1805. He married Betty Hudson, also of Walsden in 1830 at St Chad’s Parish Church in Rochdale. They had 5 children – Hannah, Sally, John, James and Mary. Reuben and his family lived at Nicklety in Walsden. The census records mainly show his occupation as a Labourer. 

Reuben's household at Nicklety was one of the 13 described in the last Blog (26 April 2019).

The Todmorden Centenary Way passes along Foul Clough Road and over the part of Inchfield Moor where coal used to be mined. The walk notes say that that the path passes ‘…….the Moorcock pub which flourished for 50 years or so in the mid 1800s thanks largely to the miners who worked the pits……this former mine is clear evidence of coal working in the 19th century. It was a well organised trade with its own access road, a mineral tramway and several sites were in use……This continued well into this century (20th)……’

Nicklety on Inchfield Road

Foul Clough Road - the road to the Coalpits

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