Uncle Frank and Aunt Marth' Hannah

The next few posts will feature Frank and Martha Hannah Hiley of Walsden, a great uncle and great aunt. This first one gives a brief history of their lives.

Frank has already been mentioned in this Blog. He appeared, as a young man in his twenties, in a Walsden Wesleyan Methodist group photo in the post of 9 September 2019, and his house, Bankwood Cottage, was mentioned in the post of 2nd September 2019.

Frank was born in 1875, the oldest child of Samuel and Elizabeth Hiley. The 1881 census showed the family living at 32 Hollins Mount in Walsden. Along with Frank lived his younger sisters Annie (aged 2) and Agnes (10 months). A brother Harold was born the following year.

Hollins Mount, Walsden

By the time of the next census in 1891, the family had moved to 54 Lord Street and Frank was working as a Cotton Weaver. His father Samuel had left his job as a weaver and was manging the Co-operative Store in Walsden. Annie, although only 12 years old, was working as a Cotton Spinner but Agnes had died at age 2.

In 1901 Frank married Martha Hannah Greenwood in St Peter's Church, Walsden. Martha Hannah lived on Rochdale Road with her mother, older sister Grace and younger brothers George and John Henry. It seems that Frank and Samuel's Highley surname was amended on the form to Hiley. The couple went to live at 45 Hollins Road and took in a boarder John Wadsworth, a canal warehouseman.

Frank, Martha Hannah and John Wadsworth

(colourized on My Heritage)

Frank and Martha Hannah's marriage record
(with the permission of West Yorkshire Archive Service)
www.wyjs.org.uk/archives

Frank and Martha Hannah moved to 6 Peel Cottage Road and their address is recorded here in the 1911 census and again in the 1939 Register. But when Henry Hiley and his family were living in Littleborough and visiting their 'Uncle Frank' and 'Aunt Marth' Hannah' the couple were living at Bankwood Cottage beside the Rochdale Canal.

6 Peel Cottage Road                                                                                     Bankwood Cottage

Martha Hannah died in 1940 and Frank almost exactly a year later. The couple are buried at St Peter's Church along with their niece Mary Hiley.

Gravestone for Frank, Martha Hannah and Mary

Next time: Henry Hiley's memories of Frank and Martha Hannah