Heptonstall's original church, dedicated to St Thomas a Becket, was founded in about 1260, and was altered and added to over several centuries. The church was damaged by a gale in 1847 and is now only a shell, but a new church, St Thomas the Apostle, was built in the same churchyard.
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| Old and new churches 1909 |
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| Heptonstall church 2016 |
The first recorded Hiley baptism at Heptonstall was that of Mary, daughter of John Hylely of Erringden, on 26th July 1601.
Five Hiley marriages took place at Heptonstall, the first in 1605 between James Hileley and Susan Sutclyffe. The last, in 1761, was between James Highley and Martha Greenwood, 5 x great grandparents.
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| Marriage of James Highley and Martha Greenwood (with the permission of West Yorkshire Archive Service) www.wyjs.org.uk/archives |
There were 19 Hiley burials at Heptonstall between 1611 and 1807 but there are now no remaining gravestones to be seen with inscriptions which record these burials.
The only gravestone with a Hiley connection so far established shows members of the Kershaw family, shown below. Henry Hiley married Barbara Kershaw in 1944 and the Kershaws on the gravestone are ancestors of Barbara. The photo was taken by Barbara's brother Derrick who researched his Kershaw ancestors in his retirement.
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| The Kershaw family grave at Heptonstall |
Buried here are Martha Kershaw (nee Greenwood), Mary Farrer (nee Kershaw), Grace Kershaw (nee Farrer), John Kershaw, Abraham Kershaw, Martha Kershaw (nee Howarth), James Kershaw, Thomas Kershaw and Elizabeth Kershaw (nee Baldwin).
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| Derrick and Evelyn Kershaw cleaning the Kershaw gravestone |
Charles J Hiley was the organist at Heptonstall for 43 years. See the post about him on 19th August 2020.
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