The Heaps of Cornholme (Part 1 The Bacup Heaps)

Future posts will occasionally feature some of the families connected with the Hileys over the years. This month we look at the Heaps of Cornholme. Cornholme is a small village in Calderdale a few miles from Todmorden on the Burnley road.

The Heap surname came from Heap near Bury in Lancashire. In 1881 the surname was most common in Lancashire but with a substantial presence in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

On 6th June 1903 the Hiley and Heap families were joined when Ethel Heap from Cornholme married Harold Hiley from Walsden, a village a few miles away. 

Marriage of Harold Hiley and Ethel Heap
(with the permission of West Yorkshire Archive Service)
www.wyjs.org.uk/archives

Harold Hiley and Ethel Heap in 1903
possibly on their wedding day

Ethel's ancestors came from Broadclough near Bacup. The earliest direct ancestor so far traced is James Heap, son of James Heap, a weaver from Broadclough, and his wife Betty, who was born on 31st May 1801 and baptised on 6th July at the Bacup Wesleyan Church.

James Heap married Alice Law in 1821 in Newchurch Parish Church. James lived at Lanehead and Alice at Lordbarn, both small farms or properties a few hundred yards apart, about one mile north of Bacup. They had 9 children of whom the eldest was John, born in 1822. John married Grace, the daughter of James and Mary (nee Lord) Brierley in 1840.

James Heap came to an untimely end as this cutting from The Halifax Guardian describes.

Death of James Heap

The Halifax Guardian 13th June 1868

Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. 

With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

Green's Clough between Portsmouth nr Cornholme and Bacup

It seems likely that John and Grace Heap were close to Grace's sister, Mary Brierley and her husband James Ashworth, because John and James soon became business partners.

Next post: Heap and Ashworth Cotton Manufacturers