The Parsonses of Sabden (Part 4 The move to Cornholme)

Thomas Parsons left Sabden after finishing at Victoria Mill and moved to Cornholme, where he appeared in the 1871 census living with his two youngest daughters Martha and Sarah. He was working as a Warehouseman in a Cotton Factory and Martha (aged 27) and Sarah (aged 24) were both Cotton Weavers. This may well have been Frostholme Mill - see the recent posts about the Heap family of Cornholme.

Also shown working at the same time as a Warehouseman in a Cotton Factory was 19 year old Henry Heap, and four years later Martha married Henry in Christ Church, Accrington. Amongst those present at the wedding were Henry's father John (Cotton Manufacturer), Martha's father Thomas (Warehouseman), and witnesses Josiah Greenwood and Alice Crabtree. 

Image courtesy of Geoff Porter 

The post of 23rd October 2020 covered Martha and Henry's time in Cornholme.

Thomas Parsons died in 1881 and was buried in the graveyard at Sabden Baptist church along with his wife Susannah.

Grave of Thomas and Susannah in Sabden

Martha died in 1884 and was buried in Vale Baptist chapel in Cornholme. Buried with Martha were her daughter Edith aged 1 year and 7 months, and her sister-in-law Alice Crabtree (nee Heap), a witness at her wedding. Henry died in 1923 and was buried at Audenshaw Cemetery with his second wife Martha Annie.

Grave of Martha Heap in Cornholme

The Parsonses of Sabden (Part 3 Thomas Parsons Cotton Manufacturer)

Thomas Parsons, one of William and Mary's ten children, was born in 1807. He married Susannah Irving of Read in 1830 in Whalley parish church like his parents. 

At the time of the 1841 and 1851 censuses Thomas and his family were living in Sabden Bottoms. This is a small row of terraced houses at the end of the village of Sabden off Whalley Road, and now called Whins Avenue.

Thomas was a Grocer at the time and he and Susannah had eight children - Benjamin, William, Mary Ann, Edward, Selina, Jeremiah, Martha and Sarah.

Whins Avenue, Sabden, formerly The Bottoms

By the time of the 1861 census Thomas and his family had moved to Spen Brook, a small village a few miles away close to Newchurch in Pendle.

Thomas is described as a 'Cotton Manufacturer 288 looms employing 48 men 18 boys 25 women 20 children total 111'. He was now a widower and living with four of his children, including Martha.

Above - the mill today, part of a new housing development Left - coming into Spen Brook from Newchurch. The mill chimney is in the distance

Thomas was in partnership with Roger Osbaldeston as Cotton Manufacturers at Spen Brook Mill. Roger was from Blackburn and lived in Sabden, and had married Thomas's eldest daughter Mary Ann in 1855.

Roger and Mary Ann Osbaldeston

The following notice appeared in The Burnley Advertiser on 20th December 1862.

Partnership of Parsons and Osbaldeston dissolved

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

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

On 22nd October 1864 The Morning Advertiser gave a list of 'Country Bankrupts' from The London Gazette. Included was: Thomas Parsons, Spen Brook, Lancashire, cotton manufacturer.

Shortly afterwards, Thomas was in business with his son Jeremiah in co-partnership together in the firm of Parsons & Son, cotton manufacturers at Victoria Mill, Sabden. Once again Thomas was listed as bankrupt, along with Jeremiah, in the London Gazette on 10th December 1866. On 13th April 1867 The Burnley Gazette carried a notice of a Sale by Auction under The Bankruptcy Act 1861 regarding Thomas Parsons & Son, Bankrupts, at Victoria Mills, Sabden, Near Whalley.

Victoria Mill was situated opposite Sabden Bottoms and is now the scene of a residential development.

Site of the old Victoria Mill, Sabden

Next time: The move to Cornholme

The Parsonses of Sabden (Part 2 William Parsons Calico Printer)

William Parsons married Mary Wilkinson in St Mary and All Saints parish church in Whalley in 1802.The couple lived in Sabden and had ten children of whom seven are named on William and Mary's gravestone in the Baptist Chapel burial ground.

Grave of William Parsons and family in the Sabden Baptist graveyard

How sudden and how awfull was the stroke

By which the slender thread of Life was broke

Oh may this admonition teach us all

How frail is Man how unforeseen His fall

The Sabden Calico Printworks was established in 1793 and textile printers came from the surrounding area to work there. William was a Calico Printer and may well have left Bolton by Bowland to find work at the Sabden Printworks.

The first church to be built in Sabden was the Baptist Church in 1797 and this was known as 'The Church at Pendle Hill'. Baptisms took place the following year and in 1802 William and Mary's first child John was baptised at the church.

The old Baptist chapel no longer exists but the graveyard remains and buried there are a number of Parsons families including William and Mary and many of their children.

Sabden Baptist original church
(courtesy of Sabden Baptist Church website)

The Sabden Baptist graveyard today

Next time: Thomas Parsons Cotton Manufacturer

The Parsonses of Sabden (Part 1 The Bolton by Bowland ancestors)

The posts in October 2020 told the story of the Heap connection with the Hiley family brought about when Ethel Heap married Harold Hiley in 1903. In 1875 Ethel's father Henry Heap had married Martha Parsons who was from Sabden near Clitheroe in Lancashire. The next few posts will give the story of Martha's family starting with her ancestors in Bolton by Bowland.

In 1748 John Parsons married Margaret Rausthorne in the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul in Bolton by Bowland, a peaceful little village in the Forest of Bowland. The 1700s saw a number of Parsons family members baptised, married and buried at this church.

Bolton by Bowland parish church

It is not clear yet when John was born and whether he was from Bolton by Bowland or the surrounding area. The Rausthornes can be traced further back to John who was born in 1667. Margaret was born in 1719 in Bolton by Bowland and was the daughter of Thomas Rausthorne of Gisburne Forrest. John and Margaret had five children - John (who died in infancy), Elisabeth, Alice, John and Margaret. The second John was born in 1756.

John married Jane Scott, also from the same parish of Bolton by Bowland, in 1780, and once again in the parish church. John and Jane had six children, of which the second was William, born in 1781.

The baptism entry in the parish records shows that William was the son of John Parsons from Holden. Holden is a tiny hamlet a short distance from Bolton by Bowland.

Holden

At some time between 1790 and when he married in 1802 William moved south, round the side of Pendle Hill, to the village of Sabden.

Next time: William Parsons Calico Printer

Bombadier John Clifford Hiley

Remembrance Day 2020. We remember another Hiley killed in WW1.

John Clifford Hiley was born in Leeds on 6th August 1894. In 1911 he was living at home with his parents John (a Railway Guard) and Louisa, sister Ethel and brothers Clarence and Leonard. John Clifford was a Labourer. He married Mary Elizabeth Mylan in early 1914 in Hunslet, Leeds and a son John was born later that year.

John Clifford was a Bombardier with the Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery in A Battery, 102nd Brigade. He was killed in action on 13th June 1917, aged 22 and is buried at Hop Store Cemetery near Ypres in Belgium.

John Clifford Hiley's grave
Included courtesy of International War Graves Photography Project #46770518 (Find A Grave)

Hop Store cemetery
From the website Rutland Remembers with thanks
https://www.rutlandremembers.org/location/1044/hop-store-cemetery

Swineshead

David Hiley married Dorothy Maud on 7th June 1720 at Halifax Parish Church. David was a weaver, Dorothy a spinster, and the couple were both from the township of Warley. David and Dorothy had three sons, Mark, James and David.

James and Mark both moved west from Warley along the Calder valley whilst David stayed in Warley. James was a webster (a weaver) and he married Martha Greenwood on 3rd October 1761 at Heptonstall. Their first child Mary was baptised later that year when the family were living in Castle, just east of Todmorden.

By the time of the baptism of  James and Martha's 4th child Bettey in 1768 the family were living in Swineshead New House on the road heading out of Walsden towards Lumbutts. They stayed there until James's death in 1795. 

Their address is given as Swineshead Cottage for Salley's baptism in 1772 and just Swineshead on the record of James's burial, and it is not clear which of the existing buildings they were living in at the time. Swineshead is now a listed building. Historic England describes it as built in the mid 17th century and then rebuilt in the early to mid 18th century.

The buildings at Swineshead:

The view down to Walsden from Swineshead

James's brother Mark had already made the journey west from Warley. Mark was a comber and he married Mary Law at Heptonstall on 26th March 1754. Their second child William was baptised while the couple were living at Swineshead Rough. The Rough is the land opposite Swineshead between Lumbutts Road and Langfield Moor.

The view from Swineshead across The Rough to Langfield Moor

The buildings at Swineshead, taken from The Rough looking towards Todmorden

'Top O' th' Rough'