St Paul's Cross Stone in Todmorden (2)

 The Hiley graves

All the nine Hiley/Highley graves were identified and photos and the names shown on the gravestones are shown below.

Willie Hiley 1893-1895

John Hiley 1860-1937

Mary Ann Hiley 1860-1930

Arthur Hiley 1885-1939

Harold Hiley 1891-1918

Arthur, Harold and Willie were the sons of John and Mary Ann (nee Graham). The family lived at Russell Street. Millwood, Todmorden. John and Arthur both worked in a Corn Mill.

Harold, killed in action in France in WW1, featured in the Post of 22 August 2019.

Esther Hiley 1873-1952 Esther Marshall was the second wife of Tom Hiley. They married in 1932. The other people buried here are: Abraham and Mary Marshall (Esther's parents). Grace Marshall (Esther's sister) Willie Crossley (Esther's first husband) Arthur Woodhead (Esther's nephew)

There are two spaces in the graveyard where no gravestone is present but where Hileys are recorded as the owners of the plot.

The photo below shows a plot recorded as 'Owner Hiley Knowlwood'. It is not clear which Hiley of Knowlwood owned this grave since a number of Hileys have lived in Knowlwood over the years. 

The entry for the second one is 'Owner Thomas Edmond Highley, Crossley Street (Dawson erased)'.

Thomas Edward (not Edmond) Highley married Mary Grace Dawson in 1904. The records show that they were both buried at Cross Stone - Thomas Edward in 1939 and Mary Grace in 1933. But there is no gravestone to remember them. Perhaps there was no gravestone made - just a reserved plot which was never used. Or perhaps the gravestone was removed at a later date because it was broken or unstable. Thomas Edward and Mary Grace had two children, Will and Clifford.

Arthur Highley 1871-1949

Annie Mary Highley 1876-1936

Arthur was a brother of Thomas Edward. His father William was a Master Clogger from Halifax but Arthur was born in Todmorden.

The 1911 census showed him working as a Ring Jobber in a Cotton Spinning Mill.

Edith Hiley 1890-1891 Edith was the daughter of Tom Hiley and his second wife Susy Ann (nee Stansfield). The other people buried here are: Richard and Sarah Stansfield (Susy Ann's parents) Martha, Mary and Sam (Susy Ann's siblings) Tom and Susy Ann and Edith's brother Fred are buried at Christ Church, Todmorden.

Sarah Elizabeth Highley 1864-1872 Tom Highley 1871-1872 Betty Highley 1836-1878 Jim Highley 1866-1891 John Highley 1836-1893 Annie Highley 1887-1888 Mary Highley 1843-1900 Sarah Elizabeth, Tom, Jim and Reuben were the children of John and Betty. Mary was Reuben's wife and Annie their daughter. Jim met a sad end when he drowned in a water drain at the Todmorden Union Workhouse. His story was told in the Post of 26th March 2019.

John Highley 1820-1866

Mary Jane Highley 1851-1874

Thomas Highley 1812-1876

Sarah Ann Greenwood 1844-1875

Mary Jane and Sarah Ann were the daughters of Thomas and Betty (nee Mitchell). John was Thomas's brother.

The gravestone has nearly fallen completely over. It was impossible to photograph all of the inscription but the 3 photos below were obtained by crawling under the gravestone and photographing parts of it.

James Highley 1836-1901

James Highley married Ruth Kershaw at St Thomas's Church, Heptonstall in 1866. Their son Edward was born in 1866 and daughters Ruth and Betsy two years later. Ruth and her daughters are all recorded as dying in July 1868 and are buried in the graveyard at Lumbutts near Todmorden.

James remarried the year after - this time to Alice Roberts (nee Smith). Alice's first husband John had died in 1867.

Alice and John's three children, James William, Martha Ann and Fred, along with John, are the other people buried in this grave.

On this day ... Halley's Comet anniversary

Halley's Comet, named after the English astronomer Edmond Halley, is arguably the most famous comet. It returns to the vicinity of the Earth about every 75 years. It was last here in 1986 and is projected to return in 2061.

A photograph of Halley's Comet taken during its 1910 approach

The comet's pass in April and May 1910 led to some spectacular sightings. But perhaps not in Todmorden!

On this day, 24th May 1935, The Todmorden & District News included an article under the heading 'TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO'. Mentioned in the article is Charles Joseph Hiley, a well-known local figure of the time, and the subject of a number of posts in this Blog already.

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

With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive 

(www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

St Paul's Cross Stone in Todmorden (1)

Searching for Hiley graves

There are Hileys and Highleys buried in many of the graveyards of churches in Calderdale. At the church of St Paul's Cross Stone in Todmorden there are nine Hiley/Highley graves. 

                                       

There has been a church here since about 1450 and it was built as a Chapel of Ease for Heptonstall Parish to serve the townships of Stansfield and Langfield. It is built high up on the hills above the Todmorden valley, with wonderful views over the surrounding countryside. No way up to it is easy and it must have been quite a task to get a coffin up there on a snowy day in winter. It wouldn't have been very pleasant for the mourners either, who would probably have had to walk to the graveyard.

(From the Todmorden and Walsden website. Included with the permission of Linda Briggs)

St Paul Cross Stone
(Stoodley Pike in the distance)
Photo: Derrick Kershaw

The church was closed for worship in 1978 after it was declared unsafe. Later it was converted to a private house.

Cross Stone's 'New' graveyard has 4136 headstones identified covering 12568 different people. Unless a graveyard is very small it is useless to visit one and hope to be able to wander around and find a particular grave, or graves, of interest. A record of the people buried there with grave references and a plan of the graveyard are essential!

Calderdale Family History Society has produced records of the monumental inscriptions of all the Calderdale graveyards with grave references and transcriptions of the gravestones. A search of the Cross Stone records revealed nine graves where Hileys/Highleys are mentioned.

Below is a plan of the graveyard with some additional notes of my own. It shows the rows from A to Z, AA to ZZ and 1 to 21. Graves are numbered in each row from top to bottom. The Xs indicate rough positions of the Hiley/Highley graves.

The photo below is taken from Google Earth and shows the 'New' graveyard. Cross Stone Road is at the bottom of the picture and the church is just out of the picture in the bottom left hand corner. 

The red dots show the approximate locations of the Hiley graves, using the grave references and the plan above.

The aim was to take the grave reference number, identify the relevant row by referring to the plan, checking the first few names at the top or bottom of the row from the Calderdale FHS records to check the correct row had been selected, and then count down or up from one end of the row until the Hiley grave was found.

Coming shortly: The Hiley graves at Cross Stone