Mankinholes Chapel (Part 3)

This post looks at another of the Hiley family graves at Mankinholes.

Samuel and Elizabeth were Henry Hiley’s grandparents. Samuel started his working life as a Cotton Weaver but later became Manager of the Co-operative Store in Walsden. Elizabeth, the daughter of a Cordwainer (Shoemaker), was born in Bradford. They lived at various addresses in Walsden, including, at the end of their lives, part of the property at the junction of Hollins Road and Top o’ th’ Hill Road which Samuel had bought in about 1923.

Henry recalls his grandmother's death in 1931.

.......... Shortly afterwards it was obvious that Grandma was very, very ill because her jaw dropped, her false teeth were sagging and we did what we always did in a crisis, we went next door. Mrs Hoyle would come in, she saw what was going on. Grandma had had a stroke. We sent for the doctor. We children were all ushered out of the house, we went next door to Mrs Hoyle's. I don't know how we got word to Father and Mother, and I don't know how Father managed to get in touch with the Semon's home at Ilkley. Maybe he went to the police station and the police got in contact but Grandfather Hiley came back. Grandmother was already dead and that was it. I remember the funeral tea that time. We went to a little cafe over the Co-op in Walsden and Grandmother's funeral was at Mankinholes again.

Henry’s grandfather, Samuel, died in 1939.

........... I didn't go to that funeral. The War had broken out and I was in two minds whether or not to go back up to Oxford for the Michaelmas term. That would have been my third year but I had already registered. I was 20 years old obviously and I was expecting to go into the Royal Navy, into the Fleet Air Arm, and the Government hadn't made up its mind whether or not men in their last year at university would be allowed to continue their studies and take their degrees, or not. I was liable for a quick call-up. I was of the age, so I cycled to Oxford. I spent a night in college. We decided that I wouldn't start the Michaelmas term and cycled back home. And I think it was in those 2 or 3 days that Grandfather was buried at Mankinholes.

Grave of Samuel and Elizabeth. Agnes, their 3rd child, died in infancy

Henry remembers Samuel:

Grandfather Hiley, living as he did on Hollins Road, only a cock stride away from the pub and bowling green, could be found up there most afternoons and evenings in summer, smoking his pipe and watching the bowlers. He had the whole of one side to himself, nobody else would sit close enough to smell his vile tobacco smoke. For stinginess, he always mixed his thick twist, a poisonous smelling tobacco, with herbs from the chemist's shop to reduce the cost of his smoking.