72 Victoria Street, Littleborough

This is the last post of 2023 and completes 5 years of this Blog with 175 posts in total so far.

It has been suggested that I should include more about Hileys of more recent generations, so a theme of 2024 will be to do just that.

Starting next month will be an occasional series of posts about the life of Henry Hiley, illustrated with some of the many photos which he left. In his later years Henry recorded his life story on to cassette tapes, later copied on to 24 CDs. This wonderful collection of memoirs, 'HH remembers', covers Henry's entire life.

As a foretaste of this project, here is a photo of 72 Victoria Street, Littleborough, the house where Henry was born.

72 Victoria Street, Littleborough c 1938

I was born in the 'front' bedroom, above the shop, on 10th January 1919. The shop was also the bakehouse, the warmest room in the house after the old black gas stove was replaced by a magnificent coke fired, double-tiered oven.

I slept in the garret, the room with a skylight, reached by a wooden ladder from the ‘back’ bedroom. 

Note the writing in the shop window - 'Hiley's Noted Pies'. The gentleman by the car may have been Henry's father, Harold Hiley. The car was a Morris Cowley 'Bullnose' 4 seater Tourer.

Next post: more about 72 Victoria Street

The Welsh Hileys

There has always been a concentration of Hileys and Highleys  living in south Wales. 

Stephen Archer's Surname Atlas shows the historical distribution of surnames in Great Britain in the 1881 census. Approximately 10% of all the Hileys/Highleys recorded in the census lived in Monmouthshire. 

The Atlas shows 74 Hileys living in Monmouthshire out of a total of 758 Hileys in England and Wales, second only to Yorkshire West Riding with 261 Hileys. But in a calculation of population density Hiley comes out first in Monmouthshire with a figure of 35 Hileys per 100000 population.

For the surname Highley there were 59 Highleys living in Monmouthshire out of a total of 479 Highleys living in England and Wales, in third place behind Yorkshire West Riding and Lancashire. Again Highley came out first in the population density calculation with a figure of 28 Highleys per 100000 population.

Francis Hiley, the Baptist minister who featured in the last post, was a member of a long-established family in Monmouthshire. Members of his family worship in the Chapel in Llanwenarth to this day. 

The Dictionary of Welsh Biography states that Francis's father was of German extraction and there is a strong oral history passed down that there is German ancestry in the family. This Hiley family tree has been traced back before Francis Hiley the minister to Francis Hyla who was buried locally in 1704. He was a 'Refiner' in a forge and other family members worked in iron industries, some known as 'Forgemen'. 

Not far from where the Hileys were living at this time was the village of Tintern. The first forges in Tintern date from the 1560s and Tintern became known for producing the best wire in the country. By 1600 the wireworks were the largest industrial enterprise in Wales, employing hundreds of people. Skilled workers were brought from Germany to Tintern. Known in the village as ‘strangers’, they took five years to train up local men and perfect the art of ‘wire drawing’. (From 'Wye valley - the Angidy Trail')

Iron Forge at Tintern, c. 1794
Drawn by T. Hearne. (Monmouth Museum)

There is further related family history that the Hylas were originally involved in ironworking, and may have been recruited from Germany because of their skills, particularly in 'wire drawing'. The original forge closed in 1678 and workers went to other iron industries in Shropshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire.

A descendant of Francis Hiley is a member of the Hiley Y-DNA Project, already mentioned in this Blog. Currently there are 5 other members in the same genetic group, but it has not been possible so far to connect these members and find a common ancestor.

Francis Hiley, Baptist minister

For 50 years Reverend Francis Hiley was Pastor at the Baptist Chapel in Llanwenarth in Monmouthshire, South Wales. He was born in the village in 1780 and died there in 1860. 

Francis studied in Abergevenny and was appointed by Llanwenarth in 1811. Along with a co-pastor, James Lewis, Francis baptised over 1400 people. Membership of the chapel grew rapidly and many independent 'daughter' churches were founded throughout the area.

Francis Hiley was a renowned preacher in both Welsh and English. He was known as the 'Silver Trumpet of Gwent' and was reported to have preached outdoors to great crowds of over 1000 people, standing on top of a wall so that he could be seen by all.

Christmas Evans, a great Welsh non-conformist preacher, said that he would never preach after him.

 

Portraits of Francis Hiley from the Welsh Portrait Collection at the National Library of Wales (in the Public Domain).

More on Francis Hiley's family and the 'Welsh Hileys' in the next post

Gauxholme and Knowlwood

The final part of the walk descends from Naze to Gauxholme in the valley beside the canal. This is location no. 7 on the map shown in previous posts.

Gauxholme seen from below Naze

Knowlwood seen from below Naze

This Blog has already described how brothers James and Mark Highley moved west from Warley along the Calder valley and settled in Todmorden. James and Martha's son John was born in 1763 whilst the family were living at Rodwell End, Stansfield. The family then moved to Swineshead in Langfield.

John married Grace Ogden in St Mary's Church, Todmorden in 1783. The couple had 11 children. In the baptism records some of the birthplaces are shown as Todmorden or Walsden, but most of the earlier births show the family living in Gauxholme and most of the later ones show the family living in Knowlwood. So it appears that John moved from Swineshead after his marriage, first to Gauxholme and then to Knowlwood.

Part of a Todmorden map of 1939

John and Grace were 4 x great grandparents. One of their children, also called John, married Mally Unsworth in 1810. John and Mally continued to live in Knowlwood before moving to Ramsden Wood - see an earlier post about this walk. One of their 8 children, Charles, was born there in 1822. Later Charles moved to Bottoms and then Alma Street in Walsden.

Naze

The walk leaves Pastureside and heads north across the moor. Location no. 6 on the map of the walk below is Naze Farm. 

All that remains of this inaccessible farm now are piles of stones. A steep and winding pack horse track leads down to the valley at Gauxholme.

From the ruins of Naze Farm looking towards Todmorden

....and looking towards Walsden

Mary Highley was the first child of James and Martha Highley, 5 x great grandparents. Mary was born in 1761 in Castle, Todmorden and baptised at Heptonstall church. In 1779 she gave birth to a son Thomas (Hiley i' th' Vicarage), already mentioned in some of the posts covering this walk. Thomas's father is unknown.

In 1786 Mary married Samuel Scholfield and the couple had 9 children. Mary and Samuel lived at Naze Farm and Thomas grew up there with his mother and stepfather and his step-siblings. 

Mary's father James died in 1795 whilst he and Martha were living at Swineshead Cottage. Martha died in 1807. It appears that after James's death she went to live with Mary and her family at Naze. James and Martha were both buried at Cross Stones church in Todmorden, but there is now no gravestone in the churchyard to remember them.

Burial record for Martha Highley (nee Greenwood)
(with the permission of West Yorkshire Archive Service)
www.wyjs.org.uk/archives

The steep track down to Gauxholme from Naze

Pastureside

Inchfield Road becomes Foul Clough Road and soon a lane on the right leads to Pastureside - location no. 5 on the map of this walk. 

The path leading to Pastureside

Pastureside was associated with the Haigh family for centuries. The first known Haigh in Walsden was Reuben who acquired the lease some time prior to 1709.  He died in 1750 and bequeathed the lease to his son John Haigh of Pastureside. In turn the lease passed to John's son John Haigh the Younger.

One of John the Younger's eight children was Sally, and Sally married Thomas Hiley (Hiley i' th' Vicarage) in 1801.

Already mentioned in this Blog is a story told by John Travis about Thomas and Sally and Sally's father, although he refers to Thomas as John in the story.

The ruins of Pastureside farm

Fireplace inside the farm

Rake Head Barn and Nicklety

The walk follows Ramsden Wood Road down to the main road, turns left towards the centre of Walsden, and then, with the Post Office and Hollins Road on the right, turns left up Inchfield Road.   

About 1km on the left of this steep and winding road is a property called Nicklety. This was the home of Reuben Hiley. Reuben was  the son of Thomas Hiley (Hiley i' th' Vicarage) and a brother of John Hiley (Hiley ' th' Horsepasture) who appeared in the last two posts. Reuben was born in 1805 and married Betty Hudson in 1830. The couple had 5 children – Hannah, Sally, John, James and Mary. The census records show his occupation as a Road Labourer or Quarry Man. Reuben and his family lived at Nicklety for many years.

A story about Reuben, who was known as 'Old Wraggs', appeared in the post of 7th May 2019. This was written by John Travis and was entitled 'Mother Wit'.

Nicklety on Inchfield Road

Just before Nicklety, Rake Head Barn Lane branches off to the left and leads to Rake Head Barn.

This was the home of John and Sally Harrison and their family. John was a Woodcutter and the father of nine children. One of their daughters was Betty who married Charles Hiley in 1844. Charles was a 2 x great grandfather and has been mentioned in several posts already. Click on this link to learn more about Charles.

Charles Hiley

Rake Head Barn

Nicklety and Rake Head Barn are shown as location 4 on the map of this walk.

Ramsden Wood

The walk leaves Vicarage and continues along Foul Clough Road as far as the properties at Thornsgreece and Brown Road. Thomas Barker of Inchfield, a 4 x great grandfather, was living at Thornsgreece when he died in 1821 - see the post of 8th November 2021.

Thornsgreece and Brown Road

The path then heads down to Ragby Bridge and along Ramsden Clough to Ramsden Wood. This is location no. 3 on the map of this walk. 

Ramsden Wood reservoir

In 1841, John Highley, a 3 x great grandfather, was recorded in the Census as living at Ramsden Wood with his wife Mally (nee Unsworth) and children Charles, Thomas, James and Hannah. John worked as a Cotton Mule Spinner. Charles, James and Hannah were Cotton Power Loom Weavers and Thomas was a Cotton Stripper and Grinder. 

There were two mills in Ramsden Wood - Ramsden Wood Mill, known as T' Top Shop and Spring Mill, known as T' Bottom Shop. 

The two mills of Ramsden Wood

In 1844 John's son Charles married Betty Harrison and their first child Grace was born. Grace's baptism record shows the family living at Spring Mill in Walsden. 

In 1851 John and Mally were recorded as living in Spring Mill. John's occupation was shown as a Scutcher of Cotton.

The cottages at Spring Bottom built for workers at Spring Mill
John and Mally lived in one of these

John died in 1854 and Mally in 1860. They were buried in the graveyard at St Peter's Church in Walsden. There is no gravestone to commemorate their names, but the walking stick in the picture below shows where they were buried.

Hiley i' th' Vicarage

The route leaves Horsepasture , going past Middle Ramsden Farm and then bearing left across the moor to the abandoned Ramsden Clough Reservoir, crossing over it along the top of the dam, and reaching Foul Clough Road.

One of the ruined farms along this road is Vicarage, which is at location no. 2 on the map of this walk shown in the first post in this series on 17th August 2023.

The ruins of Vicarage farm

There have already been two posts in this Blog about Hiley i' th' Vicarage:

10th August 2019 - Hiley i' th' Vicarage. This post was a story written by John Travis. He refers to him as John Hiley but his proper name was Thomas Hiley (or Highley).

21st August 2019 - Vicarage Farm and Thomas Hiley's family.

Thomas was the illegitimate son of Mary Highley (1761-1820). Mary was the first child of James Highley and Martha (nee Greenwood), 5 x great grandparents.

Thomas married Sally Haigh, the daughter of John Haigh (the younger) of Pastureside, Walsden. John Haigh became a wealthy man and owned a lot of land and property on the moors above Walsden, including Pastureside, Vicarage, Nicklety and Coolam. Pastureside and Nicklety feature later in this walk. Coolam is situated a little further along Foul Clough Road from Vicarage.

Thomas and Sally were given the tenancy of John's farm at Vicarage. The couple had 11 children including Reuben, featured in the Blog post of 7th May 2019 and the subject of John Travis's story 'Mother Wit', and John, known as Hiley i' th' Horsepasture, who was featured in the last post.

Foul Clough Road

Vicarage is in the far distance, near the middle one of the 3 big trees

Hiley i' th' Horsepasture

The walk leaves Allescholes and heads across the moor, passing Cranberry Dam, to reach Horsepasture. Cranberry Dam was built to provide water for the mill at Spring Bottom - see a later post. Horsepasture is location no. 1 on the map shown in the first post in this series on 17th August 2023.

The ruins of Horsepasture with Cranberry Dam and Walsden beyond

Horsepasture is now known as South Ramsden. The farm here has not been lived in for about 100 years and all that remain are ruins. The farm was close to the historic Lancashire/Yorkshire boundary. The first known mention of Horsepasture is thought to be in 1612. Edmund Taylor and his family are recorded as living here in the mid 1700s.

John Highley was a long-time farmer at Horsepasture and was known as 'Hiley i' th' Horsepasture'. He was the son of Thomas and Sally (nee Haigh). Thomas was known as 'Hiley i' th' Vicarage' and will feature in the next post. John was one of 11 children and was born around 1803. He married Betty Hartley in St Chad's Church in Rochdale in 1834. The couple had two children, John and James.

It is not known when John Highley came to live at Horsepasture but the 1841 Census shows him as a Farmer living there with his family and a shepherd, Robert Holt.

By 1851 the family had moved to the neighbouring township of Blatchinworth and Calderbrook in the chapelry of Littleborough. In the Census of 1851 John is described as a Farmer of 40 acres. Another son Reuben is noted on the Census form. In the 1871 Census John, a widower, is still working as a Farmer, now with 118 acres, along with Reuben, in the township of Butterworth. The 1881 Census shows John as an inmate in the Union Workshouse in Dearnley, Littleborough. He died shortly afterwards, aged 78.

In 1831 John was left a sum of £100 in his grandfather's will. This was John Haigh of Pastureside (John Haigh the Younger), John's mother's father. John Haigh was a wealthy man and £100 would have been a large amount at that time.

The remains of the stone arch of the cellar, built into the hillside. This would have been provided a very cold storage place for milk, eggs and meat.

The ruins of Horsepasture

A family history walk around the moors above Walsden

The next few posts describe a walk from Walsden carried out a few summers ago. The walk visited a number of places where Hileys/Highleys lived in the 1800s and late 1700s.

The walk is in two sections. The first and longer section starts off near Allescholes on the Rochdale Road heading out of Walsden towards Littleborough, visits a number of places on the Ramsden moors with Hiley connections before returning to Walsden. After a short walk back into Walsden village it then heads out on another circuit up onto the Inchfield moors before dropping down to Gauxholme and returning along the canal bank to Walsden.

The walk is shown in red on the map below, taken from the current Ordnance Survey edition. Don't forget to click on the map for an enlarged version. The numbers in red refer to particular places where Hileys lived. Each one will be the subject of a separate post which will tell you about the place and the Hileys who lived there.

An early viewpoint on the walk - Bottoms, Walsden
Taken from Lower Allescholes

James Hiley - Boatman and Musician

James Hiley was mentioned in the last post. He was the son of Matthew Hiley, Organist at St Martin's Church in Bowness-on-Windermere. James has already been the subject of a post, 'James Hiley the Boatman', written on 14 February 2019, which described his part in a fire on a steamboat on Lake Windermere in 1850. 

At the time of that post our last records of James were from the 1861 Census where he is described as a Musician, and then his marriage to Frances Walker the following year in Crosthwaite near Keswick when he is called a Professor of Music. Since then some new references have been found which tell us a bit more about James's life after 1862.

From The Kendal Mercury 20 December 1862
Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

In 1865 James and Frances had a son, James Matthew, whose birth was registered in Cockermouth. The 1871 Census shows that the family had moved by then to Dundee in Angus, Scotland. James is now listed as an Organist & Pianoforte Tuner, and living with him, Frances and James Matthew, are Mary and Allan Walker, children from Frances's first marriage to Allan Walker.

In 1891 Frances is recorded as living with James Matthew, Mary and a grandson Frances Scott Walker, aged 10, but there is no sign of James senior.

At the end of the 1900s James 's name appears in a number of Postal Directories, usually described as a Piano Tuner or Organist. In 1901 James was living as a Lodger, still in Dundee, and working as a Teacher of Music. There is no record of his death.

James Matthew was mentioned in a number of reports in the Dundee newspapers in the early 1900s. He was a partner in the firm of Hiley & Orchar, electrical engineers in Dundee. James was the working engineer in the firm and William Orchar had charge of the books and the finances. The firm went bankrupt.

Matthew Hiley the Organist

Matthew Hiley was baptised in St Mary's Church, Illingworth on 9th January 1780. He was the son of Matthew, a Weaver in Ovenden, Halifax and Hannah (nee Wilson). Matthew's ancestry can be traced back to Henry Hiley of Warley who died in 1732.

The next record we have of Matthew is his marriage to Nancy Waterworth on 13 May 1832 in Melling, a small village to the east of Lancaster in Lancashire.

The following year their first child James was born. The baptism record shows the family living in Hornby, a village near Melling. Matthew is described as a 'Musick Master'. James was the subject of his own Blogpost on 14 February 2019 entitled 'James Hiley the Boatman'.

Three more children were born while the family were living in the same area - Lydia in 1835, Elizabeth in 1837 and Hannah in 1839. On each baptism record, Matthew is described as an 'Instrument Tuner & Organist'.

St Martin's Church, Bowness-on-Windermere

Soon after Hannah's birth the family moved to Bowness-on-Windermere where Matthew obtained a job as Organist at St Martin's Church. Three more children were born there - John in 1842, Grace in 1845 and Jane in 1848. They lived in the township of Undermillbeck (north end).

From the Kendal Mercury
28 January 1843
Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) 

Matthew died in 1854 aged 75. His death was registered in Kendal but his burial place has not yet been established. Nancy went on living for another 30 years. In 1881 she was still in Bowness, living with her son John, a Tailor, and his wife Mary Jane.

A family history trip to Calderdale - 7 Christ Church, Mount Pellon

 This is the last post in this series. 

There are 11 separate references to Highley families in the burial records for Mount Pellon Church. Of these 2 are shown as 'empty plots', 3 are 'unmarked graves', 4 have readable gravestones, 1 has an unreadable gravestone, and 1 shows the names of two Highleys on a WW2 memorial inside the church.

Buried in this grave are Betty Highley and her children James and Ellen.

Betty and her husband John lived in New Pellon and had eight children altogether.

All the family were employed in the weaving industry. The 1861 Census shows that John, Betty and their daughter Mary were all Worsted Weavers, James was a Cotton Piecer, and their sons John and Thomas were Worsted Spinners. In the 1851 Census the older children Elizabeth and Hannah were Mule Operatives and Ann was a Handloom Weaver. Ellen died in 1856, aged 10.

  

In 1931 William Highley married Elizabeth Sutcliffe (nee Tidswell). Elizabeth had previously been married to Fred Sutcliffe who died in 1918.

William first married Mary Tattersall in 1879 and the couple had three children - Frank, Annie and Olive. Mary died in 1930.

In the 1939 Register William and Elizabeth were living at 11 Woodhead Street, close to the church at Mount Pellon. William was described as a Retired Carpet Layer. Elizabeth died in 1941 and William in 1947.

On 1st August 1898 in Halifax Parish Church, Fred Highley, aged 24, a Labourer of Sky Alley, Halifax, married Leah Jowett, aged 25, of Bank Bottom, Southowram. The couple had three children, Annie, Vincent and Ernest. In 1921, Fred, Annie and Vincent were all working for Patons & Baldwins Ltd, Hosiery Manufacturers in Halifax.

The post of 23rd February 2019 was about Horace Highley who was killed fighting in Belgium in WW1. Horace is commemorated on the family gravestone at Mount Pellon.

Also named on the stone are his father Joseph, his mother Lilly (Charlotte Elizabeth, nee Thomas), his sister Clara, and his brother George Thomas.

George Thomas was killed in a railway accident which became the subject of a court case. His story will be told in a future post.

Inside the church, near the altar, is a memorial to the men of the parish who gave their lives in WW2. Amongst the list of names are Fred Highley and Robert Highley. The lives of these two soldiers will be covered in a future post.

A family history trip to Calderdale - 6 Box Trees

There are several references to Boxtrees amongst records relating to the Hileys and Highleys of Halifax and district.

In 1633 Edith Hileley, of Boxtrees in Ovenden, made her will. Edith was the widow of Edmund Hileley of Sowerby, and previously the widow of Robert Starky.

James Crowther (who married Mary (Mally) Highley in 1811 - see no.1 in this series of posts) was born in 1787 while his family were living at Boxtrees.

The photos below show Boxtrees in May 2023. 

The next photo shows the view from Boxtrees across the valley to Mount Tabor and Pellon. Part of the woodland beyond the railway is Ramsden Wood.  John Crowther, son of James and Mary, was born here in 1811.

The railway is the 'Wheatley Viaduct', a 10-arched, 100 foot high viaduct which carried the High Level Railway across the Wheatley valley. The line carried passengers from 1890 to 1917, then became a goods-only line until 1960, and was finally dismantled.

A family history trip to Calderdale - 5 Mount Tabor

The Wesleyan Methodist chapel at Mount Tabor, Ovenden was built in 1820 by local men from the nearby quarry freely giving their time. The chapel was extended soon after and a Sunday School was built next door in 1836. In 1845 the chapel could accommodate 600 worshippers. In 2023 there were only 11 church members.

It was recently reported that the chapel and the graveyard had been sold for development.

Mount Tabor Chapel May 2023

There are two Highley graves in the New Yard part of the churchyard.

Frank Highley was a direct descendant of David Hiley, who was from Warley and born in 1700. 

Frank married Ada Ratcliffe in 1904. The marriage record shows that Frank was a Brass Finisher (Journeyman) and Ada was a Worsted Cloth Mender,  and they both lived in the New Pellon area of Halifax. 

Frank and Ada are buried here along with their children Phyllis and Selwyn. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

May Townsend married Charles Herbert Highley in 1926. Charles was a descendant of Luke Highley, born in 1751.                                                                                                                                                                   May's parents Fred and Ruth are also buried in the grave.                                                                               

Burial records show that there are a number of other Highleys buried in the Old Yard part of the graveyard but these graves all appear to be grassed over and there are no stones to mark them.                                                            

                                                                                                                 

The Old Yard