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.