Uncovering a Hiley gravestone - Sowerby Cottonstones CK21

There are Hiley/Highley graves scattered all around Calderdale, and in many of the graveyards there is just a single grave. One such is in the graveyard of St Mary's Church, Cottonstones, Sowerby.

The Hiley grave reference at Cottonstones is CK21 - Section C, Row K, No. 21. A plan of the graveyard is available and Section C was identified from it - the large area south-west of the church adjoining Salt Drake Lane, and to the left of the church in the photo above. Row K is the last but one row walking away from the church. The row numbers go from 1 to 26.

Calderdale Family History Society has transcribed all the monumental inscriptions in the graveyard. Starting from the end of the row, no. 26 is a flat stone. nos. 25 and 24 are gaps. Nos. 23 and 22 are upright stones. No. 21 is the Hiley grave. Then there are two gaps, a flat stone and two more gaps. 

But there appeared to be no flat stone at no. 21. Had the transcribers made a mistake? Had the stone become damaged and removed? No - the stone was there in the correct place but a rhododendron bush had grown over it and many years of rotting leaves and encroaching grass had completely covered the stone and its lettering.

Although not having the wherewithal to manage a proper cleaning of the stone it was still possible to remove enough of the debris to show that the correct inscription had been revealed.

In Memory of / Hannah Daughter of / James and Susanna Hiley / of Lower Oak in Sowerby / Who died April 26th 1854 / Aged 3 Yrs. & 3 Mths / Also James Hiley Father of the / above who departed this life / Septr. 26th 1872 aged 53 Yrs. / Also Martha Ellen Daughter of / William & Ann Haigh of Halifax / and Granddaughter of the above / Who died Feby. 11th 1874 / Aged 9 Yrs. & 5 Mths. / Also Susanna Wife of the above / James Hiley who died Nov. 22nd 1896 Aged 84 Yrs.

James Hiley was born in Halifax in 1819, one of the 11 children of Thomas and Mary (nee Feather). His ancestors can be traced back to David Hiley of Warley, born in about 1700.

James married Susanna Wild (nee Denton) in 1849. Susanna already had 2 children, Ann and Martha, and she had a further daughter with James - Martha Hannah, who died aged 3 and is commemorated on the gravestone.

The family lived at Lower Oak in Sowerby. James worked as a Woolcomber and later as an Engine Tenter in a Worsted Mill. 

Ann Wild, Susanna's daughter, married William Haigh and their daughter Martha Ellen is the other child buried in this grave.

George and Alice Ann Morris

The Friends of Christ Church Todmorden are a community group whose aims include preserving the graveyard, improving accessibility, utilising the graveyard to educate all ages about the history of Todmorden and encourage emotional investment in the town’s past and future.

Their website contains research into the people buried in the graveyard and transcriptions of the monumental inscriptions of the gravestones.

F.O.C.C.T. – Friends of Christ Church, Todmorden (focct.org.uk)

I am indebted to F.O.C.C.T. for this post about George and Alice Ann Morris, reproduced from their website with permission. Alice Ann was the daughter of Charles and Betty Hiley and a younger sister of Samuel Hiley. Charles, Betty and Samuel have all featured several times already in this Blog.

V7.9 – George and Alice Ann Morris

by adminon Posted onMarch 10, 2024

It happens often that members of the same generation of a family can be buried in opposite ends of the graveyard, and sometimes even in drastically different style of grave. George Richard Morris’s father, George Samuel Morris, only has a small plot marker with his initials on it. George and his wife Alice Ann (Hiley) have something a little grander.

We know George’s childhood story already, so we’ll skip to his adult life. Adult life starts with work for us nowadays, but by that metric George became an adult at 13 in 1871 when he went to work as a creeler in a cotton mill. Creelers wound thread onto bobbins for use in weaving (either for the warp or weft, both of which would then be mechanically wound off the bobbin and onto the warp beam or shed) and this was a sort of entry-level job for children who needed to bring in money but who weren’t large or strong enough for more complicated and heavy work. George’s father died in 1876 so it became even more important for George to be able to bring money home.

George will have met his future wife Alice Ann Hiley fairly early on in his life, we suspect – this is because her older brother Samuel worked alongside George Sr., and was friendly enough with him for George to have made a drunken stop at his house shortly before falling into the canal and drowning. George Jr. and at least two Hiley sisters were also active at the Wesley Chapel at Knowlwood in the choir – was Alice one of them? Alice was three years older than her future husband, born in Walsden in 1855 to Charles and Betty Hiley. All the working Hileys in the house at Alma Street were cotton weavers of some description, and in 1871 Alice was already weaving. She and George got married in 1877 at St. Peter’s, with her brother Charles and sister Grace witnessing the marriage. Samuel stayed home as Alice was 22 and free to marry who she pleased; and Alice’s siblings could be trusted with a secret, which was that George lied on the certificate and gave his age as 21 when he was actually 19. He could still have legally married without permission so why he felt the need to lie is beyond us! But a man has his pride after all, we guess.

The Morrises first settled a few doors down from the Hileys on Alma Street, and their only child, Emily, was born in 1879. They would later move to Hollins Place and later Hollins Road. Emily got older and, no surprises here, became active in the Wesleyan Chapel’s choir. By this time George had also become heavily involved in the Todmorden Musical Society and took part in many performances around town as a tenor and bass singer and sometimes humourist. But in August 1899 Alice died; and George, clearly mourning, buried her here in this large vault grave…

…he then, though, for reasons known only to himself, remarried in early December of the same year, to Hannah (also known as Annie) Kershaw of Pollard Street in Lydgate. A whole other valley! Annie had been born up at Lumbutts and they may have met via the Methodist circuit one way or another. The possible context for this swift remarriage is that Emily had married her beau Edwin Robinson in early November, and perhaps he was just lonely, suddenly alone in the house when he had been used to two women being around to keep things tidy and interesting. Don’t knock us about the gender roles, it’s how things often were back then! He and Annie moved away and he became an insurance agent. He must have travelled at first because in 1901 Annie was boarding with a family in Wardleworth, but in 1911 they were back together and living on Oldham Road in Rochdale. In 1913 though George died, and he was brought back to Todmorden to be buried alongside Alice.

Where did Emily go? She and Edwin stayed in Todmorden at first. Edwin was an ice cream manufacturer and was very busy around town. (Unrelated to the story here, but he was the person who found Rose Gibson‘s body in the library lock just two weeks after he and Emily got married) The couple had two children by 1911, both of whom had died, and had also gone to Rochdale for Edwin to pursue more ice cream related opportunities. Two years later, after George died, they emigrated to New Zealand, and never came back. As for Annie? We don’t know. A Hannah Morris of the correct age died in 1923 and was buried at Christ Church, but she had a Burnley address; it’s more likely that she’s buried with family somewhere else in town but we haven’t identified where.

James Thomas Highley and the Robinson family

This is the next post in our series on Hileys/Highleys buried at Christ Church, Todmorden.

Alice Finch, the daughter of James and Alice, was born in Heywood near Rochdale in 1863. She was one of nine children and her father was a Whitesmith, or Tinsmith - someone who makes articles out of metal, especially tin. The family moved to Knowlwood near Todmorden soon after Alice was born. In 1881 they were living in Inchfield Buildings in Walsden and Alice was working as a Throstle Spinner.

In  1886 Alice married William Henry Robinson, a Wheelwright, in St Peter's Church in Walsden. The couple had 3 children, Edith, Annie and William Henry. William Henry junior was born in 1891, three months after his father had died.

In 1905 Alice married again, this time to James Thomas Highley, a Carter living in Rochdale Road in Walsden. He was the son of James and Ellen (nee Harrison). In 1911 James Thomas and Alice were living in Maitland Street in Walsden, along with Alice's three children. Alice died in 1940 and James Thomas in 1945.

Gravestone in Christ Church
William Henry (snr), William Henry (jnr), Alice and James Thomas Highley

William Henry (jnr) grew up in Walsden, working as a Picker Maker at Inchfield Works. He enlisted in September 1916 in the 207th Battalion Machine Gun Corps and served on the Western Front from March 1917. He was killed in action at Messines, aged 25, on 11th July 1917 and buried at Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Belgium, but his name is inscribed on the gravestone at Christ Church along with those of his parents.

William Henry's grave at Messines Ridge, Belgium

William Henry's name in the  Todmorden Garden of Remembrance

William and Betsy Highley

This post continues the series on Hiley/Highley graves at Christ Church, Todmorden.

William Highley was born in 1846 in Northowram, Halifax. His parents were John, a Cordwainer, and Mary (nee Eastwood). William was the youngest of 8 children. His brother John (Jack) Highley was the subject of a post on 7th December 2021.

Jack and William moved to Todmorden and followed in their father's footsteps by working as Boot, Shoe and Clog Makers.

William married Betsy North in 1869 and the couple had 6 children - Arthur, Fred, Thomas Edward and Mary Emily, Hannah Maria and Sarah.

The 1881 Census described William as a Master Clogger.

In loving memory of William Highley, Garden Street Todmorden, born July 23rd 1846 died August 27th 1888. “Thy Will Be Done.” Also of Betsy, his wife born August 30th 1846, died March 25th 1911.

Charles Joseph Hiley and his family

This post continues the series on Hiley/Highley graves at Christ Church, Todmorden.

Charles Hiley died in 1922, aged 79, and was buried on the 20th November that year. In the family grave are buried Charles, his wife Sarah, and children William Campbell, Emily, Mary Jane, John Walter, Mabel and Amy Elizabeth (wife of Sam Baldwin).

In affectionate remembrance of Emily, daughter of Charles and Sarah Hiley of Crescent, Todmorden, who died September 15th 1878 aged 2 years and 7 months. Also of William Campbell, their son, who died November 8th 1878 aged 9 months. Also of Mary Jane, their daughter, who died May 15th 1887 aged 5 years and 11 months. Also of John Walter, their son, born January 16th 1874, died December 10th 1904. Also of the above named Sarah Hiley. Born May 9th 1842, died February 17th 1909. Also of the above named Charles Hiley. Born March 14th 1843, died November 16th 1922. Also of Mabel, their dearly loved daughter, who entered into rest February 13th 1945 aged 73 years. Also of Amy Elizabeth, their daughter and the dearly beloved wife of Sam Baldwin, who died May 5th 1952 aged 72 years.

There have already been posts in this Blog about Charles, a musician and noted figure in Todmorden for many years:
Professor C.J. Hiley -19th August 2020.
Professor Hiley (part 2) - 2nd September 2020.

His son John Walter was the subject of a post on 13th January 2021. Type 'Professor' into the Search This Blog box to read these posts.

Jesse Hiley

The first Hiley grave at Christ Church in this series of posts is the unmarked grave of Jesse Hiley.

Click on the box in the top right hand corner to read an account of Jesse and his family.

Christ Church, Todmorden

Christ Church, Todmorden was one of the 'Million Churches' built in the industrial North of England from money paid out of the £1m indemnity obtained from the French following the Napoleonic Wars. The church opened in 1832 although a graveyard had existed for some years previously.

The intention in building it had been to replace the existing St Mary's Church but unrest arose among local people, who felt the new church had been built for the benefit of the rich.

In 1866 Todmorden became a parish in its own right and Christ Church was designated the parish church. St Mary's, which had been closed, re-opened as a chapel of ease. Christ Church closed in 1992 and was sold to a private buyer in 2004. St Mary's continued as a place of worship and was re-dedicated as the parish church of Todmorden.

There are 7 Hiley/Highley graves at Christ Church, along with a number of others with Hiley/Highley family connections. The next few posts will give some brief descriptions of the people buried there.

Henry's Tour of Littleborough in 1986 (Part 5)

 This post concludes Henry's tour of Littleborough in 1986.

The same field, looking towards Hollingworth Lake. The ‘pavilion’ stood just behind where I am here. The valley down from the lake embankment became a site for the council tip. As the refuse crept nearer and nearer to our cricket field, I suppose the air became less fresh.

On one occasion we were playing Littleborough Baptists. Robert Holt, an ill-natured youth, fancied himself as a fast bowler. Aided by his brother, Raymond, more by the Baptists’ umpire, diminutive Joe Howard, he ‘dismissed’ me after a monstrous series of false appeals. Joe’s patience did not hold.

 

 

 

Durn Baptist cricket field, as it is in 1986, little better than it was in 1935. Rochdale Canal in the distance.

This picture was taken from the site of the Baptist Chapel. We used to play billiards on a small table, darts, and table tennis, in the cellar. Derrick was scorer before he started to play. Barbara was organist. She and I were married there in 1944. The chapel closed soon after the end of the war. It was used for light industry until it was destroyed by fire in 1985. One or two very elegant dwelling houses now occupy the site.

Look out for more excerpts from Henry's memoirs in forthcoming posts in this Blog

Henry's Tour of Littleborough in 1986 (Part 4)

 

The first building housed the offices of E.K.Taylor & Sons, builders, Ebor Street, Littleborough. Beyond them were the joiner’s shop and builder’s yard. Barbara worked here after a short period unemployed. Her first job from school had been in a furniture retailer’s shop in Rochdale. Derrick went here straight from school. Taylor’s became an important firm, setting up shop in the Treforest Estate in SouthWales during the depression. They were Methodists on Sundays. The most colourful character was Herbert Hurst, the foreman joiner. He kept wicket for Littleborough from 1904 to 1932, standing well back for Fred Webster.

We have now gone under the arches, past Ebor Street, a short stretch along Blackstone Edge Road, then right over the canal towards EALEES.

Further up Ealees, past the mill where Grandpa (Wilfrid K.) used to work. What you see here is the cricket field of Littleborough Parish Church, who played in the Sunday School League. We called the wooden building the Institute. It had gym equipment – parallel bars and rings.

The ground was so small that a boundary only counted two. To score four you had to hit the ball out of the ground. The boundary on two sides was a stream. 

Our gang was playing in the water one day in the mid 1920s when an aeroplane landed on the field at the top of the hill on the left of this picture. We all dashed up there, and were able to tell the pilot, who was lost, where he was. He then taxied away and flew off.

These sheep are grazing what was the ‘square’, actually just one wicket used either by the 1st XI or 2nd XI of Littleborough Methodist Cricket Club in the Sunday School League. If only I had collected 1d for every ball lost, and searched for, on practice nights. At the end of the 1939 season, members took various pieces of tackle home for the winter, as always had been done. The club played no more games. I had the set of wickets, and still set them up on the Grammar School field, or on Queens Park in Windermere. The bat I had from those days was a Gunn & Moore ‘Cannon’.

Henry's Tour of Littleborough in 1986 (Part 3)

Looking across the Park from the Council Offices is the Littleborough Central School, built after the 1902 Balfour Act. What you see is the Higher Grade or ‘Science’ Department. The Infant department where I first went to school at the age of five, and the Elementary School, are in the same building, but at the back. Blackstone Edge is to the left, in the background.

Mummy went into the Science, but I went at the age of 11 to Rochdale Secondary School, as did Derrick shortly after me.

This is exactly as it was when I first went to school in January 1924, except for the grey looking vestibule. Cloakrooms to the left, the ‘Science’ or Higher Grade Department on the far left, upper floor, the elementary school classes opening out from the assembly hall.

The teacher on duty would come out before school, or at the end of playtime, and ring his bell. Everybody ‘froze’. Any movement spotted meant that the culprit was sent into the hall to wait for ‘the stick’. On the second ring of the bell we lined up in our classes. Then we marched into school to our classrooms.

We liked to dip our tennis balls in puddles, so that when we hit the wicket, there was a wet mark on the wall to prove positive. But notice the ‘hop scotch’ grid chalked near the cloakroom.

I was something of a ‘clever dick’ and went on to Rochdale Secondary School in 1930. We used to catch the 8.17 train from Littleborough, but I always seemed to have to run for it. If I reached the ‘top of Littleborough’ before, or just as, the train came over the arches (if you know what you are looking for, they are just visible at the far end of Church Street) I could catch the train, but only just. If I missed it, I had to go by tram (for 2d), later by bus (for 2½d) to Rochdale. Trams, later buses, left every five minutes for Rochdale.

The Royal Oak is a very old inn. The barber’s shop on the corner has been there all my lifetime. I guess the Howarth who cut my hair was the father (or grandfather) of the present practitioner.

This plaque, just outside the Booking Office, was not put up until after Hitler’s war. Often, as young children, we would walk along the canal bank to Uncle Frank’s at Walsden, or to our grandparents,but sometimes we would take the train, and enjoy the mixture of smoke and steam when we were inside Summit Tunnel.

Then again, we might go by tramcar to Summit and change onto a Todmorden bus for the rest of the journey. 

This must have been what George Stephenson built, and what I knew as I came home from Rochdale. If it was late I caught the 4.27, maybe the 5.05 p.m., or the 5.32, another express. If I were very late it had to be the 6.07. The timetable didn’t alter in the seven years of my secondary schooling. We boys might spend time playing shove-ha’penny in the waiting room on Rochdale Station. We cut ‘goal posts’ into each end of the long table, used a halfpenny for a ball and a penny each as a ‘man’. The ‘man’ was propelled by a ruler to cannon into the ‘ball’. Normal soccer rules.

Henry's Tour of Littleborough in 1986 (Part 2)

This is the gable end of the top house in Victoria Street opposite the chapel. I was almost surprised not to see a set of wickets chalked on this wall.

We played cricket incessantly in the summer, on any unoccupied surface. (Not with a ‘corkie’ ball on this pitch though).

Sam Mills lived in this top house. He kept a keen eye on the churchyard opposite, although I never knew him go to church. He used to come out and shout at us if we were playing in the churchyard. All the church buildings have gone, thanks to dry rot.

 

The posh end of Brown Street.

The houses were faced with Accrington brick, the end ones had bay windows, and all of them had ‘tippler’ closets. I never quite understood the mechanism, but understood that a bucket received the human waste, but stood also to receive all waste water from the kitchen and bathroom of the houses. Every time it filled, it ‘tippled’ and emptied itself into the sewer pipe. The closets were behind the houses. This row of houses obscured the gas holders behind.

Turn right at the end of Brown Street on to ‘Gas Lane’. We used to play cricket here as well, but in the 1920s and 1930s it was a cinder track. Hitting the ball into the gasworks counted ‘six and out’. To retrieve the ball meant risking being shouted at by the workmen.

It was fascinating to see the red hot coke being barrowed out. Then a hose pipe would be played on the coke to cool it. My father liked his coke to be delivered during a dry spell. He didn’t like paying for rain water!

The waste ground in the background used to be in good order for hen pens, gardens etc. The fair used to come here as well. But in the late 1920s the Python Mill, which had stood empty for years, was bought by a Dutch firm, Breda Visada, to produce artificial silk. That ground became a massive tip for the tons of horrible waste from the mill.

Agnes and Mary both worked in the mill and came home stinking. Any silver coins in the pockets of workpeople calling in the shop for their Woodbines or for a pie, were quite black, I suppose from the H2S, a by-product of the manufacture.

Henry's Tour of Littleborough in 1986 (Part 1)

The last post of 2023 promised more about Hileys of more recent generations. 

One of the features this year will be some excerpts from the memoirs of Henry Hiley (1919-2007), starting with his earliest recollections of his childhood in Littleborough.

The first series of posts will be a description of a tour of Littleborough which Henry undertook in the summer of 1986. He wanted to revisit some of his childhood haunts and show me the places where he spent his time and played as a boy. He is looking back at Littleborough after a period of about 60 years.

The photographs shown were all taken on that trip. Henry's descriptions are shown in italics.

72 Victoria Street, Littleborough

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. The ‘far back’ bedroom got its daylight through the window on the right. It was over the kitchen. We used to bathe on most Fridays in a tin bath in the cellar under the shop. 

The back door and living room

The front of the house was stone but the back was a poor brick. Here is the living room, where all the work was done, and all the daytime family activities. The back door led straight into the kitchen. All through the 1920s we had to go across the yard to the pail closets. We shared with the Hoyles next door. In the 1930s, water lavatories, one for each house, were built. This red brick is not the original.

The rent used to be 14/10d a fortnight, collected by the milkman, who worked for Tommy Clough, the landlord. To pay for the new lavatory our rent was put up to 15/10d a fortnight. (74p to 79p, just under 40p a week).

The back yard was an open space, common for all five houses in the row (Reheboth Place).

The garages

Business must have been good, so my father bought a 12 h.p. Morris Cowley tourer, with a bullnose radiator and a hood which folded back. That was in 1926. He started selling pies wholesale, and my brother, Sam, would take them out. 

The wooden garage, with an asbestos roof, stood until the mid 1980s but had been replaced in September 1986 by the garage on the right. The other two went up soon after ours.

Just visible above the grey painted garage is the window of the back bedroom where Edith and Mary usually slept. Agnes had the front back bedroom. The rooms are all unimaginably small. Brown Street is on the left.

Henry outside the old slaughterhouse

At the top of Victoria Street, opposite the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, was an open space where the street lads collected to play their games. A great attraction was the slaughterhouse where Milner Eastwood’s pigs were killed. We used to watch through a crack in the door as they were poleaxed, their throats cut, then scalded, scraped, eviscerated and hung. 

We were keenly aware of the relative skills of the slaughtermen, and were delighted to be given the pig’s bladder to blow up and use as a football. It used to last a game or two.