The maternal side of the family

As promised at the start of the year, it is time to devote some posts to the maternal side of the family which has been neglected for too long. 

Henry Hiley married Barbara Kershaw in Durn Baptist Chapel in Littleborough on 18th November 1944.

Previous posts in this Blog have described how the Hiley family originated in an area on the Sowerby hillside above Luddendenfoot in the Upper Calder Valley. James Highley moved west in the 1750s and settled in Todmorden. James was a 4 x great grandfather of Henry.

George Redmonds was unsure of the origin or origins of the Kershaw surname. It occurred in Lancashire from the late 1200s and in Yorkshire from 1307 where the first reference is that of Adam Kyrkeschawe of Sowerby. So the Hiley and Kershaw families may have originated very close to each other.

Barbara's Kershaw ancestors never lived far away from Henry's Hiley ancestors.

In 1874 the marriages took place of two great grandfathers, Samuel Hiley and James Kershaw. At York Street Chapel in Todmorden on 13th September, Samuel Hiley (aged 21), a cotton weaver of Alma Street, Walsden married Elizabeth Taylor (aged 23), a cotton weaver of Hollins Mount, Walsden. And at Mankinholes Methodist Church on 2nd February, James Kershaw (aged 22), a Bookkeeper of Hollins Place, Walsden, married Mary Ann Clough (aged 19), a Cotton Factory Operative of Beech Street, Walsden.

Hollins Mount

Hollins Place

The four residences of the two couples are all within a stone's throw of each other in Walsden, so the couples would almost certainly have known each other. Little did they know that two great grandchildren from these families would bring them together 70 years later.

So where were the Hileys and Kershaws 100 years before these two weddings?

Samuel's great grandfather James was living with his wife Martha and children at Swineshead Cottage between Todmorden and Walsden. James's great grandfather James Kershaw was living with his wife Martha and children in Sowerby. We know that he was born in Westfield and died in Hollinhey, both places in the township of Sowerby. From Swineshead to Hollinhey is about 5 miles as the crow flies.

Swineshead

Hollinhey