Heap and Parsons families

Recent posts have looked at the Heap and Parsons families and their connection to the Hileys. 

The pedigree chart below shows Ethel Heap's ancestors on her father's side (the Heaps) and on her mother's side (the Parsonses). 

The map below shows the movement of members of the Parsons family from Bolton by Bowland to Sabden and Newchurch and then to Cornholme (red arrows), and also the journey of the Heaps from Bacup to Cornholme (yellow arrow). Whalley and Accrington, where Parsons marriages took place, are also on the map, along with Walsden where Ethel and Harold Hiley lived after their marriage.

Further east is the Upper Calder valley and Halifax. The Yorkshire Hileys originated in the township of Sowerby and a branch moved west to settle in Todmorden and Walsden.

Click on the map to magnify it.

The Parsonses of Sabden (Part 4 The move to Cornholme)

Thomas Parsons left Sabden after finishing at Victoria Mill and moved to Cornholme, where he appeared in the 1871 census living with his two youngest daughters Martha and Sarah. He was working as a Warehouseman in a Cotton Factory and Martha (aged 27) and Sarah (aged 24) were both Cotton Weavers. This may well have been Frostholme Mill - see the recent posts about the Heap family of Cornholme.

Also shown working at the same time as a Warehouseman in a Cotton Factory was 19 year old Henry Heap, and four years later Martha married Henry in Christ Church, Accrington. Amongst those present at the wedding were Henry's father John (Cotton Manufacturer), Martha's father Thomas (Warehouseman), and witnesses Josiah Greenwood and Alice Crabtree. 

Image courtesy of Geoff Porter 

The post of 23rd October 2020 covered Martha and Henry's time in Cornholme.

Thomas Parsons died in 1881 and was buried in the graveyard at Sabden Baptist church along with his wife Susannah.

Grave of Thomas and Susannah in Sabden

Martha died in 1884 and was buried in Vale Baptist chapel in Cornholme. Buried with Martha were her daughter Edith aged 1 year and 7 months, and her sister-in-law Alice Crabtree (nee Heap), a witness at her wedding. Henry died in 1923 and was buried at Audenshaw Cemetery with his second wife Martha Annie.

Grave of Martha Heap in Cornholme

The Heaps of Cornholme (Part 4 Henry Heap's family)

John Heap married Grace Brierley in 1840. They had 8 children between 1841 and 1862.

Their sixth child Henry was born in 1852 in Broadclough near Bacup. Some time in the mid 1850s Henry moved with his family to Cornholme. At about the same time James Ashworth and Mary also moved to Cornholme. Henry's family originally lived at Stubley Holme but then moved to Redwater Foot, opposite Frostholme Mill.

The 1871 census shows that Grace, now a widow, was living with her daughters Alice and Grace, and twin sons, George and Henry. Henry was shown as a Warehouseman in a Cotton Factory, probably Frostholme Mill.

Henry Heap

The 1881 census shows our Heap family living at 1 Birthright View. This address appears to have been renamed 1 Oakleigh Terrace before the next census in 1891. A photo of the house was shown in the last post (Part 3). But by now Henry was married and living with his wife Martha and daughter Alice Selina in Cliviger, the next parish to Stansfield.

Henry had married Martha Parsons in 1875. Martha was from Sabden near Whalley in Lancashire. Future posts will tell the story of Martha and her ancestors.

Henry and Martha's second daughter Ethel was born in 1882 but Martha died two years later. In 1891 Henry was living at 1 Oakleigh Terrace with his mother Grace, his daughters Alice Selina and Ethel, his twin brother George and sister Grace. In 1895 Henry married Martha Annie Holland. He is described as a Bookkeeper and then a Cashier in the next two censuses. Henry and Martha Annie had three children - Dorothy, George and Harry. He died in 1923.

Grace Heap died in 1894 and her sister Mary Ashworth in 1908. Douglas Wilson, a great great great grandson of Mary, has it on family authority that the widows Mary and Grace 'would sit by their firesides alternately smoking their clay pipes and no doubt chewing the cud'.

Ethel

Ethel is described as a Cotton Weaver in the 1901 census and was still living in Cornholme with her family. Two years later she married Harold Hiley (see Part 1).

Acknowledgement: 'Our Heap Family' by Rodney Heap

The Heaps of Cornholme (Part 3 Photos of Cornholme and the mills)

Photos of Cornholme and the Heap & Ashworth mills 
(taken in 2020)

Frostholme Mill on the right. In the distance, facing, is Oakleigh Terrace

Frostholme Mill

1 Oakleigh Terrace (end house)

Cornholme

Site of Caldervale Mill

Next post:  Henry Heap's family

The Heaps of Cornholme (Part 2 Heap and Ashworth Cotton Manufacturers)

The Bacup Commercial Company was formed in 1850 and began business as weavers in a weaving shed in Wardle. In 1854 Farholme Mill was built at Stacksteads, Bacup and the business became the New Bacup and Wardle Cotton Spinning and Manufacturing Company. The directors were all local workmen and a contemporary report said the Farholme Mill was the best managed and wealthiest co-operative mill in Rossendale. John Heap was a a director, and James Ashworth, his brother-in-law, was the secretary of the company (See last post).

Soon afterwards John and James appear to have decided to go into business on their own account and built a weaving shed at Caldervale in Cornholme. At first there were three partners in the firm Messrs. Heap, Ashworth and Co., John and James being joined by John Fielding. The firm worked at Caldervale Mill through the depression of the cotton famine.

After 4 or 5 years at Caldervale, Heap & Ashworth built a weaving shed for 400 looms and a carding and spinning mill at Frostholme, near the Waggon & Horses, Redwaterfoot in Cornholme, just across the main road from Caldervale. They had a long run of prosperity. Later extensions included another shed for 300 looms.

John Heap suffered from ill health for a number of years and died in 1863. In his will he asked that his share of the partnership be continued for the benefit of his widow Grace, and appointed his brother-in-law James as one of the executors.

The first few lines of John Heap's will, 1863

The accounts for 1869 are shown below. Profits of £1005 2s for the 2 years 1867 to 1869 might be equivalent to about £100,000 today.

James Ashworth carried on the business. In the 1871 census he is shown as a Cotton Manufacturer  employing 181 hands and in the 1881 census employing 267 men, women and children. Possibly owing to ill-health, he sold the business in 1882.

Sale of Frostholme Mill
Todmorden & District News 25th August 1882

Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. 

With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

Next post: Photos of Cornholme and the mills

The Heaps of Cornholme (Part 1 The Bacup Heaps)

Future posts will occasionally feature some of the families connected with the Hileys over the years. This month we look at the Heaps of Cornholme. Cornholme is a small village in Calderdale a few miles from Todmorden on the Burnley road.

The Heap surname came from Heap near Bury in Lancashire. In 1881 the surname was most common in Lancashire but with a substantial presence in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

On 6th June 1903 the Hiley and Heap families were joined when Ethel Heap from Cornholme married Harold Hiley from Walsden, a village a few miles away. 

Marriage of Harold Hiley and Ethel Heap
(with the permission of West Yorkshire Archive Service)
www.wyjs.org.uk/archives

Harold Hiley and Ethel Heap in 1903
possibly on their wedding day

Ethel's ancestors came from Broadclough near Bacup. The earliest direct ancestor so far traced is James Heap, son of James Heap, a weaver from Broadclough, and his wife Betty, who was born on 31st May 1801 and baptised on 6th July at the Bacup Wesleyan Church.

James Heap married Alice Law in 1821 in Newchurch Parish Church. James lived at Lanehead and Alice at Lordbarn, both small farms or properties a few hundred yards apart, about one mile north of Bacup. They had 9 children of whom the eldest was John, born in 1822. John married Grace, the daughter of James and Mary (nee Lord) Brierley in 1840.

James Heap came to an untimely end as this cutting from The Halifax Guardian describes.

Death of James Heap

The Halifax Guardian 13th June 1868

Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. 

With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

Green's Clough between Portsmouth nr Cornholme and Bacup

It seems likely that John and Grace Heap were close to Grace's sister, Mary Brierley and her husband James Ashworth, because John and James soon became business partners.

Next post: Heap and Ashworth Cotton Manufacturers