Heptonstall St Thomas the Apostle graveyard

There are no monumental inscriptions naming Hileys in the Heptonstall graveyard.

The first Hiley burial was recorded on 21st April 1611 and was that of 'Joh'es Hilelighe de Ayring' - John Hilelighe of Erringden. There were 13 burials there between 1611 and 1807.

All the early burial entries record the person's abode as Erringden. 

The Parish of Heptonstall was one of the two ancient Chapelries of the Parish of Halifax, the other one being Elland. The Chapelry of Heptonstall contained the townships of Heptonstall, Stansfield, Wadsworth, Langfield and Erringden.

The Parish of Halifax

The Parish Registers for Heptonstall date from 1594. The first four baptisms recorded were for Mary (1601), John (1604), James (1606) and George (1608), all children of John Hylely of Erringden. John had married Alice Acroyd in Halifax Parish Church in 1598. The father John (Hilelighe) may have been the one who was buried in 1611.

Calderdale graveyards

This Blog has already featured posts on some of the churchyards in Calderdale where Hileys or Highleys are buried. At the last count, there were 23 which have graves with monumental inscriptions showing burials of Hileys or Highleys.

There are also a number of Calderdale churches where Hileys or Highleys were buried but which no longer have visible gravestones to commemorate them. This may be because the families never provided gravestones in the first place (maybe because they could not afford them), or because the stones became unsafe or damaged and had to be removed, or because burial plots may have been re-used after centuries have elapsed.

In the next few posts we will look at some of these churchyards:

 1 Todmorden St Mary's

2 Sowerby St Peter's

                                                                              3 Halifax St John the Baptist

4 Heptonstall St Thomas the Apostle

Swineshead

David Hiley married Dorothy Maud on 7th June 1720 at Halifax Parish Church. David was a weaver, Dorothy a spinster, and the couple were both from the township of Warley. David and Dorothy had three sons, Mark, James and David.

James and Mark both moved west from Warley along the Calder valley whilst David stayed in Warley. James was a webster (a weaver) and he married Martha Greenwood on 3rd October 1761 at Heptonstall. Their first child Mary was baptised later that year when the family were living in Castle, just east of Todmorden.

By the time of the baptism of  James and Martha's 4th child Bettey in 1768 the family were living in Swineshead New House on the road heading out of Walsden towards Lumbutts. They stayed there until James's death in 1795. 

Their address is given as Swineshead Cottage for Salley's baptism in 1772 and just Swineshead on the record of James's burial, and it is not clear which of the existing buildings they were living in at the time. Swineshead is now a listed building. Historic England describes it as built in the mid 17th century and then rebuilt in the early to mid 18th century.

The buildings at Swineshead:

The view down to Walsden from Swineshead

James's brother Mark had already made the journey west from Warley. Mark was a comber and he married Mary Law at Heptonstall on 26th March 1754. Their second child William was baptised while the couple were living at Swineshead Rough. The Rough is the land opposite Swineshead between Lumbutts Road and Langfield Moor.

The view from Swineshead across The Rough to Langfield Moor

The buildings at Swineshead, taken from The Rough looking towards Todmorden

'Top O' th' Rough'

Heptonstall church

Heptonstall, recorded in the Domesday Book, is a township within the ancient parish of Halifax, set high on the Pennines above the Calder valley.

Heptonstall's original church, dedicated to St Thomas a Becket, was founded in about 1260, and was altered and added to over several centuries. The church was damaged by a gale in 1847 and is now only a shell, but a new church, St Thomas the Apostle, was built in the same churchyard.

Old and new churches 1909

Heptonstall church 2016

The first recorded Hiley baptism at Heptonstall was that of Mary, daughter of John Hylely of Erringden, on 26th July 1601.

Five Hiley marriages took place at Heptonstall, the first in 1605 between James Hileley and Susan Sutclyffe. The last, in 1761, was between James Highley and Martha Greenwood, 5 x great grandparents.

Marriage of James Highley and Martha Greenwood
(with the permission of West Yorkshire Archive Service)
www.wyjs.org.uk/archives

There were 19 Hiley burials at Heptonstall between 1611 and 1807 but there are now no remaining gravestones to be seen with inscriptions which record these burials.

The only gravestone with a Hiley connection so far established shows members of the Kershaw family, shown below. Henry Hiley married Barbara Kershaw in 1944 and the Kershaws on the gravestone are ancestors of Barbara. The photo was taken by Barbara's brother Derrick who researched his Kershaw ancestors in his retirement.

The Kershaw family grave at Heptonstall

Buried here are Martha Kershaw (nee Greenwood), Mary Farrer (nee Kershaw), Grace Kershaw (nee Farrer), John Kershaw, Abraham Kershaw, Martha Kershaw (nee Howarth), James Kershaw, Thomas Kershaw and Elizabeth Kershaw (nee Baldwin).

Derrick and Evelyn Kershaw cleaning the Kershaw gravestone

Charles J Hiley was the organist at Heptonstall for 43 years. See the post about him on 19th August 2020.

Professor Hiley (part 2)

There are a number of mentions of Charles J Hiley in the Todmorden newspapers of the time. A selection is shown below.

Todmorden Advertiser & Hebden Bridge Newsletter
10th March 1876
Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) 

Todmorden Advertiser & Hebden Bridge Newsletter
10th January 1908
Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

The following appeared in an article entitled 'Some Local Musicians : Remarkable Records', and featured descriptions of organists, choirmasters and musicians who had given many years of service in the local community.

Todmorden & District News
26th September 1913
Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) 

Hiley's shop in Todmorden
(photo and description included with the kind permission of Daniel Birch)