Francis Hiley, Baptist minister

For 50 years Reverend Francis Hiley was Pastor at the Baptist Chapel in Llanwenarth in Monmouthshire, South Wales. He was born in the village in 1780 and died there in 1860. 

Francis studied in Abergevenny and was appointed by Llanwenarth in 1811. Along with a co-pastor, James Lewis, Francis baptised over 1400 people. Membership of the chapel grew rapidly and many independent 'daughter' churches were founded throughout the area.

Francis Hiley was a renowned preacher in both Welsh and English. He was known as the 'Silver Trumpet of Gwent' and was reported to have preached outdoors to great crowds of over 1000 people, standing on top of a wall so that he could be seen by all.

Christmas Evans, a great Welsh non-conformist preacher, said that he would never preach after him.

 

Portraits of Francis Hiley from the Welsh Portrait Collection at the National Library of Wales (in the Public Domain).

More on Francis Hiley's family and the 'Welsh Hileys' in the next post

Gauxholme and Knowlwood

The final part of the walk descends from Naze to Gauxholme in the valley beside the canal. This is location no. 7 on the map shown in previous posts.

Gauxholme seen from below Naze

Knowlwood seen from below Naze

This Blog has already described how brothers James and Mark Highley moved west from Warley along the Calder valley and settled in Todmorden. James and Martha's son John was born in 1763 whilst the family were living at Rodwell End, Stansfield. The family then moved to Swineshead in Langfield.

John married Grace Ogden in St Mary's Church, Todmorden in 1783. The couple had 11 children. In the baptism records some of the birthplaces are shown as Todmorden or Walsden, but most of the earlier births show the family living in Gauxholme and most of the later ones show the family living in Knowlwood. So it appears that John moved from Swineshead after his marriage, first to Gauxholme and then to Knowlwood.

Part of a Todmorden map of 1939

John and Grace were 4 x great grandparents. One of their children, also called John, married Mally Unsworth in 1810. John and Mally continued to live in Knowlwood before moving to Ramsden Wood - see an earlier post about this walk. One of their 8 children, Charles, was born there in 1822. Later Charles moved to Bottoms and then Alma Street in Walsden.

Naze

The walk leaves Pastureside and heads north across the moor. Location no. 6 on the map of the walk below is Naze Farm. 

All that remains of this inaccessible farm now are piles of stones. A steep and winding pack horse track leads down to the valley at Gauxholme.

From the ruins of Naze Farm looking towards Todmorden

....and looking towards Walsden

Mary Highley was the first child of James and Martha Highley, 5 x great grandparents. Mary was born in 1761 in Castle, Todmorden and baptised at Heptonstall church. In 1779 she gave birth to a son Thomas (Hiley i' th' Vicarage), already mentioned in some of the posts covering this walk. Thomas's father is unknown.

In 1786 Mary married Samuel Scholfield and the couple had 9 children. Mary and Samuel lived at Naze Farm and Thomas grew up there with his mother and stepfather and his step-siblings. 

Mary's father James died in 1795 whilst he and Martha were living at Swineshead Cottage. Martha died in 1807. It appears that after James's death she went to live with Mary and her family at Naze. James and Martha were both buried at Cross Stones church in Todmorden, but there is now no gravestone in the churchyard to remember them.

Burial record for Martha Highley (nee Greenwood)
(with the permission of West Yorkshire Archive Service)
www.wyjs.org.uk/archives

The steep track down to Gauxholme from Naze

Pastureside

Inchfield Road becomes Foul Clough Road and soon a lane on the right leads to Pastureside - location no. 5 on the map of this walk. 

The path leading to Pastureside

Pastureside was associated with the Haigh family for centuries. The first known Haigh in Walsden was Reuben who acquired the lease some time prior to 1709.  He died in 1750 and bequeathed the lease to his son John Haigh of Pastureside. In turn the lease passed to John's son John Haigh the Younger.

One of John the Younger's eight children was Sally, and Sally married Thomas Hiley (Hiley i' th' Vicarage) in 1801.

Already mentioned in this Blog is a story told by John Travis about Thomas and Sally and Sally's father, although he refers to Thomas as John in the story.

The ruins of Pastureside farm

Fireplace inside the farm

Rake Head Barn and Nicklety

The walk follows Ramsden Wood Road down to the main road, turns left towards the centre of Walsden, and then, with the Post Office and Hollins Road on the right, turns left up Inchfield Road.   

About 1km on the left of this steep and winding road is a property called Nicklety. This was the home of Reuben Hiley. Reuben was  the son of Thomas Hiley (Hiley i' th' Vicarage) and a brother of John Hiley (Hiley ' th' Horsepasture) who appeared in the last two posts. Reuben was born in 1805 and married Betty Hudson in 1830. The couple had 5 children – Hannah, Sally, John, James and Mary. The census records show his occupation as a Road Labourer or Quarry Man. Reuben and his family lived at Nicklety for many years.

A story about Reuben, who was known as 'Old Wraggs', appeared in the post of 7th May 2019. This was written by John Travis and was entitled 'Mother Wit'.

Nicklety on Inchfield Road

Just before Nicklety, Rake Head Barn Lane branches off to the left and leads to Rake Head Barn.

This was the home of John and Sally Harrison and their family. John was a Woodcutter and the father of nine children. One of their daughters was Betty who married Charles Hiley in 1844. Charles was a 2 x great grandfather and has been mentioned in several posts already. Click on this link to learn more about Charles.

Charles Hiley

Rake Head Barn

Nicklety and Rake Head Barn are shown as location 4 on the map of this walk.

Ramsden Wood

The walk leaves Vicarage and continues along Foul Clough Road as far as the properties at Thornsgreece and Brown Road. Thomas Barker of Inchfield, a 4 x great grandfather, was living at Thornsgreece when he died in 1821 - see the post of 8th November 2021.

Thornsgreece and Brown Road

The path then heads down to Ragby Bridge and along Ramsden Clough to Ramsden Wood. This is location no. 3 on the map of this walk. 

Ramsden Wood reservoir

In 1841, John Highley, a 3 x great grandfather, was recorded in the Census as living at Ramsden Wood with his wife Mally (nee Unsworth) and children Charles, Thomas, James and Hannah. John worked as a Cotton Mule Spinner. Charles, James and Hannah were Cotton Power Loom Weavers and Thomas was a Cotton Stripper and Grinder. 

There were two mills in Ramsden Wood - Ramsden Wood Mill, known as T' Top Shop and Spring Mill, known as T' Bottom Shop. 

The two mills of Ramsden Wood

In 1844 John's son Charles married Betty Harrison and their first child Grace was born. Grace's baptism record shows the family living at Spring Mill in Walsden. 

In 1851 John and Mally were recorded as living in Spring Mill. John's occupation was shown as a Scutcher of Cotton.

The cottages at Spring Bottom built for workers at Spring Mill
John and Mally lived in one of these

John died in 1854 and Mally in 1860. They were buried in the graveyard at St Peter's Church in Walsden. There is no gravestone to commemorate their names, but the walking stick in the picture below shows where they were buried.

Hiley i' th' Vicarage

The route leaves Horsepasture , going past Middle Ramsden Farm and then bearing left across the moor to the abandoned Ramsden Clough Reservoir, crossing over it along the top of the dam, and reaching Foul Clough Road.

One of the ruined farms along this road is Vicarage, which is at location no. 2 on the map of this walk shown in the first post in this series on 17th August 2023.

The ruins of Vicarage farm

There have already been two posts in this Blog about Hiley i' th' Vicarage:

10th August 2019 - Hiley i' th' Vicarage. This post was a story written by John Travis. He refers to him as John Hiley but his proper name was Thomas Hiley (or Highley).

21st August 2019 - Vicarage Farm and Thomas Hiley's family.

Thomas was the illegitimate son of Mary Highley (1761-1820). Mary was the first child of James Highley and Martha (nee Greenwood), 5 x great grandparents.

Thomas married Sally Haigh, the daughter of John Haigh (the younger) of Pastureside, Walsden. John Haigh became a wealthy man and owned a lot of land and property on the moors above Walsden, including Pastureside, Vicarage, Nicklety and Coolam. Pastureside and Nicklety feature later in this walk. Coolam is situated a little further along Foul Clough Road from Vicarage.

Thomas and Sally were given the tenancy of John's farm at Vicarage. The couple had 11 children including Reuben, featured in the Blog post of 7th May 2019 and the subject of John Travis's story 'Mother Wit', and John, known as Hiley i' th' Horsepasture, who was featured in the last post.

Foul Clough Road

Vicarage is in the far distance, near the middle one of the 3 big trees