Article archive
St Luke's Old Church
21/02/2016 21:29
I'm not fond of poetry but I really like these verses from John Heywood's "St Luke's Old Church". He was born in 1808, was postmaster in Heywood and the printer of the Heywood Advertiser from the 1850s. He was also a song-writer and poet and he wrote this when Heywood Chapel was being...
Ulpha and the Wordsworth Connection
20/02/2016 22:14
Geoff again and a family connection to yet another fabulous part of North West England, this time Ulpha in the Duddon Valley in Cumbria. We haven't managed to get up as far as this yet for a visit but Geoff's Braithwaite branch lived in Ulpha in the 1840s and 1850s; indeed...
The Raw Family of Crack Pot Hall, Swaledale
16/02/2016 21:39
Yet another big house for Geoff's family (well, a couple of 100 years ago anyway!) Last year we trudged up to Muker in beautiful Swaledale, North Yorkshire to check out the ruins of Crack Pot Hall, the farm where Isabella Brunskill and her husband Thomas Raw, and their son and his...
The Darlingtons of Hopwood United Methodist Church
14/02/2016 18:39
I've already covered Tom Darlington's early days in another article but his name, and the names of his family, pop up continually in relation to Hopwood United Methodist Chapel, which used to stand on Rochdale Road East facing the end of Chadwick Lane.All three Darlington men are involved...
The Bay Horse, Unsworth - Robert Stott & Family
13/02/2016 17:22
Never quite sure if this branch of the Stotts were actually related, I based doing the research on the fact that my own great-great-grandfather was Walker Stott and the only other time I have come across Walker Stotts in the family was in this branch, who lived at the Bay Horse at Unsworth Pole in...
Thomas Edger (Hillbilly?) - The Ohio Railway Murder
10/02/2016 21:34
This could be a great story if I could only substantiate it! Lately, my cousin Sue told me a story that has been handed down from her grandmother. Apparently, Sue's great-great grandmother, Isabella and her two sons, Thomas and John Edger, were deserted by their father, Robert, who left...
The Holt Family Bible
10/02/2016 19:20
The Heywood Holts lived mainly in the Bridge Street/George Street area for over 50 years and Bertha Holt was my great-grandmother, who married Richard Ashton (son of the Richard Ashton who had been run over by his horse and cart). I used to own the family bible but unfortunately gave it away...
The Holt Family Bible
09/02/2016 22:20
Richard Ashton and Bertha Holt were my great grandparents. The bible originally belonged to me but maddeningly I gave it away years ago. Luckily I photocopied these pages first!
Annie Clegg - 19th Century Rochdale
09/02/2016 21:44
My grandma, Annie Clegg, was given away by her father, James Taylor Clegg, a Rochdale butcher, to one of his customers in 1909 when she was 10 years old. Her mother had recently died and he was left with four children. Granny said she remembered she was playing in Baillie Street when...
The Gaskills of Birdfields, Ashworth Valley
09/02/2016 20:43
A few years ago I spent an afternoon up Ashworth Valley, north of Heywood, photographing the houses that my cousin's wife's grandfather's family had lived in in the 19th Century. Her father, Ernie Gaskill, had never known his father, as he had been killed in a factory accident at Porritts...
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