...more on the Holbrooks grave

The family of John Holbrooks of Etchells.

In June 2015 a large flat gravestone was discovered at thebend of the river at the bottom of St.Bart’s cemetery. It is 183cm tall and 90cm wide, and clearly was moved here in the 1980s during the then reordering of the church and cemetery. In the intervening 30 years it had become overgrown and about 10cm of soil and grass were covering the slab. Its position was only discernable from the more solid feel underfoot and the fact that all along the path large slabs had been placed about every 10 feet/3 metres, and in this location, one was clearly missing.

The stone was originally one of the large number of stones that had been laid between the church and the lychgate. This part of the cemetery is the oldest, and while there were some later adjustments, it originally contained many stones first laid down in the late 17^th/early 18^th century.

One of the striking characteristics of this part of the cemetery is that most of the stones here represent either the large tithing families of Wilmslow parish or benefactor tombs, like the vault bought and set up by Samuel Greg for the children of Quarry Bank Mill. Very few of the people buried in this area are outsiders or of what we would now call working class background. In fact it seems that throughout the 17/18^th century the majority of parishioners were buried in unmarked graves and after twenty or thirty years removed to the ossuary below the choir (since c. 1985 rededicated as a small chapel, the bones having long since been removed to a communal tomb on the north side of the church).

So the expectation of a large stone like the Holbrooks grave had to be that it represented one of the long established Wilmslow families. But when we did further research, the actual history of the graves owner’s came as a surprise:

John Holbrooks of Etchells is anything but a long established landowner, having been born in Lostock in Lancashire (now part of Bolton) in around 1793/6. He moved to Cheadle Parish before he was 25, as we know that he married Betty Faulkner in Stockport parish in 1821. The couple seems to have established themselves in the small hamlet of Outwood, which today survives in the name of Outwood Road between Heald Green and Handforth, and which could then be described as part of Etchells, which lay between Heald Green and Cheadle. We do not know, what profession John Holbrooks originally followed, as we only gain detailed records with the Census of 1841. By this time, Betty had died, possibly in childbirth and John had been left with four surviving children, one of which must have been a babe in arms (Ralph (born c. 1825), William (c.1832), James (c.1835) and Elizabeth (c.1837)). It is thus not surprising to find that he quickly remarried Ann (we have not been able to establish her maiden name), but both his first and second wife appear to have been born in Cheadle Parish, which included at  this time Heald Green, Cheadle, Handforth and several smaller places. More children quickly followed the wedding: Nathan (born c.1838), Sarah (1842), Eli and John (both born apparently 1848), survived childhood. At this time John Holbrooks described himself as an agricultural labourer and a hay cutter, while his wife Ann, worked as a hand loom weaver for cotton. By 1861 most of the younger children were helping with the weaving or working with cotton. The oldest daughter Elizabeth entered service in Hulme in the household of a rich spirits and alcohol trader. The older boys had started out as agricultural labourers, before becoming carters. In 1855 John Holbrooks died and Ann became head of the household. At around this time her stepchildren decided to move away, the boys joined the LNWR, Ralph as a railway labourer in Cheadle, James working in Salford as a railway porter, while William moved to Liverpool and became a railway clerk. All three soon started large families of their own, but the two younger seem to have dropped their connection with the area. Only Ralph, who had moved out by 1841 and had established his own family in Outwood/Heald Green/Long Lane, continued to live close after he left the railway after 1861, and this might explain, why his daughter Jane was buried with his parents, when she died aged 16 in 1865.

The other children continued along the Wilmslow Road, working as agricultural labourers and Sarah as laundress. For 1869 there is a baptism record for Sarah Holbrook, who was christened in Cheadle Parish as an adult. But interestingly when she married five years later her neighbour’s son James Moss, they did so in Stockport Registry office, not in any of the churches. Thus the link to Wilmslow Parish Church appears to have been tenuous, despite the burial here of her father and his first wife.

Sarah’s mother, Ann, died 15 years after her husband in 1870, leaving Sarah in charge of her younger brothers Eli and John, who however, appear to have died two years later in 1872. John is buried in his parents’ graves, it is not clear what happened to Eli.

Now pretty much on her own, Sarah decided to marry James Moss, a close neighbour and like her brothers a local farm labourer. The link with the Moss family was long established as for several years an unmarried uncle of James had lived as a lodger in the Holbrooks home. James and Sarah continued to live in Outwood till at least the First World War and had two children, John, who survived and Annie. The latter died at the age of 25 years and is the last one of the family to have been buried in this grave. Her death also appears to be the only one recorded in the Wilmslow Advertiser (26 May 1899, p.5).

It is striking how this is such a ‘normal’ Wilmslow/Handforth family for the 19^th century: life was dominated by the agricultural work, with additional income being provided by the cotton industry and the railway. The very late baptism of Sarah and her marriage in the Registry office might also point to a certain non-conformism or even “can’t be bothered with religion” attitude, which was apparently very common among the working classes in and around Manchester in the early 19^th century. Even if the Holbrooks were religious, living in Outwood, it would have been easier for them to attend Cheadle Parish Church, rather than St. Bart’s, unlike many of the families in Handforth, who preferred Wilmslow since at least the 15^th century, so why are they in our cemetery?

We have not been able to identify the families that John Holbrooks’ wives came from. Faulkner is a well established name in both Wilmslow and Cheadle n the 18^th century. Was the tomb granted to his first wife because of her origins? Whatever the reason, here it is, originally next to the Lychgate and now down at the river, a beautiful monument to the aspirations and self respect of the normal people of Handforth and Wilmslow in the 19^th century. 

Graveyard recording in Wilmslow

One of my titles is Chairman of Wilmslow Community Archaeology. We have been working in and around Wilmslow for the last eight years, recording the archaeological and small historical remains, then publishing our findings and putting on occasional exhibitions and open days.

Our biggest project is the recording of all the graves in St. Bartholomew's graveyard, with half a dozen volunteers per session and meetings once or twice a months work progresses slowly, but we reckon we have about 70% of it done.

The graves cover the period from the 17th to the 20th century and come in all shapes and sizes. We have the burial register and a graveyard survey of the 1960s to go on, but with ongoing depositions of ashes and the changes due to extensions of the church and paths, and the ensuing movement of the stones, things are far from just a box ticking exercise against the old register.

In fact at the current count, we reckon that about 40% of the stones recorded in the old register are either missing or have been removed from their original location. In some cases this is easily remedied, especially the flat stones and memorials on the kerbs of the graves are frequently overgrown, but a careful probe with a knitting needle often reveals the graves just centimeters below the grass. We then record them and mostly replace the grass, protecting the stone against the elements and preserving the graveyards secondary function as a wildlife haven.

But many of the stones that were originally displayed around the church and especially to the South of the church were removed in the 1980s, when the Garden of Remembrance was created (that is the official name of the piece of grass between the Lychgate and the Church). The stones, mostly flat grave covers, rather than headstones were moved or removed and some of the excavations in advance of the extension of the church produced large numbers of fragments of these stones.

But others were just moved to create walking surfaces, either around the church or from the tower down the path to the river. Some of these are still easily recognisable, others are now overgrown.

One of these stones turned up last Saturday during our survey, overgrown by the edge of river.
The slab is 183 x 90 cm and records the burials of the Holbrooks family from Etchells. The stone was originally about 5m to the right of the Lychgate, when entering the graveyard (and before you ask, when the stones were moved the burials themselves remained untouched, so Mr Holbrooks and his family are still close to the Lychgate).

The stone itself is in a beautiful condition, with very little wear. We are currently starting to look into the family and where they came from. Burial in this part of the churchyard usually suggests that they are old families of Wilmslow and large tithe payers, although they describe themselves as from Etchells. Clearly there is a story there. 

The next recording in on July 1st, from 1pm-4pm, if you want to join us.