The Burial Registers record the names of over thirty people interred at Wainsgate who died in one of the variants of ‘The Workhouse’ (see below for a brief history of the Workhouse and its evolution and demise). This is what we know of their lives and deaths – the place of death shown is as recorded in the register:

Thomas GREENWOOD
‘Workhouse, Popples’. Buried 24th January 1850, age 73. Location of grave unknown. The register entry implies that he had lived at Popples before going into the workhouse (we don’t know which one), where he died. He is possibly related to John Greenwood of Popples, who died in 1856 aged 85 and was buried at Wainsgate, although the location of his grave is also unknown.

William TAYLOR
‘Workhouse’. Buried 30th April 1861, age 51. Location of grave unknown. The 1861 census form (taken on 7th April 1861) shows a William Taylor (possibly the same one), aged 52, resident at the Erringden Workhouse, which was located at Rake Head on the edge of Cock Hill Moor, beyond Horsehold and Erringden Grange.

The census shows sixteen people resident at the workhouse – all described as ‘pauper’ and no record of any resident staff. Four are unmarried women between the ages of 42 and 55, six are men between the ages of 34 and 84. The census form has a column ‘Whether Blind, or Deaf-and-Dumb’ – the two oldest men are recorded as being deaf, and the youngest, 34 year old Eli Helliwell is appears to be recorded as deaf, dumb and blind (although the entry is unclear).

There is also a family living in the workhouse – 61 year old William Broadbent, his 42 year old wife Hannah, and their four children, whose ages range from 8 months to 12 years old.

In 1861 Sarah was living in Turn Lea, Midgley with William and Mercy Ackroyd and the couple’s two young daughters. She was working as a worsted weaver, and is recorded as the sister-in-law of William Ackroyd. In 1871 and 1881 she was living at Pickles Row, Midgley with John Hartley, a widowed clogger, and working as a worsted weaver. The 1871 census records her as being his niece, but the 1881 census records her as being his sister, which is obviously incorrect.

In 1891 she was living alone at 65 Towngate, Midgley (a three roomed dwelling), aged 62 and still working as worsted weaver. We don’t know when or why she went into the Workhouse, but there is no record of any surviving children who could have supported her when she presumably became unable to work, and she does not appear to have remarried after the death of her husband.

The epitaph on the gravestone, inscribed after William’s death is ‘Man know thyself’. The quotation is not from the Bible, but has its origin in a Delphic maxim inscribed on the Temple of Apollo.

William SUTCLIFFE
‘Work House’. Died 1st September 1898, aged 68. Buried in plot FY158 with his parents, Richard and Alice Sutcliffe of Pecket Well, their daughter Susannah who died in 1829 aged 1, and their son John who died in 1897 aged 65.

Sarah GREENWOOD
‘The Workhouse’. Buried 15th June 1898, age 70. Location of grave unknown.

Edwin MOSES
‘The Workhouse’. Buried 14th June 1898, age 39. Location of grave unknown.

Thomas DEWHIRST
The Workhouse’. Buried 20th September 1906, age 73. Location of grave unknown.

Ann HARWOOD
‘The Wortkhouse, Todmorden’. Died 23rd October 1907, aged 81. She is buried in plot A562 with her husband, Jonas Harwood (who was several years younger than her), who died in 1895 aged 64. Ann was born in Warley, and her maiden name was almost certainly Nicholl. The couple seem to have married in 1863, and there is no record of them having had any children.

Jonas farmed at Keelham, Wadsworth: in 1871 he was recorded in the census as ‘Farmer of 15 acres & outdoor labourer’, and in 1881 as ‘Farmer of 19 acres’. The 1901 census records Ann living on her own, aged 75, at Ibbotroyd – her ‘Profession or Occupation’ is recorded as ‘no occupation’.

John SHARP
‘The Union Workhouse, Todmorden’. Buried 19th February 1909, age 68. Location of grave unknown.
Sarah Ann SHARP
‘The Workhouse’. Buried 10th December 1909, age 69. Location of grave unknown.

Almost certainly husband and wife – Sarah Ann Sutcliffe, weaver of Old Town, aged 19 married John Sharp, factory operative of Pecket Well in Heptonstall on 21st May 1859. Both were illiterate, and signed the register with their mark, X. John was working as wool comber at the age of 12, and later worked as a stoker, fire beater (at a brick works?), general labourer and ‘engine tenter’ in a cotton mill. Sarah Ann worked as a cotton weaver until at least the age of 60. They lived at Old Town and Little Nook, and do not appear to have had any children.

We know that they went to the Workhouse (together or separately?) some time after 1901 – presumably age or infirmity meant that they could no longer support themselves, and they had no children or other family to help them. John died in February 1909, aged 68, and Sarah Ann died in December of the same year.

Elizabeth HEALEY
‘Todmorden Workhouse’. Buried 16th September 1910, age 87.

Elizabeth Healey is buried in Plot B121a, with her mother Harriet Healey, brother Thomas and sister Ann Healey (although Ann’s burial is not recorded in the burial register). Another sister, Adelaide, is also buried at Wainsgate in Plot B200a, with her husband John Armstrong.

Harriet Healey was born Harriet Smalley in Bolton, and was widowed when her husband John died in 1835 at the age of 39. Her son Thomas was born in Manchester and Elizabeth, Ann and Adelaide were born in Salford. In 1871, Ann and Elizabeth were living with their widowed mother in Manchester, but in 1881 they were living in Union Street, Hebden Bridge and both working as tailoresses – their mother was living at Hebden Terrace, Midgehole, with Adelaide, John and their six children.

Harriet died in 1883, aged 87, her son-in-law John Armstong died later that year aged 52, and her son Thomas died (in Burnley) the following year, aged 62. In 1891 Ann and Elizabeth were living at 42 Foster Lane, Hebden Bridge – the 1891 census records Ann (aged 65 and the younger sister) as ‘Head of Family’, but does not record her occupation. Elizabeth, aged 67, is recorded as being a ‘Fustian Tailoress’.

In 1901 Ann and Elizabeth, both unmarried, were living with their widowed younger sister at 17 Lees Road, Hebden Bridge. Ann died in 1903 aged 77, Elizabeth died in 1910 aged 87, and Adelaide died in 1916 aged 84.

Adelaide, the only one of the sisters still living at the time of the 1911 census (taken on 2nd April), was living at 44 Foster Lane, Hebden Bridge. The census form (filled in by the occupier) records Adelaide as the only occupant of the dwelling, but the Schedule (which was filled in by the Enumerator), records the ‘Name of Head of Family or Separate Occupier’ as Elizabeth Healey, the name being crossed out and replaced with Adelaide Armstrong. But Elizabeth had died in Todmorden Workhouse in September 1910, so this is hard to explain – the census forms were only distributed a few days before 2nd April 1911.

It seems probable that Elizabeth had been living with Adelaide at Foster Lane before she entered the Workhouse, presumably because of infirmity or illness and her sister’s inability to support her, and is likely that she entered the Workhouse shortly before she died.

Mary PARKER
‘The Workhouse, Todmorden’. Buried 1st July 1911, age 71.

Daniel BANCROFT
‘The Workhouse, Todmorden’. Buried 6th December 1913, age 60.


John SUNDERLAND
‘The Workhouse, Todmorden’. Buried 26th December 1916, age 66. Location of grave unknown.


Bertha DEWHIRST
‘Stansfield View’. Buried 15th August 1927, age 12
Thomas Henry DEWHIRST
‘Stansfield View, Todmorden’. Buried (?) August 1935, age 63.

Bertha Dewhirst is by far the youngest person (and the only child) who died in the Workhouse and was interred at Wainsgate. She is buried in Plot B353a with her parents – the grave is marked by a small marker stone inscribed T. H. D.

In the census of 1901, Thomas Henry Dewhirst, born in Wadsworth, was single, living on his own in Old Town and working as a ‘stone quarry man’. Later that year he married Annie Elizabeth Sanderson, born in Bramham near Wetherby, and ten years younger than him. His occupation on the marriage certificate is recorded as ‘delver’. In 1911 the couple were living at 30 Sunny Bank, Mytholmroyd. They had four children (another child had died in infancy) and Thomas was now working as a cotton weaver.

The family’s youngest daughter recorded in the 1911 census was Ivy, aged 1 year and 9 months. The burial register has an entry for a burial on 18th March 1913 ‘Ivy Dewhirst – 32 Sunny Bank, Mytholmroyd – 3yrs’. The recorded date when Thomas purchased the plot (8th May 1922) seems to indicate that Ivy was buried elsewhere in the graveyard, but that date could be incorrect – the adjacent plot was purchased in 1912, so perhaps Ivy was the first person buried in this plot.

Annie Elizabeth died in 1922, aged 41, and was buried at Wainsgate in the burial plot that her husband is recorded as purchasing on the day of her burial. We don’t know why or when Bertha and her father went into the Workhouse, but we know that when they died they were buried at Wainsgate, presumably in the plot that Thomas had bought for his wife’s (and possibly his daughter Ivy’s) burial.

There is another burial recorded in the register which may be another of Thomas and Annie’s daughters: ’12th March 1954 – Phyllis Andrew – 1 Brow Edge, Newchurch, Rossendale – 36yrs’. Phyllis Dewhirst‘s birth was registered in Todmorden in the 3rd quarter of 1917, and her mother’s maiden name was Sanderson. In the 3rd quarter of 1936, a marriage between Phyllis Dewhirst and William Andrew was registered in Todmorden.

The location of Phyllis’s grave at Wainsgate has not been established, so perhaps she was buried in plot 353a with her parents and sisters.

More coming soon…….