One interesting thing I learned is that my great--great-grandparents were married by "banns" and not by license in 1845, as I had known, and also that neither could sign their name, so they made their "mark" which was noted and witnessed by Rev. Duck. This confirmed that I had the right church.
Another interesting thing is that my great-great-great-grandmother (parent of the bride above) had had her daughter baptized in 1820 in the same Danby church by the same Rev. Duck. Her occupation was listed as spinster, and her abode was listed as "coal pits" which means I need to do more research on how someone could live there. Or maybe "Coalpits" was the name of a road??? It also means that she was an unmarried mother, which must have been very difficult then.
Next stop was Almondbury, a couple of miles away from the town of Hudderfield. Almondbury must have been a small town at one time but is now part of the large town of Huddersfield, where I had spent the night. I found the address of the church and off I went. I had tried to contact the pastor there by phone, but he was on vacation, and I got no response, but at least I figured I could take photos of the outside of the building. Here is where Almondbury and Huddersfield are located:
I was afraid I would not be able to get into the church, but again, luck was with me. The gate was open and several people were arriving, so I drove right in. A lady greeted me and after I told her why I was there, she showed me where to park. The arriving people turned out to be bell ringers from a neighboring town who were there to practice for an upcoming bell-ringers event. She had keys only to the bell tower, but got on her phone and called the 76-year-old organist who lived nearby and who came over to open the church for me! Can you believe it??? Would this happen in most U.S. towns?
Anyway, this is All Hallows Church. West Yorkshire online had shown me that the parents of my great-great-grandfather were married in this church in 1821 and his father was baptized here, in 1796. His mother was baptized in St. Peters in nearby Warmfield, but I ran out of time to visit that place. (It looks like they each signed the married records, by the way. Don't know why their son could not write his name, if they could write theirs.) I have the parents names of both of these great-great-greats, but need to do more research. Research in the 1700s gets really difficult.
The vicar's empty home.
Here is some history of the church: https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/All_Hallows,_Almondbury
The two guys on the ladder were putting up plastic sheeting to protect the organ pipes because the church was going to be replacing part of the roof the next week.
You can tell that this is the oldest part of the church by the stonework.
Ruth, the lady who was showing me around, pointed out that this was the only church she had ever seen where the seats were situated so that each row was slightly higher than the one in front of it. That way, even the people in the back had a good view. You can see that in this photo.
This is the dedication plate on bottom of the baptismal font, which I was told was extremely old. The top part was added later. See the next photo.
You can see where they added a fancy top onto the older stone bottom.
I noticed this very old box, but no one seemed to know what it was or how old it was.
Check out the stonework from 1271!
The graveyard.
Climbed up to the bell ringers' area after they were finished practicing. She showed my how hard it was to pull the smallest bell. I did get a good sound out if it, but then she let me try the biggest bell. I could hardly budge it and asked who pulled that one. "A really big bloke" she said.
These are drawings of how the bell pulls work and instructions for ringing the bells. She said when the Queen dies, they will ring the bells but muffle them by wrapping the clappers in leather. And they have the wrappers ready for when that happens.
Don't think the climb down was any easier than the one up on these steep and small stairs.
Some outside photos. Pretty gardens.
This is ending up to being a long posting, but I had one more church to track down. My great-great-grandfather had been baptized in sometime called "Lane Chapel" in Holmfirth, about 30 miles away. Here are some photos of the town.
I stopped at the town information center, and they gave me walking direction to a graveyard just down the road.
Unfortunately, the original "Lane Chapel" church had been closed and turned into apartments, but here is the building where my great-great-grandfather had been baptized.
The biggest thing that Holmfirth is famous for is being the setting for the comedy series "Last of the Summer Wine," so I stopped at the little museum. If you are familiar with the series, you might recognize these doorways.
And do these coats and hats look familiar?
And more photos of the town. I got to see a lot of this town, by the way, not only from getting lost walking, but from driving in circles locating a parking space and also trying to find my way out of town.
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