Category Archives: Ashforth

Leah Sarah Ashwork: Leah Sarah Ashforth: England and Wales Census 1881

Published: February 15, 2017    Last modified: February 16, 2017

I traced Leah ASHFORTH (née Leah WEBB 1816-1901), my ggg grandmother, through the England and Wales Censuses of 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891 and 1901, the exception being 1881.

Unable to find any record of her in the 1881 census was somewhat exasperating, so I set to with a few wild card searches. It is the case quite often that Ashforth becomes Ashworth, or Ashcroft or as I recall in one census, Ashforth becomes Ashford; I was not expecting Ashwork! So the mystery is solved eventually and I can complete the sequence of census returns.

Leah has now become Leah Sarah, changed her place of birth to Sheffield and taken a lodger, one William ROYSTON. Son William Henry ASHFORTH 1851-1899 has married Ellen TOMLINSON 1855-1943 and left home finally.

FHJ Ref: 045
Census: England and Wales Census 1881
Place: Cromwell Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England
Household: Leah Sarah Ashwork

SURNAMEFIRST NAME(S)RELSEXAGEOCCUPATIONWHERE BORNREMARKS
Ashwork *Leah SarahHeadF65Lodging House KeeperSheffield, Yorkshire
RoystonWilliam LodgerM22Sheffield, Yorkshire
Note: Transcription error: for Ashwork read Ashforth

To view this table full width please click here.

Wardsend Cemetery: Harry and Jessie Renwick (née Jessie Ashforth) and Dion Williamson

Published: January 12, 2017    Last modified: February 21, 2024

Wardsend Cemetery

While searching for a plan of Crookes Cemetery, Sheffield (which I have now obtained) I came across links to Wardsend Cemetery, Sheffield.

Wardsend Cemetery is a place I have visited in the past (see the Related Posts at the end of this article) since this is where some of my ancestors were laid to rest. In this post I described finding the headstone of Albert ASHFORTH, Harry RENWICK and Frank RENWICK.

Well to cut a long story short, several years ago I attended a Family and Local History Day, at Bradfield Village Hall, Sheffield and purchased several CDs, of which one is an index of burials with some inscriptions from Wardsend Cemetery, courtesy the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery.

Looking at my notes regarding the RENWICK and ASHFORTH ancestors who are buried at Wardsend, I came across the following inscription which I had found on the aforementioned CD:

In loving memory of a dearly loved wife and mother Jessie RENWICK who
fell asleep 14th May 1954 aged 67 years
Also Harry the beloved husband of the above who died 10th October 1959
aged 74 years
“Re-united”
Also Dion son of Harry and Jessie WILLIAMSON of New Zealand and
grandson of the above who died 30th December 1963 aged 23 years
“Till we meet again”

Dion (Douglas Roy) WILLIAMSON 1940-1963 of New Zealand, who died as a result of a sad and tragic accident during a visit to Sheffield, was also laid to rest at Wardsend Cemetery, alongside Jessie RENWICK (née Jessie ASHFORTH 1887-1954) and Harry RENWICK 1885-1959.

In previous visits I have not been able to find this headstone, but since I plan to visit Crookes and Burngreave cemeteries in the not too distant future I thought it may be worth while exploring Wardsend Cemetery before the vegetation, once again, begins to obscure the headstones. Anyone who has visited Wardsend Cemetery in the last 20 years will understand what a formidable task this is!

Notes:
The last time I visited Wardsend Cemetery it was in a terrible state; I doubt this has changed. To view more photographs of Wardsend Cemetery, please click here.

Gertrude Flowers 1872-1873: Another short life

Published: November 27, 2016    Last modified: February 21, 2024

Florence Ashforth (née Florence Flowers 1876-1973)

This is rather sad. While perusing Parish Registers for descendants of Frederick LAW 1811-Deceased, my ggg grandfather, and his daughter Harriet FLOWERS (née Harriet LAW 1836-1903), my gg grandmother, I sidetracked into searching burial records for a number of Sheffield cemeteries. I found a burial for one Gertrude FLOWERS, daughter of George FLOWERS 1839-1891, buried on the 11th of June 1873 at Burngreave Cemetery, Sheffield. Sadly Gertrude's age is given as 1 year.

I thought I had found all the children of George FLOWERS 1839-1891 and Harriet FLOWERS (née Harriet LAW 1836-1903) so was very surprised to find Gertrude. With a little more investigation I established Gertrude's birth year to be 1872, thus confirming Gertrude was indeed an older sister of my great grandmother Florence ASHFORTH (née Florence FLOWERS 1876-1973).

I don't recall ever having visited Burngreave Cemetery, so I have added it to my list of places to visit. Historic England provides a general overview of Burngreave Cemetery and location map.

Register of Inmates, Ecclesall Bierlow Workhouse

Published: October 30, 2016    Last modified: February 21, 2024

Florence Ashforth (née Florence Flowers 1876-1973)

It has been quite a while since I carried out any family history research. So searching online, in response to a comment posted regarding the Ashforth families in Sheffield, I found I was in for quite a surprise. Searching for 'Ashforth' and 'Sheffield' I came across this entry for my great grandmother Florence ASHFORTH (née Florence FLOWERS) 1876-1973 and my grandfather Ernest ASHFORTH 1905-1990: in the Register of Inmates for Ecclesall Bierlow Workhouse 1883 - 1907 (Surnames A – C).

FHJ Ref: 200
Index to Register of Inmates, Ecclesall Bierlow Workhouse, 1883 – 1907 (Surnames A – C)

Date of admissionLast nameFirst nameDate of birthTradePage number
1 Oct 1905AshforthFlorence15 Dec 1879Wife3
1 Oct 1905AshforthErnest24 Feb 1905Wife3

[PiwigoPress id=775 lnktype='albumpicture' opntype='_self' size='xs' url='https://familyhistoryjournal.com/gallery']

Ernest Ashforth 1905-1990

Ernest ASHFORTH 1905-1990 was born on the 24th February 1905, he had an older brother William Henry ASHFORTH 1896-1916 born on the 28th June 1896 at 38 Burton Street, Sheffield (William died at the Battle of the Somme, 10 July 1916, aged 20 years). Florence married William Henry ASHFORTH 1873-1926 on the 25th December 1895 at the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Owlerton, Sheffield.

Florence's mother Harriet Flowers (née Harriet LAW 1836-1903) died 1903 and her father George FLOWERS 1839-1891 died 1891, so Florence had no parents for support. I can only surmise the addition of another child forced her to seek help from the workhouse.

Ernest and Emily Ashforth (née Emily Bellamy): Bridlington

Published: March 16, 2015    Last modified: February 21, 2024

Ernest Ashforth 1905-1990
Emily Ashforth (née Emily Bellamy 1903-1992)
Bridlington, East Yorkshire

I added to the Gallery, a few photographs of my maternal grandparents Ernest ASHFORTH 1905-1990 and Emily ASHFORTH (née Emily BELLAMY 1903-1992) and Spot their dog. Taken along the promenade at Bridlington on the east coast of Yorkshire, most likely by the resort photographers. Most years during 'Works Week' they would travel by train from Sheffield to Bridlington to take their annual holiday.

Emily Ashforth (née Emily Bellamy 1903-1992)
Bridlington, East Yorkshire

Emily Ashforth (née Emily Bellamy 1903-1992)
Spot the dog
Bridlington, East Yorkshire

William Horace Bellamy 1909-Deceased

Published: April 2, 2012    Last modified: February 21, 2024

William Horace Bellamy 1909-Deceased

Another photograph from our family collection that I recently uploaded to the Ashforth family photographs section of the Gallery.

William Horace BELLAMY 1909-Deceased (usually known as Horace) was a younger brother of my grandmother Emily ASHFORTH (née Emily BELLAMY 1903-1992), and that is about all I know.

He is almost certainly deceased since I recollect having to break the news of his death (with the reservation it may have been her brother Albert that had passed away) to my grandmother shortly after her husband and my grandfather Ernest ASHFORTH 1905-1990 had passed away in 1990.

His parents were George Albert BELLAMY 1880-Deceased and Emily BELLAMY (née Emily ELLIS 1883-1978).

Hopefully a member of his family may stumble upon this article and contact me using the contact form.

Old Comments:

Hi Louise I remember playing
Submitted by Lyndsey Bellamy on Tue, 2012-10-30 18:00

Hi Louise I remember playing in the garden as well How are you?

William Horace Bellamy and Emily Bellamy nee Ellis
Submitted by Kathryn Louise Pogson nee Straw on Wed, 2012-04-11 20:36

Hi, This is my grandfather, I am the daughter of Valerie Straw nee Bellamy. Grandad use to take myself, sister Michelle and brother Mark to see Emily Bellamy nee Ellis in Middlewood Hospital every Saturday morning to visit. She used to sing ditties to us ...most memorable Thomas Dodd he was a sod, his a*se was made of clay, he let a f*rt behind the cart and blew the wheels away :D I attended her funeral in 1978 at the age on 9 years old. William Horace Bellamy had a large family and Uncle Edwin his brother was my mother's godfather. I also attended his funeral and remember him fondly as a very jolly soul. Lyndsey Bellamy daughter of Thomas Leslie Bellamy and Betty Sambrook I knew as a child as we lived not far from each other and have many childhood memories of playing in the garden togther. The grandchildren and surviving children of William Horace can provide lots of information and I am sure photographs. Thanks for this wonderful trip down memory lane for me and my mother and my many cousins!!

Wardsend Cemetery: Photographs

Published: February 28, 2012    Last modified: February 21, 2024

Headstone left: Albert Ashforth, Harry Renwick, Frank Renwick
Headstone right: Harry, Emily and George Waller

In October 2010 I participated in a tour of Wardsend Cemetery, Livesey Street, Owlerton, Sheffield. The tour was organised by the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery and later I published an article 'Wardsend Cemetery - The guiding spirit of George Waller' about what I found.

Over the last 14 months I never did seem to find time to process and upload the photographs, so I set aside this evening, processed the images and uploaded them to this Album in the Gallery.

Since this was a tour of the cemetery, the gallery of photographs depicts the overall state of the cemetery, rather than pictures of individual headstones. Anyone not familiar with Wardsend Cemetery is more than likely to be quite shocked and will no doubt wonder why it has been allowed to fall into such a level of irretrievable decay.

Learn more at the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery.

Annie E Ellis and Hector William R Withall

Published: December 23, 2011    Last modified: January 12, 2017

[PiwigoPress id=1116 lnktype='albumpicture' opntype='_self' size='me' url='https://familyhistoryjournal.com/gallery']

Annie Elizabeth Ellis

Annie Elizabeth ELLIS was born in 1911 at Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. Our family always referred to her as Aunt Annie. I remember her as a happy, jovial person, often visiting my grandmother Emily ASHFORTH (née Emily BELLAMY) 1903-1992 and great grandmother Florence ASHFORTH (née Florence FLOWERS) 1876-1973.

Annie E ELLIS married Hector William R. Withall at Sheffield in 1923. My mother recalls Vic WITHALL was employed in newspaper production and had relocated to Sheffield from the south of England to work with one of the local newspaper companies. According to mother Uncle Vic (the family always referred to Annie's husband as Uncle Vic, so I did wonder if Hector was an incorrect transcription of Victor, though after further research I have found his name is always given as Hector) was born at Arundel, Sussex and his parents lived at a property in the shadow of Arundel Castle.

Further research shows his date of birth to be the 31st of March, 1900, in the registration district of East Preston, Arundel, Sussex. This seems to confirm my mother's recollections.

Some time after Annie and Vic were married he joined one of the Manchester based newspapers and they relocated to Moss Side, Manchester, Lancashire. During school holidays I remember I would occasionally stay at their terraced house at Moss Side, which was a much less salubrious area then than it is now.

Family and Local History Day, Bradfield Village Hall, Sheffield

Published: November 13, 2010    Last modified: May 22, 2022
Family and Local History Day, Bradfield Village Hall

Family and Local History Day, Bradfield Village Hall, Low Bradfield, Sheffield

In this article I mentioned an upcoming event, a Family and Local History Day to be held at Bradfield Village Hall, Low Bradfield near Sheffield. Well I made the time to attend and was not disappointed. I was surprised just how many people turned out, though the fine and sunny weather may have contributed.

Many local history groups and societies were represented including the Hillsborough & Owlerton Local History Group. This stand had numerous photographs of Owlerton Green and Hillsborough. I was born at Hawksley Road on the edge of Owlerton Green and though I moved to Stannington in the mid 1950's, my maternal grandparents continued to live there until the early 1980's. I have witnessed the many changes that have taken place over the years and so seeing these photographs brought back a lot of memories.

While discussing with one of the ladies from this stand some of the photographs of Owlerton Green, she happened to mentioned she lived on one of the nearby streets. I in turn mentioned I was born at Hawksley Road whereupon she remarked that her colleague lived on a street whose houses backed on to where I was born. As soon as she mentioned her colleagues name I immediately realised this was a member of a family whom I had not seen for probably 30 or 40 years.

Needless to say I had a long chat with this lady and since she has lived on this same street all her life she is a mind of information regarding local families and people I had not seen since my childhood. For reasons of privacy I will withhold names, but it is sufficient to say meeting this lady made the day very worthwhile indeed.

I ordered some copies of the photographs of Owlerton Green which a couple of weeks later duly arrived. I am not sure who may own the copyright of these photographs but I may try and obtain permission to publish them on this website.

I chatted with the people from the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery stand and purchased the CD:

Wardsend Cemetery, Monumental Inscriptions

The Friends of Bradfield Archives were very welcoming and I spent some considerable time working my way through the Bradfield Parish Register indices, searching for ASHFORTH and RIDAL. They also had a plan of the graveyard at the Church of Saint Nicholas at nearby High Bradfield. Several years ago I located this headstone:

John Ashforth died 1768 and William Ashforth died 1825 - Headstone

though according to the plans there are several others to be found. I made a rough sketch of their locations and will search for these others at a later date.

From the Sheffield & District Family History Society I purchased the following CDs:

Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Sheffield Cathedral, Baptism Records 1813-1875
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Sheffield Cathedral, Baptism Index 1752-1812
Sheffield Marriage Indexes

Time passed very quickly and after some 4 hours we finally departed, but not before taking a few photographs of Low Bradfield. All in all a very worthwhile day and one I can thoroughly recommend.

I now need to make some time in order to sort through all this research material.

Wardsend Cemetery: The guiding spirit of George Waller

Published: October 30, 2010    Last modified: January 21, 2017

[PiwigoPress id=822 lnktype='albumpicture' opntype='_self' size='me' url='https://familyhistoryjournal.com/gallery']

Headstone left - Albert Ashforth, Harry Renwick, Frank Renwick
Headstone right - Harry, Emily and George Waller

Last Sunday, during my visit to the Family and Local History Day at Bradfield, I chatted with a couple of representatives from Friends of Wardsend Cemetery. I was already aware of their forthcoming tour of Wardsend Cemetery and confirming this would probably be the final tour of the year, I promised myself to try and make time to attend.

After a few days of rather poor weather I woke early Saturday to find a gloriously sunny morning. Grabbing my camera and walking boots I set off to Sheffield, travelling via Bradfield in order to admire the outstanding autumnal colours of Langsett, Midhope and Broomhead moors.

I arrived in Sheffield a little early so with time to spare I decided to take a walk through Hillsborough Park, something I have not done for well over 20 years.

The Friends of Wardsend Cemetery website advises to travel by way of Livesey Street. Not being sure which was Livesey Street I cast my mind back nearly 50 years and took the only route I know of from Owlerton to the cemetery, this is the route we took when we would cycle down to what we called 'the meadows'. Here we would play at 'dirt tracking' i.e. cycling at high speed over waste land near the river, then jamming on the brakes, including our feet, and sliding to a halt. This created huge clouds of dust and of course a great loss of rubber tread and leather sole, not that we cared! Of course the one with the longest skid trail went off with a greatly inflated ego and more often that not, a few cuts and bruises.

This was in fact Livesey Street. The old stone arched bridge that had been washed away in the floods of 2007 has been replaced with a much inferior modern bridge, totally out of keeping with the character of the Victorian cemetery. Still at least now we can cross the river.

I could see a group of people standing the other side of the river, a couple of whom I recognised from the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery stand at the Family and Local History Day the previous week. So along with about 15 others, I set off through the mud to a place I had not visited in over 50 years.

The guides were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and considering the state of the cemetery fairly essential. Since the lower cemetery is now woodland, with ivy, rhododendron and Japanese knotweed attempting to cover everything in sight, it is not easy to find one's way around the various sections.

Eventually we made our way over the railway to the newer section of the cemetery. Here bracken replaces trees, and the gloom of the lower cemetery lifts a little.

One of our guides drew our attention to a couple of graves with history attached. One of these graves is that of George Waller, a local gentleman killed in the Balby railway disaster of 1947. Below is a British Pathé newsreel showing the aftermath of the disaster:

18 Die, 70 Hurt In Doncaster Train Crash

Since we were about to return to our starting point I decided to take a few photographs of George Waller's headstone. As I did so, I scanned some of the surrounding headstones. Imagine my surprise when my eyes settled on a headstone just a couple of metres away and I saw the name 'RENWICK'. Closer inspection also revealed the name of 'ALBERT ASHFORTH'. Both these are family names, indeed I have mentioned them several times on this website.

[PiwigoPress id=816 lnktype='albumpicture' opntype='_self' size='xs' url='https://familyhistoryjournal.com/gallery']

Albert Ashforth, Harry Renwick, Frank Renwick

Well to say I was staggered by my good fortune is very much an understatement. Early in our tour I had come to the conclusion that trying to find a family grave in these conditions and in the time available was going to be nigh on impossible, but here was one of them.

The full inscription reads:

In Loving Memory Of
Albert Ashforth,
Died March 13th 1912, Aged 34 Years.
Also Harry Renwick,
Died March 25th 1934, Aged 24 Years.
Also Frank Renwick,
Died Jan. 15th 1949, Aged 33 Years.

Not wanting to lose the group I took some photographs, memorised the location and moved on. Later as the tour came to an end and the group dispersed, I re-traced my steps, back up the hill and over the railway in order to get a GPS fix on the location of the grave.

Being on my own now, I really thought it too dangerous to explore very far off the paths. I heeded the warnings of the guides about suddenly plunging into collapsed graves and decided it would be better to wait and explore at a later date, possibly in mid winter when all the vegetation has died back.

So this day turned out to be very profitable indeed.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery for organising these tours and express my appreciation of their determination in keeping the years of neglect at Wardsend Cemetery in the public spotlight.

Strolling back under the beautiful autumnal sun I could not resist walking along Owlerton Green, then past my place of birth on Hawksley Road before once again entering Hillsborough Park. How the park has changed, except perhaps for the horse chestnut trees. These magnificent specimens are still standing and still producing fine 'conkers', long may they do so.

Notes:
I am not sure if re-visiting places from one's childhood is good for the soul. Most of the changes are terribly depressing, a total lack of purpose other than financial in planning decisions together with the destruction of community makes one wonder what all this will be like after another 50 years. Witness the complete obliteration of Owlerton Green by Swann-Morton Ltd.

I took numerous photographs at Wardsend Cemetery though I have not had the time to sort through and process them. Over the next couple of weeks I will endeavour to accomplish this task and add them to my Gallery.

Updates:
2012-02-27 After many months I finally found the time to upload the photographs of Wardsend Cemetery to the Gallery. To view the photographs please click here.

2015-03-04 I came across a link to the Railways Archive and this Accident at Doncaster on 9th August 1947 article about the train crash mentioned above.