Stories From History And More

  The story which follows reflects the tragedy of an all too common personal circumstance and societies reaction to it. Yet also shows possible evidence of personal reaction and proud defiance in the face of such circumstance.   Anne Blackburn, the twenty two year old daughter of Christopher and Esther, has her illegitimate daughter, Caroline, baptised at Saint Michael's, Ashton under Lyne, on 14th July 1822. Sadly the Register entry under "Quality, Trade or Profession" is described as "Base". This probably reveals that she had no means of supporting herself or her daughter and was relying on Parish assistance. Caroline Blackburn Baptism 14th July 1822 Since 1601 the Poor Laws had required required each Parish to calculate and levy a poor rate. This was used to provide relief to the poor people of the Parish. They would also run a "poorhouse" for homeless Parishioners where work was provided to mitigate the cost. A deserted pregnant woman was pro...

  James Parkinson’s first breath of life was experienced in the dour surroundings of the Haslingden Union Workhouse in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. His mother, Alice Parkinson, was a resident in the workhouse with the obligatory “pauper” status. Even though she had employment, as a Drawer of Cotton in a textile mill, the wages were not sufficient to finance a household. Alice had to fight adversity from an early age, having lost both parents and sister before she was 10 years old. What made Alice’s situation more extreme was having children out of wedlock. Towards the end of 1887, aged 21, she had given birth to a daughter, Harriet, father unknown. Despite working as a Card Room Hand for a number of years, being an unmarried mother rendered this impossible and she lost her job, housing and was condemned to seek support of the Parish. It was into this environment that James arrived on Wednesday 9 th December in 1891, also of an unknown father and adding to his mothers now considera...

  A Normal Life. At the beginning of 1917 Percy Blackburn was thirty four years old and gainfully employed in Huddersfield as a Tailor’s Cutter , which he had been for the previous twenty years. He was also the head of a young and expanding family. His wife Nora was expecting to give birth to their third child in March and his growing responsibilities were uppermost in his mind. { Percy & family late 1917 - L to R Lawrence, Percy, Annie, Nora & Marjorie} The growing demands of the war, which had been raging in Europe since 1914, was, however, making demands on the wider population. Throughout 1914/15 the armed services had relied on volunteers to fight the " Great War ". The sheer scale of the conflict and weight of casualties meant that this method of recruitment was no longer enough to maintain the effort required. In an effort to satisfy this need, compulsory conscription was introduced by the government on 4 th  January 1916 for all males aged 18 to 41. ...