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Just found out that my grandparents, Harry & Ada Lonsdale, lived at 813 Briercliffe Road when my dad was born in 1930 – does that make dad a Briercliffian (if that’s the term)? Must be pretty close to Harle Syke. Apparently my grandfather (as in the Th’Owd Syker recollections) started as a flour boy at the Harle Syke Co-op and became manager there – possibly around the time my dad was born. They left the area in 1935.
Harry’s father was John Lonsdale who was a loom overlooker married to Maretta Starkie, a weaver. I don’t know what mill or mills they worked at. At the 1911 census they lived at 23 Vincit Street with Harry, aged 6, and Maretta's mother. Apparently John deserted Maretta soon after, leaving her (and her mum) to bring Harry up. Presumably they would have moved nearer to Harle Syke before 1920 for Harry to be working there as a flour lad (in his early teens I suppose).
Maretta's parents, Thomas Starkie (b 1842 in Padiham) and Mary Ann Starkie (b. 1842 in Brierfield) had 10 children. They were living at 16 Heap Street at the 1881 census, but by 1991 Thomas had left Mary Ann and was boarding with Harriet Plaut, a widow 15 years his junior, at 5 Allen Street. The census showed she had a baby son by the name of Starkie Plaut.
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Gordon
Where there's a will, there's a relative
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