Contrary to what I’d intended for January I’ve added a few more old photos to my collection from eBay. The really good thing is that they all have some writing on them, so hopefully throughout the rest of this year, I’ll be sharing a blog about each of them with what I’ve found out.

The first one is this nice-looking young lady.

As you can see the Photographer was based in Liverpool and it says Ruth Gartside (Balenforth? Balmforth?) it actually turned out to be Bamforth and was Ruth’s married name. The address was critical for confirming this lady and her family, Hardenby, Nr Pole Moor.

Looking on FreeBMD I searched for any marriages for a Ruth Gartside, I thought the photo was taken around the beginning of WW1, so any marriage after 1914 would have been interesting, four marriages came up, one to a Wrigley in 1914, another to a Bamford in 1930, then to a Sayers in 1936 and lastly to a Sutton in 1946. Bamford was too close a match to ignore, so I started a tree with Ruth Gartside marrying a Bamforth, I quickly found out his full name was Hervey Brook Bamforth. So I added a few more details to them both parents, siblings, births and deaths.

As I added more to the families on both sides I realised that the majority of them were in a five-mile radius of Pole Moor as you can see from the map above. Many members of Ruth and Hervey’s families were Non-Conformists and were laid to rest in Pole Moor cemetery.

The Pole Moor Church was right in the heart of the community. It was mostly a Weaving community, one of Ruth’s grandfathers was a Power Loom Weaver and the other a Woollen Weaver. Lots of members of both Ruth and Hervey’s family worked in the mills.

Here’s a closer map view of the Pole Moor Baptist Church, Sunday School and adjoining House (1) and Gate Piers and Burial Ground Walls to the Baptist Church (2) Screenshot of a Map from Historic England.

The Pole Moor Churchyard had a new private owner in 2015, you can read more lots about the cemetery here: Pole Moor Graveyard

Ruth Gartside was born on 15 January 1898 in Scammonden, Yorkshire, her father was Hirst Gartside 1865-1947 and her mother was Emily Shaw 1864-1940. Ruth had one brother James who had been born in 1886. Ruth married Hervey Brook Bamforth in April 1930 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

Hervey Brook Bamforth was born in January 1898 in Golcar, Yorkshire, his father was James Bamforth 1856-1915 and his mother was Mary Hannah Brook 1857-1943. Hervey died on 4 January 1932 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, at the age of 34. This is his digital death record. The cause of death was a) Pulmonary Embolism b) Plural Effusion and c) Severe Rheumatism. No post-mortem.

Ruth died on 26 May 1973 in Slaithwaite, Yorkshire, at the age of 75. She never remarried or had any children.

On a public family tree on Ancestry someone had kindly shared these two transcriptions of news reports about Ruth‘s brother James, his family must have been so proud of him.

1-7-1898
Golcar Clough Head Board School – James Garside, a pupil in the above school, and son of Mr Hirst Garside, of Pole Moor, Scammonden, has been successful in gaining a scholarship awarded by the West Riding County Council.

28-7-1904
Scholastic – Among the names of the successful candidates at the Matriculation Examination of the London University, held in June last, appears that of James Gartside, son of Mr Hirst Gartside, of Hard End, Scammonden. Mr Gartside is now a student at the Huddersfield Technical College and holds an Armytage Scholarship there, having previously held Sikes’s Science and Art and County Minor Scholarships at the same place.

Ruth and Hervey had no children in the short time they were together before he died in 1932.

The next we know about Ruth, now a widow, is in the 1939 register where she is still living in the Colne Valley at no 50 Longlands Road. Her occupation is Assistant Mistress at the Grammar School. So Ruth was as well educated as her brother.

As you can see from the 1901 census details of Ruth and her brother James below, they lived with their Parents and Paternal Grandparents, I wonder if the fact that they had four adults looking out for them helped to make them have a better education and therefore a better life than that of a weaver’s family as they were.

James went on to higher education and became a Chemist, Ruth was still at school at the time of the 1911 census and the three generations of the family were all still living together in Scammonden.

James married well, as in 1913 he married Martha Brook, who was one of the daughters of Rameden Brook and his wife Mary Ann, Rameden was a Woollen Manufacturer, not a Woollen Weaver. On the 1939 register, James was now a Chemical Works Manager. The couple had two sons who both went into the medical profession as Doctors and Pathologists. Ivan Brook Gartside 1914-1954.

Vivian Osmond Brook Gartside 1917-1987. Vivian married Jeanne Milnthorpe and had children, one daughter Gillian died in terrible tragic circumstances in 1950.

What a terrible tragedy to befall any family. Despite this, because of the efforts of Hirst Gartside and his wife Emily in making sure their two children had a good education, their children and future descendants had a vastly improved life than their ancestors.

This is the small public family tree I have compiled on Ancestry: Ruth Gartside Family

This house above was Ruth’s home, and where she died in 1973, still living within a very small area where her ancestors lived, her parents lived just along the road on the other side at no 121 Longlands Road. Her Mum Emily died in 1940 and her Dad Hirst died in 1947 at Ruth’s house, she must have looked after her parents in later life as she was so close to them. Her brother James was living at 13 Howard Avenue, Lindley, Huddersfield when he died in 1944 and just five miles from his sister Ruth.

Till next time then…….