Leeds in the 1870s

[dogduke]

Hi Dakota.If you look at the old map on page 1,enlarge it and youwill see that there are 2 chapels.One for Church of England deaths and one for 'non conformists'I feel sure that there would have been some sort of service foryour relatives.Now that we have the grave numbers I can probably have a better look round sometime this week.These are amongst the oldest burials.Several stones are missing,broken., laid downbefore they fall down so there is a risk not finding them.

[Dakota]

Thank you so much

[drapesy]

I concur with Dogduke that there would certainly have been a religious service. In essence all C of E [and non-conformist/methodist ]funeral services are identical - whether for a king , a pauper or even the body of an unknown person - as all are 'equal in the eyes of the Lord'    

[dogduke]

Looking at the 1906 map that Si(thank you) posted,very little has changed from the Stanley Road side of the cemeteryThe 'destructor' is now a well organised recycling/waste disposal site,the tram depot has gone and the police station is now the Dock Green'pub.The Glebe Street side has changed almost beyond recognition,all that remains is the cemetery,the hospital and the Fountain pub.Does anyone have a map prior to this one or even as early as Dakota is talking about ?

[Dakota]

Well it is comforting to know that they were able to have some type of a religious service for their children - I kept thinking of her, Sarah's, young age when she lost her children and how devastating it must have been. As the great grandparents emigrated across the United States before homesteading in Dakota Territory, they lost several other children and when they got their farm in Dakota, they lost a baby, a 9 year old daughter from a ruptured appendix and a 19 year old son who was struck by lightening. Sarah had the children buried near the house on the farm as she remembered the other children she'd had to leave behind and supposedly said she wasn't leaving any more behind. Once her husband died and she lost the farm to taxes, the bodies were removed from the farm and buried in the town cemetery where Sarah rests.

[dogduke]

Life expectancy was very poor in the UK at thattime and it seems to have been little better in the earlydays in the US.We have joined the civilised world but we need to stp back alittle and see that this is still the 'norm'in many places.'COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS.Good night ? - God Bless.

[Dakota]

Absolutely! And yes, it is good night for me! Thanks again for your interest in my "quest".Take care

[Si]

cnosni wrote: The cholrea bit would seem to match up with a cholera hospital on the sight of old Shakespeare schools all weather pitch,Si will have a picture,a map and of course schematics ready to hand,clever so and so Hi Chris,Errr...can't find any pics of Shakespeare School, but did find a more up-to-date aerial shot of Jimmys on Leodis.Glebe Street can be seen alongside the cemetery (right-hand edge.) The Shakespeare tower blocks (right) stand roughly on the site of Stipendiary Street. Both the "isolated" pubs can be seen, so pre explosion, I think. The green area to the left of the picture was formerly a brick works' quarry.        

[Si]

compton wrote: I forgot to mention for Dakotas benefit, as I remember, Glebe street was one of the better streets and was the type where foremen and lower managerial classes lived. Also for Dakota's benefit, here's a pic of more typical Leeds back-to-backs in Armley, to compare with the Glebe Street picture posted earlier. Note how the front door leads straight from the street into the living room, and there are no gardens at all. The (shared) toilets are in the gaps between the blocks of houses. As previously mentioned by Compton, when built, they would have been lit by gas (no electric) and heated by open coal fires. Usually they had one cold water tap (fawcet) and bathing took place in a tin bath in front of the fire - the water heated in a kettle, or "copper" in the cellar. Washing across the cobbled street was a very common sight back then. And yes, it is a real postcard! I've put it on here before, but I think it stands repeating.    

[Si]

cnosni wrote: The cholrea bit would seem to match up with a cholera hospital on the sight of old Shakespeare schools all weather pitch,Si will have a picture,a map and of course schematics ready to hand,clever so and so Spoke too soon again!Here's the cholera hospital, or "The House of Recovery" as it's called on Leodis.It stood on Compton's recreation ground on Beckett Street (see bottom left of map posted earlier), between Arthur Street and Burns Street, presumably the later site of Shakespeare School?It was built in 1846, just in time for the 1847 Typhus Fever epidemic, and the 1848/9 cholera outbreak, which killed 1674 people. Typhus struck again in 1865/6, when it was realised that the Recovery House wasn't big enough to cope, and Seacroft Hospital was built instead.