Jabez & Arthur Bancroft.....Weslyan Chapel Sextons

 

                                                                     Interment book

Ist page of book - February 1862

  I was recently lent the old Grave Books for the Oakworth Weslyan Chapel, listing buials from 1862-1917. The graveyard was where Jabez Bancroft was the Sexton, and on his death his son Arthur took over the job.

Jabez was listed as Sexton from 1884 to dis death in 1898.

Arthur took over after his father's death in 1898 to 1938.

Record of all Sextons

Many will wonder what exactly the duties of a Sexton were. They were:

1- Grave digging

2- maintenance of the graveyard....generally keeping it tidy....grass cutting, hedge trimming etc

3-General maintenance of the chapel grounds.

 

The record of Jabez's burial is listed in the following entry halfway down the page in the grave book, and just underneath the entry is a note saying that his son Arthur took over as grave digger.

 

Jabez's interment record

Arthur confirmed as replacement grave digger  

 

 The cost of obtaining a grave is shown in the books as 2/- per plot or 5/- for a double plot, and it looks as though this charge went towards paying for the wages of the grave digger because shown below is a record of Jabez receiving payment for his work.

Both Jabez and Arthur were buried in the family grave shown below.

   In loving memory of

JABEZ BANCROFT

of Chapel Lane, Oakworth

who died May 2nd 1898

in his 53rd year

Also of ANN

daughter of the above

Jabez & Mary Ann Bancroft

who died Oct 18th 1887

in her 1st year

At Rest

Also of MARY ANN

wife of the above

who died Feb 3rd 1934

in her 86th yea

Also MARY ELIZABETH

 beloved wife of Arthur Bancroft

   died April 17th 1939

age 70 years

 Also of the above ARTHUR

 who died Jan 25th 194
 age 75 years

Moving onto the contents of the books, I have to say what a sad record it is with so many infants listed as still-births, death at days old or under the age of 5 years old.

The Graveyard, according to Chapel records, has 725 graves, many without gravestones, in which are buried 2452 named people including a significant number of infants. A sad fact of Victorian life in the village is that there were 449 children buried at the site who died under the age of five, as well as 123 unnamed infants who were either stillborn or died before they were named, which is a staggering 23% of the occupants of the graveyard.

The last burial there took place in 1968, when the site had to close because of flooding after work was done on the nearby school playground, although many think this was never proved and was just a convenient excuse for closing the graveyard.

 

The Chapel itself was an imposing building first opened in 1858, and was in fact the second Chapel on this site. It was built with financial help from Sir Isaac Holden, the local industrialist who lived in Oakworth House, a magnificent mansion next to the chapel site. In fact Sir Isaac had his own private door at the side of the chapel, in order that he did not have to enter from the main entrance with the rest of the public.   The original chapel had been a much smaller affair built in 1822, but as the congregation increased a bigger building was required and so this new chapel was built with a capacity of 977 worshipers. Numbers however never reached the expected levels and at a peak it had 347 members in 1889, and then numbers steadily declined until it was decided to close the chapel in 1957 and replace it with a more modest building incorporating the Sunday school, which had previously been housed in an

equally large building nearby.

The large Sunday School had also been built nearby in the 1840's and was demolished in the 1990's to make way for a small housing estate.

Today the graveyard is transformed, back to how it must have looked many years ago, thanks to the work of many volunteers, working over several years.

There is a website giving many details of the graveyard's history and how things are today which can be seen by clicking HERE

Dockroyd graveyard - 2023