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📣New Article: The Walkers Buried in Halifax Minster
Marlene Oliveira
Published on 31 October, 2025The Halifax Parish Church, now Halifax Minster, is the final resting place of many members of prominent local families. Listers, Caygills, and Waterhouses count themselves among the illustrious dead buried inside and outside this church. Among them, we can also find some members of the Walker family, from both Crow Nest, first home of Ann Walker (1803-1854), and some of their relatives from Walterclough Hall near Halifax, the home of her distant cousin Caroline Wivell Walker (1774-1831).
Burial records from the parish church establish a clear connection between the Walker family and this parish for well over a century. However, there are other documents that aid in cementing this knowledge and also in identifying the locations of several family graves within the church. In this article, we will look at these resources and explore the Walker family connections to Halifax Minster, focusing in particular on several family burial vaults inside this church.
Trigger warning: death, dying. Estimated reading time: 40 minutes.
This article describes active research and the facts and details included have and will continue to be updated as new information is uncovered. If you come across any other relevant information that can help clarify or expand the topics below, please get in touch.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A brief history of “t’ould Parish Church”
A brief history of “t’ould Parish Church”
The church of St John the Baptist, also known as the Halifax Parish Church, now Halifax Minster, is a Grade II listed building and the oldest church located in Halifax. Despite only receiving its Minster status in 2009, the spiritual home of this parish has a rich history spanning about 900 years (National Churches Trust 2025).
According to Antiquarian T.W. Hanson¹, it was John Lister, MA (1847-1933)² who found a charter mentioning the original grant of the Halifax Parish Church, which put its foundation between 1086 and 1095 (Hanson 1920, 32). In his retelling of the history of the town, Hanson writes that the church was a gift of the Earl of Warren to the Priory of St Pancras at Lewes. The Earl had barely survived a violent storm in the Channel, and decided that this gift was an adequate gesture of devotion to convey his gratitude for his ultimately safe return to England (Ibid, 32). When the monks of the Priory of Lewes received the grant to establish this church, they initially built a small building, from which the chevron-adorned stones embedded in the north wall of the current building are said to have originated (Ibid, 30). Hanson also notes that the Halifax Parish Church was likely also rebuilt before 1316, as the stones and the building style of the church’s north wall match the techniques used during that period (Ibid, 35).
The greatest part of the current church is said to have been built during the 15th century (Hanson 1917, 189). At this point in time, the majority of the houses in Halifax would be timbered buildings so the church would stand out as the only stone building in town - it remained so for, at least, another century (Hanson 1920, 66). The chantry chapels of this church, Rokeby Chapel (north side) and Holdsworth Chapel (south side), were added to the building after 1521 (Hanson 1917, 198). Both chapels originated from bequests and, interestingly enough, were originally intended to be on opposite sides of the church, as the Rokeby Chapel was initially intended to be located on the south side of the church (Ibid, 198). The crypt of the parish church was cleared by Vicar Clay (d. 1688) and the space was converted into a library (Halifax Evening Courier 1957, 1).
For centuries, this has been the place where the local community has come to worship, baptize their children, solemnize their marriages, and bury their dead. That said, the church houses several memorials in the form of windows, marble monuments, effigies, and brass and other metal plaques, as well as many grave covers. The church’s elaborate Commonwealth Windows date from that period and were a gift from Dorothy Waterhouse, who was the wife of a local benefactor (Hanson 1909, 308). There are other windows that were gifts to the church, such as a Rawson round stained glass window that can currently be seen in the south wall of the church, as well as a nearby window given by a Walker family member. At the start of the 19th century, the church layout included several tall wooden pews that occupied the majority of the nave and chancel, as well as a few wooden galleries, the most prominent ones being the one alongside the north wall and the one at the western end of the nave, which supported the organ and orchestra seats.
The internal layout of the Halifax Parish Church, recreated from an 1850 Ordnance Survey Map held at West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (KM/A/1266). Composite image by Steph Gallaway.
To ensure the building was kept in good repair and remained useful to the community, the church suffered diverse cleanings, reorderings, and repairs over the centuries, some of which altered its layout significantly, leaving features that can still be seen today. In particular, some monuments, many vault covers, and other similar funerary monuments remain from times gone by.
For a long time, the church and churchyard served as a burial ground for the parishioners. Thus, many of the grave covers that can still be seen inside the church memorialize people who worshipped there and were eventually buried within its walls. As the building changed above those graves and space was occupied by pews and other necessary features that made the space more amenable to the living, some grave covers memorializing the dead were moved elsewhere inside the church or removed altogether, with some of them ending up lost temporarily or permanently³.
Yet, the dead remained, for the most part, under the floors of the church. This occasionally led to less than salubrious conditions inside the building, when the living occupiers found themselves immersed in the stench coming from the dead decomposing underneath the floors. The situation became so dire that, in the 1870s, the newly appointed Vicar Francis Pigou and his Churchwardens petitioned the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Ripon to approve essential repairs and a general reordering of the church so it could survive its current derelict condition and serve the community for many years to come (WDP53/4/1/1). This, of course, included a thorough repair of the floors, which led to all the grave covers being temporarily removed as the floors were fixed and sealed with several layers of cement (Ibid.). The changes from this period also included the addition of a few rows of pews in the ante-church⁴ as well as a removal of the old wooden galleries on the north and western sides of the nave (Ibid.). The organ was also moved to the north-eastern corner of the chancel and it remains there today (Ibid.).
Layout of St. John the Baptist Church, recreated from the 1878 plans by architect G. Gilbert Scott held at Wakefield Archive Service (WDP30/3/4/3). The current layout is almost the same as can be seen here. Composite image by Steph Gallaway.
In this article we will be focusing on a few burial vaults: two adjacent graves partly located within today's Regimental Chapel, a separate grave at the western end of the south aisle, and finally a grave located in the middle aisle of the nave. The plan below highlights the areas of interest we will be examining in detail throughout this article, and identifies other features of the church. These will hopefully assist interested readers in locating these graves in the current layout of the church, allowing them to stand in the vicinity of these graves if they choose during their visits to Halifax Minster.
The layout of the Halifax Parish Church around the year 2000, with areas of interest for this article highlighted in red. The church’s current layout is identical. Base composite image by Steph Gallaway.
Footnotes
1. Thomas William (T.W.) Hanson (1877-1967) was a local historian and author known for his works that introduced the history of Halifax to local young people. During the course of his life, he worked for his family’s furniture business. He was a member and eventually also a Vice-President of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, remaining so even after he moved to Oxford in 1942. He contributed many articles for the Society’s transactions, which remain useful to modern researchers. He was also the author of the first general history of Halifax published since John Crabtree’s 1836 book.
2. John Lister, MA (1847-1933) was the last Lister of Shibden Hall. He was the first president of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, a qualified barrister, and a founder of the Halifax Labour Union and became the first national treasurer for the Independent Labour Party. History was his passion, and he spent the majority of his life researching the history of Shibden Hall, as well as other topics linked to local history. He is the author of several transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, and also wrote several biographies and local history accounts.
3. A good example of a temporary disappearance and subsequent partial recovery of a vault cover from this parish church is that of the ledger stone that memorializes Anne Lister. It was put in place at the start of 1846, but eventually disappeared and remained lost for a bit over a century, until it was rediscovered in pieces when the western end of the Minster suffered alterations at the start of the millennium.
4. The ante-church of the Halifax Parish Church was the mostly open area between the western wall and the gallery supporting the organ and orchestra seats.
Pews and Graves: Church plans and Walker connections to Halifax Minster
Pews and Graves: Church plans and Walker connections to Halifax Minster
Visitors to the Halifax Parish Church today will see many vault covers still adorning the church floors. If they venture into the western end of the building and stand next to Vicar Musgrave’s memorial, they will also quickly notice a board hanging on a wall nearby which is adorned by many numbered small brass plaques. Observing these plaques closer, interested visitors will certainly spot familiar names, such as “Lister”, “Waterhouse”, and of course “Walker”.
Close-up shot of old Walker pew plaques on display in Halifax Minster. Photo by Marlene Oliveira.
These numbered plaques used to hang on the doors of the wooden box pews of the church and served the purpose of identifying the owners of said pews. In Ann Walker’s time, pews were a common source of income and could be rented to tenants or other interested parties, who would pay a fee to use them over a certain period. Some pews were associated with properties owned by landed gentry and could be bequeathed in wills. An example of this can be seen in Ann Walker’s probate will, where pew no. 1 in the North Chapel, or Rokeby Chapel, of the Parish Church is explicitly bequeathed to Dr. John Lister⁵ after Miss Walker’s passing (Oliveira 2023).
Yet, tracing ownership and, especially, occupancy of pews over a period of time is not always easy or straightforward, often necessitating the use of financial records such as rental accounts and correspondence to establish a clear connection between a tenant or occupier and a pew owned by a family or entity. For occupancy of graves the task is even harder, as family papers may include accounts or notes regarding a particular funeral, but these often neither include information as to who occupied a given family grave in a church nor indicate where said grave was located within the building itself. However, church plans can sometimes be annotated by family members or other interested parties to preserve this information.
The Calderdale office of the West Yorkshire Archive Service holds two seating plans of the Halifax Parish Church, both produced in the mid-1830s, which reveal the locations of several graves and pews belonging to the Lister and Walker families. The older of these two plans is very likely the one that Anne Lister acquired from the Sexton of the parish church. In her journals, she recorded ordering it in January 1835⁶ and later had it delivered by the Sexton himself, but never indicated which purpose this document served:
“had the sexton of the old church at 8 — brought me plan of the church and a little book of text explanatory of the plan and giving the inscriptions on the monuments for all which asked 20/- not too much —”
23 July 1835 (SH:7/ML/E/18/0065)
The older HPC church plan, likely commissioned by Anne Lister in 1835. See larger version. Image of church plan courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47).
The later plan (SH:2/M/14) dates from 1836 and is seemingly a copy of the previous one, with small corrections and a few notes written in pencil. Unfortunately none of these notes explain why this copy was produced. Both church plans show the locations of markings for pews and graves inside the Halifax Parish Church, including some belonging to the Walker family.
Pews are identified by tenant name in the case of the pews rented by tenants of the Listers of Shibden Hall, and pews belonging to the Walkers of Crow Nest are marked with “Walker”. There are also other notes in pews identifying the people or groups, such as those from the Constables or the Workhouse, who occupied them at the time the plans were produced. Looking at the other notes identifying pews and attributing them to Lister or Walker tenants, it seems likely, then, that both church plans were initially used to identify the pews belonging to Anne Lister and Ann Walker. Cross-referencing the annotated pew numbers with estate accounts from different years throughout the 1830s listing the rents collected from tenancies, this theory seems plausible.
However, whilst this is interesting as regards the pews and provides an interesting visual aid for any researcher working with financial documents, it does not explain the marks intended to show the locations of the graves. It also seems likely that these grave markings were added after the initial 1835 plan was delivered to Anne Lister, as the handwriting is different from the one used throughout the document. In any case, the grave marking symbols are consistent in both 19th century plans and graves marked on both plans were then identified by the letters “W C” for “Walker Crownest” or “W W” for "Walker Walterclough”, and simply “L” for “Lister”.
Extract from the 1836 plan of the Halifax Parish Church showing the location of graves belonging to the Lister and Walker families. Note how this is marked with two Ws (for Walker Walterclough) whilst the Lister vault nearby has its graves marked with single Ls (for Lister). Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).
Considering that both Anne Lister and Ann Walker were working on pedigrees of their families in the late 1830s, it is also possible that these markings on the plans served not only as a basic record of the locations of existing graves belonging to their families, but also as a quick way to locate the graves that bore memorial inscriptions relevant to their pedigree research.
Footnotes
5. Dr John Lister (1802-1867) inherited Shibden Hall from Anne Lister, and moved his family there after Ann Walker’s death in 1854. He was a doctor and married the wife of an army officer in the West Indies. The couple had three children: John Lister, MA, Charles Edmond, and Annie. The family descends from the branch of the Lister family that had settled in Wales and that is where they still lived when Dr Lister inherited the Shibden Hall estate. He died suddenly in the summer of 1867 and the estate then passed to his eldest son.
6. “met the Sexton of the old Church — ordered plan of the pews including the gallery, to be 7/- —” 14 January 1835 (SH:7/ML/E/17/0145)
The graves of the Walkers of Crow Nest
The graves of the Walkers of Crow Nest
Although many Walkers of Crow Nest were buried in Lightcliffe, there are some family members who were buried in the parish church in Halifax instead. In this section, we will look at several family burials that took place in the second half of the 17th century and later.
Referring to the seating plans, we can tell that, in both 19th century church plans, two Walker graves are marked at the eastern end of the south aisle of the parish church. By comparing these plans with the current layout of the building, we can say that these Walker graves are located near the entrance of today’s Regimental Chapel.
The location (in red) of the Walker of Crow Nest graves in Halifax Minster. Base composite image by Steph Gallaway.
However, looking closely at the two 19th-century plans, we can identify a discrepancy, as the graves are marked in two different positions in the same area of the church depending on which document we are consulting.
Extract from the 1835 plan of the Halifax Parish Church. The two Walker graves were initially, apparently erroneously, marked just outside the chancel of the church. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47).
Extract from the 1836 plan of the church. Here the two Walker graves (also marked “W C” in the earlier plan) are marked just inside the chancel. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).
It appears that, when the 1836 plan was created, a significant correction was made and these Walker graves were marked next to the door that opened to the churchyard. This idea is reinforced by a semi-erased note scribbled on the margin of this document. It reads as follows:
“[these] [vaults] are wrong placed they are on the Chancel on the East side of High Sunderland Loft extending from the South door end of the Chancel extending [to] [the] [nave] as where I ha[ve] placed [the] cross [?]” (SH:2/M/14)
With this correction in mind, and considering the old wooden rood screen⁷ in the 1830s used to run below the western support of the High Sunderland Loft gallery marked in the excerpt above, we can say these graves would indeed have been right inside the chancel⁸ of the church.
In the same area of the church, visitors can currently admire a brass plaque that memorializes Walker family ancestors. It was put in place by Ann Walker’s surviving nephew and heir, Evan Charles Sutherland-Walker (1835-1913)⁹, and above this plaque there used to be a stained glass window with a theme depicting the biblical figures Moses and Aaron, which was also commissioned and paid for by Sutherland-Walker¹⁰.
This Walker window was originally placed at this end of the south aisle in 1864¹¹, but it was later replaced by one of the Commonwealth windows. This change happened in 1958, when the considerably older and brighter Commonwealth windows were re-leaded and reglazed, and this Walker memorial window ended up on the north side of the church (WDP53/4/12/4). A small part of this memorial window is still visible today from the chancel, but it is located in a private storage space that is currently off-limits to visitors. The transparent glass of the Commonwealth window still illuminates the space around the Walker plaque, which was left in its original place, as shown in the photo below.
The Commonwealth window that replaced the stained glass Walker window. Photo by Marlene Oliveira.
Partial view of the Walker memorial window, now located on the north side of the church. Photo by David Glover.
The bottom of the Commonwealth window and the Walker memorial brass plaque that can be seen at the eastern end of the Halifax Minster. Photo by Marlene Oliveira.
In the late 1830s, Miss Ann Walker was working on a pedigree of her family, intending to deposit it with the College of Arms. This led to her obtaining copies of records regarding family births, marriages, and deaths going back several generations (CN:102). It was seemingly in the course of undertaking this work that she transcribed the memorial inscriptions of several family graves, producing the oldest known record of these inscriptions. These can be found among her vast pedigree notes and research in the local archives (WYAS reference CN:102).
Ann Walker’s transcription of the Walker ledger stones from the chancel of the Halifax Parish Church. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (CN:102).
[Transcription: ]
Here resteth the bodey of Sarah the wife of William
Walker of Crownest in Lightcliffe owne mother of the
three children. Abraham, John, and Mary.
Who are interred upon the left hand.
She died on the 6th of March 1710 AET [aetatis] 46 years.
(The remaind[e]r is worn out)
I — W
Here also lieth the body of Sarah their sister who
departed this life the 21st March 1716 in the 19th year of her age.
(...)
—----------------------
Here lyeth the body of A. - [Abraham]
the son of William Walker was buried the
14th April 1687. (...)
Also John his son whas here buried the 8th July _95.
The remainder is worn out.
These were the memorial inscriptions borne by the ledger stones of Ann Walker’s great-great-grandparents and their children. From Miss Walker’s transcriptions, we learn that this grave held the remains of Sarah, the wife of William Walker of Crow Nest (1665-1714), as well as those of their younger children. According to Rowland Bretton’s¹² Transaction of the Halifax Antiquarian Society about the Walkers of Crow Nest, this William Walker inherited both the Crow Nest messuage and also the Knowle Top messuage or tenement from his father (Abraham of Upper Walterclough) (Bretton 1971). Both properties were located close to each other in Lightcliffe.
Also per Bretton, William and his wife Sarah (née Mortimer) had eight children (Ibid.). Looking at Ann Walker’s transcript above, we conclude that, of these eight children, four were also buried in the Halifax Parish Church - three of them were laid to rest in the grave adjacent to their mother’s, whilst a fourth child shared her grave. It was William’s great-grandson, also a William (1713-1786), who is said to have gone to the Baltics to procure the timber used to build the Walker mansions in Lightcliffe and a nearby church(Ibid.).
A segment of the Walker family tree showing the occupants of the Walker graves in the south-east end of the Halifax Parish Church. Pedigree design by Steph Gallaway.
When Ann Walker and Anne Lister embarked on a journey to the Continent in 1838, the research produced by Miss Walker to prove her pedigree was left at the College of Arms (SH:7/ML/E/21/0090). These papers would remain there for years afterwards and, after Ann Walker was deemed “a person of unsound mind” in 1843, her brother-in-law was contacted by an officer of the College of Arms in order to demand payment of overdue fees (CN:103/2/70). A copy of the pedigree notes was then sent to the family and, eventually, found its way to the Calderdale office of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, where it remains today.
Almost a century after Ann Walker compiled her genealogical research, local historian and antiquarian Ely Wilkinson Crossley¹³ recorded the memorial inscriptions from the Halifax Parish Church with the intention of putting together a book. To do so, he spent some time in the parish church, traversing every aisle and cross aisle both in the main body of the church and in the chapels, and recorded every memorial inscription he could find on both monuments and gravestones (Crossley 1909, v). When he couldn’t read those inscriptions or did not find graves or monuments that were at some point recorded as being housed inside this church, Crossley referred to the work of other local historians and antiquarians to gather the missing information (Ibid., vi). It was in the midst of doing this work that he wrote to John Lister, MA, to let him know that he had finished the chapters compiling the known inscriptions:
“At last all the inscriptions both on the monuments and gravestones in the Parish Church which are visible are on print, and I am now tackling those which are not now-[where] to be seen and have been preserved in histories and by means of Rigge’s¹⁴ and Walker’s¹⁵ MSS.”
Letter from E.W.Crossley to John Lister, MA - 20 October 1908 (SH:7/JN/1663)
When he traversed the south aisle of the Halifax Parish Church, Crossley also copied the memorial inscription for the grave of Sarah Walker and her children. His transcript of the reads as follows:
"[Here resteth the body"] |
of Sarah, the wife of Will[iam] |
W[a]lker, of Crownest in Light |
[c]liffe, owne mother to ye three |
[c]hildren Abraham, Iohn, & |
Mary, who are interred |
upon [her husb]and, she died |
t[he ] was buried |
[the ] year & |
[ And also here lieth the body of Sarah Walker departed this life the 21st day of March 1716].” (Crossley 1909, 100)
By comparing Miss Walker's and Crossley’s transcripts, it is evident that the ledger stones suffered some alterations during the decades that separated the two observations. Though neither transcriber could copy the memorial inscription in full due to parts of the stone being eroded (or, as Ann Walker notes, “rubbed off”), Ann Walker was able to obtain more details from these than Crossley did. By the time E.W. Crossley recorded this memorial inscription in his notes, the stone was partially cut and several parts of it were so worn out that they proved illegible.
Additionally, from Ann Walker’s transcript, we also get a partial transcription of the adjacent Walker ledger stone, which neither Samuel Taylor Rigge nor Crossley seemingly saw in the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century, respectively. E.J. Walker seems to have seen this ledger stone in the church as it was his transcript of the memorial inscription that Crossley relied on to obtain the missing details (Bretton 1971, 100). However, in trying to interpret the missing parts of this memorial inscription, E.J. Walker accidentally added an assumption that is incorrect. The Walker children mentioned are buried “upon the left hand” as Miss Walker’s transcript attests, and not “upon her [Sarah Mortimer’s] husband” as he had assumed. In reusing this copy of the memorial inscription, Crossley accidentally propagated this mistake, which we can now rectify using Miss Walker’s transcript.
Today, a portion of the ledger stone that memorialized Sarah Walker can be seen near the organ of the parish church (WYL2209/27), though it is often blocked from view by pews and other church furniture. The other Walker stone is not included in any of the recent surveys of the church. It seems possible that it was eroded beyond readability a long time ago or was simply moved elsewhere during one of the many repairs or reorderings of the church prior to Crossley’s time.
Fragment of the Walker of Crow Nest ledger stone that can be seen near the organ at Halifax Minster. Photo by David Glover.
Footnotes
7. A rood screen, also known as choir screen or chancel screen, is a usually ornate partition between the chancel and the nave of an old church, particularly common in late medieval church architecture.
8. The chancel of a church is the area containing the altar and seats reserved for the clergy and choir (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). In the Halifax Parish Church plans, this is the easternmost area of the church, beyond the screen.
9. Evan Charles Sutherland Walker (1835-1913) was the third son of Elizabeth Sutherland (née Walker) and Captain George Mackay Sutherland. He inherited the Walker estate from his aunt Ann Walker, after she died at Cliff Hill in 1854. Despite inheriting a vast number of properties, Evan sold the estate in the late 1860s and moved to Scotland, where he purchased Skibo Castle. He died impoverished in 1913.
10. Author’s private correspondence with local historian David Glover.
11. Author’s private correspondence with local historian David Glover.
12. Rowland Bretton, FHS (1891-1973) was a local antiquarian who had a particular interest in heraldry. He was also a member of the Halifax Antiquarian Society and designed the arms for several local organisations and authorities - including the 1947 Halifax Coat of Arms.
13. Dr Ely Wilkinson Crossley (1863-1942) was a medical practitioner from Halifax who had an interest in history and archaeology. He was Honorary Secretary of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, a member of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, and the author of several local history books focusing on wills and local memorial inscriptions.
14. Samuel Taylor Rigge (1830-1889) was a local mill owner and wool merchant. He became a Halifax Councillor, and was also a warden of the Parish Church. Rigge made a comprehensive inventory of tombstone inscriptions and memorials within the church, estimated to have been taken in the late 19th century. Contained within his work was the full inscription of Anne Lister’s tombstone.
15. Edward Johnson Walker (1817-1880) was a journalist and editor of the Halifax Guardian. An antiquarian, he too embarked on compiling an inventory of tombstones and memorials in the Halifax Parish Church in the third quarter of the nineteenth century.
Graves of the Walkers of Walterclough
Graves of the Walkers of Walterclough
The 19th century plans of the Halifax Parish Church show another two Walker graves in different areas of the building: one located in the nave and another in the west cross aisle, behind a row of pews.
The location (in red) of the Walker of Walterclough graves in Halifax Minster. Base composite image by Steph Gallaway.
Looking at both Ann Walker’s and E.W. Crossley’s transcripts, we can once again identify the people buried in these graves. However, these are not Walkers of Crow Nest, but relatives of theirs who belong to the Walterclough branch of the family, as evidenced by the different “W W” labels, each denoting one grave.
The Walker of Walterclough graves in Halifax Minster (both marked in green). Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).
In Ann Walker's time, the few Walkers of Walterclough Hall still living were cousins of the Walkers of Crow Nest. Both branches of the family have a common ancestor, William Walker (1596-1676) of Scholes, who bought Upper Walterclough in 1654, and whose sons moved into the neighborhood with their families (Lister 1908, 208).
William Walker's eldest son, Abraham, married Ann Langley (1643-1688) of Priestley Green in November 1672 and the two settled at Upper Walterclough. It was their eldest son, William, originally from Marsh in Southowram and later from Crow Nest after 1692, who originated the family branch that includes Ann Walker (1803-1854) (Ibid.). William and his family occupied the other Walker graves marked with “W C” discussed in the previous section.
Abraham's second son, Richard (1672-1721), married Grace Batley (1678-1744) of Bull Close, near Halifax, and eventually lived at Upper Walterclough after his father's death (Ibid.). These Walkers of Walterclough seemingly owned and are buried in the two remaining Walker graves in the Halifax Parish Church that are marked “W W” in both church plans. Interestingly enough, by following the Walterclough family branch, researchers will eventually encounter Caroline Wivell Walker (1774-1831), another local diarist who was a contemporary of Anne Lister and Ann Walker.
The Walker grave situated near the intersection of the west cross aisle and the end of the south aisle belonged to the above mentioned Abraham Walker of Walterclough. It is occupied by him, his son Richard, and also his daughter-in-law, Grace, who was Richard’s wife. This grave is unequivocally identified by Ann Walker in her transcription of the memorial inscription that is included in her family pedigree research. In her notes, Miss Walker wrote “stone at the top of South Aisle - Ante-Church” (CN:102), which fits perfectly with the only family grave marked in the section of the plans showing that area. The memorial inscription copied by Miss Walker reads as follows:
“Here lieth the body of Abraham Walker of Upper
Walterclough in Southowram who died 16 Nov[embe]r 1695.
Also the body of Richard Walker of Upper
Walterclough his 2d son who died 17 Jan[uar]y 1721.
Likewise Grace wife of the above said Richard
Walker who died 1733.”
When E.W. Crossley surveyed the Halifax Parish Church in 1909 to gather information for his book, he did not see this stone and had instead to rely on the transcripts of memorial inscriptions compiled by E.J. Walker. Crossley's notes about this memorial inscription indicate that Richard was found drowned in the Calder River in January 1721 (Crossley 1909, 144). The transcript included in Crossley’s book is also not as complete as Ann Walker’s, so it is possible that E.J. Walker encountered this stone in a much worse state than it was when Miss Walker saw it in 1837.
Given that, as mentioned, this stone appears to have been missing in Crossley’s time, it is possible, though unconfirmed, that it was lost or damaged beyond repair during any of the rounds of big and small renovations and reorderings that took place in the church between 1837 and 1909.
The remaining Walker of Walterclough grave marked in the 19th-century church plans is located in the middle aisle of Halifax Minster. Though its relative position in the church is easy to extrapolate from those plans to the current layout of the building, no marker is in place today that allows us to identify it unequivocally. Interestingly enough, it is a note in E.W. Crossley’s book that identifies this ledger stone as the remaining Walker one located in the nave of the church, as he states this was “Formerly visible in the middle aisle of the church” (Crossley 1909, 144). Ann Walker’s transcript of the same ledger stone includes no such note.
The inscription included in Crossley’s book reads as follows:
Unfortunately, it seems that this vault cover was already in a rather poor state when Miss Walker stood over it in 1837 and added the inscription to her pedigree research. Her copy of this memorial inscription reads as follows:
“Here lieth the …… of
Ann wife of ………. Walker
Walter….. South[owra]me.
Also John …… of the above
I - W. - W
In memory of ….. Walker
daughter of the above
Rich Walker of Walterclough in South[owra]me
(The remainder is worn out)”
Given the marked lack of detail in both transcripts, it is necessary to turn to the family tree of the Walkers of Walterclough to look for possible matches. From this exercise, we learn that Abraham Walker’s wife, Ann (née Langley), is likely to be the first person to be buried in this grave. She died in June 1688 and contemporary burial records show a matching entry for an interment at the Halifax Parish Church of a woman with the same name in July of that year (Church of England Jul 1688). Following the same line of thought and continuing to consult parish burial records, we may presume that the John mentioned in the inscription above and who was related to this Ann was likely her son, who died in 1702 (Church of England 1702). The remaining person buried in this grave was likely one of the daughters of Richard Walker of Walterclough who, as mentioned above, shares the other grave with his father and his wife. Given the sparsity of the information available, it was not yet possible to identify which of Richard’s daughters shares the same grave. However, looking at the family’s practice of burying relatives from different generations together, it is perhaps not surprising that this woman finds herself sharing a grave with her grandmother and uncle.
As with one of the ledger stones memorializing their relatives from Crow Nest, currently neither of these vault covers of the Walkers of Walterclough can be seen in the Minster.
The last Walker of Crow Nest buried at the old church
The last Walker of Crow Nest buried at the old church
The last Walker burial that can be traced back to the Halifax Parish Church is that of Ann Walker’s uncle - William Walker of Crow Nest (d. 1809). He was born in 1749 and inherited Crow Nest estate after the death of his father in 1786. When this William Walker died in 1809, James Lister of Shibden Hall recorded his death in his notes:
James Lister’s pedigree notes from 1809. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:7/ML/B/30).
[Transcription: ]
“1809
Sep[tembe]r 2nd. William Walker Esq[ui]re of Crownest died about a quarter before seven o'clock in the morning being Saturday, aged 60 years; and was buried on Friday Morning Sep[tembe]r 8th in Halifax Church.”
The two men had known each other for a number of years and, interestingly enough, William had also taken part in several Lister funerals, even serving as pall-bearer in the funeral of James Lister’s father in February 1788 (SH:3/FN/25). Per Mr Lister's notes, William’s remains were interred at the Halifax Parish Church on the 8th of September 1809 (SH:7/ML/B/30). This is confirmed by the parish burial record.
The Halifax Parish Church record for the burial of William Walker of Crow Nest (d.1809). Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield (WDP53/1/1/8).
It is unclear whether William Walker was laid to rest in one of the existing graves belonging to the earlier Walkers of Crow Nest or occupied a separate vault. His name also does not appear in any of the memorial inscriptions recorded by Ann Walker or E.W. Crossley. Therefore, it is possible that William either shared an existing Walker grave and simply did not have his own memorial inscription, or he occupied a new grave that did not have a vault cover with an inscription bearing his name. Given the lack of evidence pointing to a specific location for his burial place, the only certainty is that William was buried inside the parish church, as per the burial records and James Lister’s notes, but the exact location of his grave remains unknown.
The other Walkers of Crow Nest who succeeded him are buried in Lightcliffe Churchyard, where Old St Matthews church used to stand. Their graves can be visited by anyone curious about this family’s history. In recent years, the Friends of Lightcliffe Churchyard have conducted research regarding some of these Walkers that is freely available on their website.
Lightcliffe Churchyard from Wakefield Road. Photo by Marlene Oliveira.
Aerial view of Lightcliffe Churchyard, showing where the church used to stand. Photo by Marlene Oliveira.
References
References
Barker, Dorothy, and Ian Philp. 2022. In the Shadow of Lightcliffe's Old Tower. Cleckheaton: Lightcliffe and District Local History Society.
Bretton, Rowland. 1971. “Walkers of Crow Nest.” In Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 101-122. N.p.: Halifax Antiquarian Society.
Bull, Malcolm. 2025. “Walker, Richard [1672-1721].” Calderdale Companion. http://www.calderdalecompanion.co.uk/mmw13.html#165.
Calderdale Museums. 2020. “John Lister.” Calderdale Museums. https://museums.calderdale.gov.uk/famous-figures/john-lister/.
Church of England. Jul 1688. West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1512-1812, Burial record of Ana Walker - WDP53/1/1/8. N.p.: Ancestry.com; Original data: West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/2256/records/4044291?tid=171314826&pid=222239229423.
Church of England. 1702. West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1512-1812, Burial record of John Walker - WDP53/1/1/9. N.p.: Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/2256/records/4059335?tid=171314826&pid=222239229430.
Church of England. 1809. West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1512-1812, Burial record of William Walker - WDP53/1/1/8. N.p.: Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/2256/records/4447926?tid=171314826&pid=222224071430.
Crossley, E.W., ed. 1909. The monumental and other inscriptions in Halifax Parish Church. Leeds: J. Whitehead & Son.
Halifax Evening Courier. 1957. “Some volumes printed in fifteenth century.” Halifax Evening Courier, August 14, 1957, 1. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003295/19570814/011/0001.
Halifax Minster. 2010. Record of Church Furnishings Halifax Minister West Yorkshire volume 1 introduction and memorials, WYL2209/27. N.p.: West Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds. https://www.catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=WYAS3823%2f27.
Hanson, T. W. 1909. “Halifax Parish Church under the Commonwealth.” In Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 285-316. Halifax: Halifax Antiquarian Society.
Hanson, T. W. 1916. “Halifax Parish Church, 1640-1660, Part II.” In Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 293-316. Halifax: Halifax Antiquarian Society.
Hanson, T. W. 1917. “Halifax Parish Church, 1640-1660, Part III.” In Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 181-204. Halifax: Halifax Antiquarian Society.
Hanson, T.W. 1920. The Story of Old Halifax. Halifax, West Yorkshire: F. King & Sons LTD.
Harrison, George. 17 October 1844. Letter from George Harrison Bluemantle (Herald's College) to Captain Sutherland, CN:103/2/70. N.p.: West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale. https://www.catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=CC00136%2f8%2f2.
Lister, Anne. 5 May 1838. Journal entry of 5 May 1838, SH:7/ML/E/21/0090. N.p.: West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale. https://www.catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=CC00001/7/9/6/21/90.
Lister, James. n.d. (19th century). Memoranda, SH:7/ML/B/30 - Memoranda concerning deaths of family and acquaintances. N.p.: West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale. https://www.catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=CC00001%2f7%2f9%2f3%2f30.
Lister, James. 15 Feb 1788. List of guests at the funeral of Jeremy Lister of Shibden Hall, SH:3/FN/25. N.p.: West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale. https://www.catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=CC00001%2f3%2f4%2f26.
Lister, John. 1908. In Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 205-268. Halifax: Halifax Antiquarian Society.
Merriam-Webster. n.d. “CHANCEL Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster. Accessed August 13, 2025. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chancel.
National Churches Trust. 2025. “Halifax Minster.” National Churches Trust. https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/church/halifax-minster-halifax.
Oliveira, Marlene. 2023. “Anne Lister's and Ann Walker's Wills.” Packed with Potential. https://www.packedwithpotential.org/stories-articles-writeups/lister-walker-probate-wills.
Philp, Ian. 2018. “St Matthew's Old Church Talk.” Lightcliffe and District Local History Society. https://www.lightcliffehistory.org.uk/topics/59-st-matthew-s-old-church-talk.
Walker, Ann. 19th century. Ann Walker's transcripts of pedigrees, conveyances, etc, CN:102 - Includes baptism, marriage and burial entries (1586-1866). N.p.: West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale. https://www.catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=CC00136%2f7%2f1.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
I want to thank Lynn Shouls and Steph Gallaway for their assistance in proofreading this article, as well as for their kind feedback and suggestions during the editing of the final draft. Steph also assisted with the church graphics and the Walker of Crow Nest pedigree image, for which I am very grateful. Thank you also to David Glover, who kindly answered a number of questions during the early stages of my putting together this article and also shared his photos of a church window and a ledger stone, which are included in this article. Finally, I want to thank the team at West Yorkshire Archive Service Calderdale for allowing me to reproduce the images of several items from their collections.
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