21 - The Skelton Family
Household 21 was made up of parents William and Emma Skelton and their 2 year old son John William. At the time of the 1871 census William was working as a hat finisher.
William's parents were from Yorkshire but had moved, first to Manchester in the 1830s, then to the Werneth area around 1840. William was the 4th of their 6 children and his father James, who worked as a groom, died when William was 10. At the age of 16 William was living in Bredbury and working as a gardener's assistant.
Emma Smith was born in Offerton in 1848. Her father worked as a hatter. She was not able to sign her name on the marriage documents, suggesting that she was illiterate.
William and Emma married in June 1868 and by this time William had taken a job as a coal miner. After settling down on Romiley Road he spent the rest of his life working in the hat industry.
A full 13 years passed between the birth of their first child and the birth of their second and final child, Alice in 1882.
The family moved to various houses on Romiley road and then lived at Foundling Terrace, which still stands today. Built in 1861 by the Jackson family, the terrace has 4 "two up-two down" houses, next door to the Friendship Inn.
Around 1875 William began working as a planker at Ward's hatworks in Bredbury (see Household 2). He worked there until 24th December 1901 at around 9.45am when William exclaimed "I have a pain under my chest" to his colleague and fell backwards. His co-workers tried to revive him with brandy and by rubbing his hands but by the time the doctor arrived, he was pronounced dead. He had complained of pain under his left shoulder for a few weeks but his death came as a huge shock to everyone who knew him. The coroner recorded his cause of death as "heart disease".
Emma went on to live for another 18 years, first living with her daughter Alice, who by then had married a hatter named John Beard, and then living alone at number 71 Stockport Road (Romiley Road). The family must have been popular as Alice's wedding was reported on in the local newspaper, describing her outfit ("a dress of turquoise blue voile and hat to match") and stating that the wedding at St Chad's was well attended.
Their son John William did well at school in Romiley and trained as a school master. In his spare time he acted as referee for Association Football in Romiley. By the time he married Ellen Martlew in 1899 he was Assistant Master at the New Mills Board School, where he had worked for 6 years. By 1908 he was headteacher at Thornsett Council School and asking for a raise. His £165 a year salary was increased by £10 a year and he was described as "a very faithful and efficient servant". John William and Ellen had no children and John died suddenly aged 68 in 1937.