"Genesis"
Reading-Good; Writing-Good; Arithmetic-Very Good.
A good General Knowledge and contributes to class discussions.
Arthur rushes his work and can be careless sometimes.
Attendance possible: 196 Attendance actual : 192
Extract: School Report for Arthur Seeley, July 1940,
Eastwood Board School,
Keighley Board of Education
2)
Haworth Carnival 2003
Fun All Day
August 27th-28th
Craft Stalls Fun Fair Straw Race
Music Entertainment Procession
All Welcome
All Day Family Fun
Street Poster, Keighley, 2003
3)
In Memory of
8 children, Sons and Daughters of
Richard and Mary Ann N------
of HAWORTH
who died in their infancy.
Also Mark William N-----
who died December 1st 1843 in his 2nd year
And also of an infant daughter of theirs
June 15th 1846
And also of an infant 1850
And also of an infant 1852
Gravestone in St Michael and All Angel’s Church, Haworth. Typical of many such gravestones there.
4)
‘Oh for the time when I shall sleep
Without identity
And never care how rain may steep
Or snow may cover me!’
Extract from a poem “The Philosopher” by Emily Bronte ( 1818-1848)
5)
It is estimated that 40,000 people are buried in Haworth village churchyard. The graveyard being so overcrowded and badly drained is affecting the already poor sanitation in Haworth. The sanitation is poor to the public health, with inadequate fresh water facility.
41.6% of children in Haworth die before the age of 6, average life expectancy is 24. Diaries from the school history are testament to the poor health of the children; smallpox, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever are mentioned frequently and the deaths of children logged on a daily basis.
There are 69 privies in the whole village, one to every 4˝ houses. Some people drink from water contaminated from open drains. Many of the houses are damp due to backing on to higher ground that is continually seeping water from higher up. There are many cases of typhus, dysentery, smallpox and consumption.
It is requested that gravestones are not to be laid flat on the ground in the churchyard as they are limiting the growth of shrubs which would help with decomposition.
Abstract: Report to the General
Benjamin Herschel Babbage. 1850
6)
Those gloomy ways
were never ways for children.
Steep rains
swept the elms,
drenched the graveyard
till it bellied and seeped
the putrefaction
of faltered siblings
down the cobbled Main.
Row on row
stones tell
of other children born
to dank rooms,
darkness and the choke
that cluttered lungs;
rack of cough in the night,
the hot kiss of fever,
the rustle of breath at dawn;
then silence, sudden in the crib.
Late boots
trudge up the hill;
‘And also of an infant’
to be cut -
later.
Life was
a brief procession
through bewilderment.
Despite all,
on unpapered walls
the first faint sketches bloomed.
In tiny script
a city grew,
prospered;
sisterhood
kindled a flame
that lit the years
and never again a time
to sleep, as others sleep,
without identity.
© 2006 Arthur Seeley
Follow this link to comment
|
|
