Don’t miss September’s edition of Lancashire Life where there’s an article on Pendle Heritage Centre and its walled garden. Called ‘Pendle Passion’ by Rebekka O’Grady, Peter Aldred and Bob Anderson of the heritage centre are both interviewed. The article also covers Barrowford shops, including Michelle B and Fleur Centre… in all good newsagents now!
The article is now online
Hi there,
I hope that you can help me.
I am related to the Bannister’s of Park Hill distantly on my Mother’s side, and would like to trace my Bannister family tree to Park Hill.
My Mother’s Aunt, Cissie Armistead (nee Yoxall) lived at Park Hill in July/August 1972, when a relative of mine visited her there. Unfortunately, Cissie died the next year, aged 93.
However, in this article:
https://www.lancashirelife.co.uk/people/what-the-locals-really-think-of-barrowford-1-4223633?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=twitterfeed
dated 07 September 2015, it is stated that, according to Bob Anderson, your Tourist Information Guide and Museum Curator at that time:
‘When the last of the Armistead family moved out in 1968, there wasn’t anyone else to take over’.
I know that Cissie’s husband, Albert died on 24th June 1967, aged 84, but clearly Cissie still lived at Park Hill until 1972 at least.
Is Bob still with you? If so, can he confirm that Cissie was in fact the last Armistead to leave Park Hill, in 1973.
I know that Albert, and I assume Cissie also, moved to Park Hill in 1923, but cannot find any census records for Albert and Cissie in Park Hill from 1923 to 1967. Can you help with that at all?
Through her mother, Margaret Yoxall (nee Bannister), grandfather Thomas Bannister (Coal Miner) and great-grandfather Charles Bannister (Weaver), Cissie was, I think, in the line of the ‘Little Marsden Bannisters’ that your centre refers to (when I visited some time ago now), because Margaret was born in Hey Head, Marsden and Thomas lived there when he married in 1842.
Clearly, Cissie must have been recognised as a Park Hill Bannister in order to stay in Lower Park Hill, unless maybe Albert’s occupation, as ‘Clerk to Barrowford Council for 25 years, until his retirement in 1948’ enabled him to occupy Lower Park Hill, which is also called the Clerk’s House, I believe.
But my research has been unable to prove this. Can you help at all?
Please do not publish this letter as it is merely an enquiry, looking for genealogical facts.
Your sincerely,
Martin Brown
14th March 2019