Wigan Album

Rev could this be the start of 'GRAVE OF THE WEEK'?

My mother in law was May Kay, born in Higher Ince. 1911.Her father was George Kay, buried in Westwood Cemetery.I wondered was there a connection.I am searching family tree, but not got this far yet.

Sorry, Harry, but as no one had posted anything to the Album for a week, I thought I'd cheer everyone up....

Grave mistake Rev David - as regards 'cheering up! Especially at the age some of us are.
. ( joking..)

Edna, how far back have you got back on the Kay side of your tree ? I notice George was a popular Christian name for the Kay's.

I like reading headstones & am glad to see that Elizabeth ' did her best '
Well done Elizabeth !

Some very nice carving on the gravestone, was an artistic mason that carved the stone who had a good eye and steady hand.

Cyril, there's actually a twin of it to the left - the grave of the family of a local doctor and surgeon called Witham. There's no obvious connection between the two families according to the inscriptions, but there must have been one.

Really David, then the mason must have been highly skilled and especially so to replicate them, they'd end up as a pile of rubble if I tried to carve them.

His brother Abraham then his niece Elizabeth were residents of the hall until late 1980's
Kay
Kay Abraham 81 yrs Westwood Hall 20-May 1904 Boat-builder C 1217 C of E
Kay Annie 63 yrs Westwood Hall, Lr. Ince 07-Apr 1941 C 1217 C of E
McAvoy
McAvoy William 68 yrs Wigan Infirmary 19-Feb 1958 Westwood Hall, Ince C 1217 C of E
McAvoy Elizabeth 88 yrs Werstwood Hall, Ince 31-Aug 1988 Crem Remains C 1217 C of E

Roy, I made a mistake, George Kay is buried in Ince Cemetry, not Westwood.I am still in the middle of my side of the family,so not got that far really.It was when the name Kay came up, because that was the name of my late husbands grandparents.

Here is the marriage of James' daughter:
Marriage: 5 Sep 1883 Parish Church, Coppull, Lancashire, England
Alfred Whitham - full, Doctor of Medicine, Bachelor, Adlington
Sarah Kay - full, Spinster, Coppull
Groom's Father: James Whitham, (deceased), Carrier
Bride's Father: James S. Kay, Coal Proprietor
Witness: Thomas Charles; Thos Harson?; Thomas Carpenter; Elizabeth Ellen Kay
Married by: John G. Hollingworth, Vicar of Adlington
Register: Marriages 1843 - 1905, Page 112, Entry 223
Source: LDS 1849656

I am having problems with the computer and have just added a comment re Westwood Hall which I think has failed. I will re-send and apologise if it appears twice, everyone! Just to say my husband Peter worked for Sawbridge's Butchers in Commercial Yard in the mid-late 1960s and used to deliver meat to Westwood Hall, The owner at that time was a Mrs, MacAvoy who Peter recalls as being a very nice but rather eccentric lady who shared her home with a number of cats.

Well done for finding the Kay-Witham connection, mygriffiths. I'd suppose Sarah was named after her aunt, Sarah Richardson.
Cyril - I think for the last 150 years or so most headstones were produced by specialist companies, with only the family inscriptions carved by local masons.
Certainly, from what I've seen in local graveyards, the same designs crop up all over the place. I have standard descriptions for them which I cut and paste when completing records for the War Museum's Register of War Memorials.

Thank you Rev.My mother was born in Kay's houses and as a child collected rents for old Mrs.Kay ,that would have been Annie wife of Abraham.

I've just looked that up David, I originally was thinking how skilled the stonemasons were in cutting the stone in the same designs, and in actuality there done with stencils and a machine.

I was under the impression that masons cut the designs and wordings on gravestones and memorials as I remember them being called monumental masons, however when Rev. David Long commented about it being a specialist business I had a look on the net - and was very surprised. If anyone wants to know more there's three links below, however there is more info on the net.

http://www.onreflection.co.uk/on-reflection-sandblasting-stencils-vinyl-and-laser.html

https://youtu.be/lhfKHoeiEho

https://www.dyingmatters.org/FergusWesselLetterCutter