'SAMUEL HILL
POET, LOCAL HISTORIAN,
LOVER OF THE LANCASHIRE DIALECT.
BORN IN KING STREET, STALYBRIDGE, 1864.
LIVED IN THIS HOUSE FOR MANY YEARS
AND HERE DIED, 24TH DECEMBER, 1909.
COMMEMORATION OF STALYBRIDGE CENTENARY
5TH MARCH 1957'
Samuel Hill's Bygone Stalybridge: Traditional, Historical, Biographical (1907) – a book which the author sold from his home at 78 Hamilton Street, Stalybridge – states that among other books he wrote were: Old Lancashire Songs and their Singers (1899), Lancashire Poets and their Poems (1900), Foirewood, or Splinters an' Shavin's fro' a Carpenter's Bench (1902), Little Spadger's Dog, and other Sketches (1906), and Local Poets of the Past [date not given].
The book includes a chapter titled 'Local Literary Men', which contains information on several writers linked to Stalybridge: John Jones, Thomas Kenworthy, George Smith, Joseph Rayner Stephens, William Chadwick, and Samuel Laycock.
Samuel Hill was my Great Grandfather and I am proud to have several copies of his books which were passed to me by my late father Kenneth Hill (1926-2015). The family tree we have goes back to Samuel's Grandfather also Samuel (1806-1837). I am currently researching the WW1 records of Samuel's son's James, Frederick and Robert (my Grandfather) who all survived. There were other siblings, Sarah who died aged 33, another Samuel who died just shy of his 2nd birthday, Annie who also died less than 2 and Harry just 2 months old. The level of infant mortality and general life expectancy is quite shocking by today's standards.
ReplyDeleteHi Neal, you couldn't scan a few copies of the book covers and/or a few of his poems for publication here could you? Anything would be well welcome. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteEmail: anottsquair@hotmail.com
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