The first Hodgson of Bolton can be found in the Calverley Parish records of 1655. A John Hodgson lived in Myers Lane in 1698 and his initials are inscribed above the door of 11-12 Myers Lane.
James Hodgson was born in 1781 the son of Amos Hodgson of Bolton. James lived all his life in Bolton, raising a family with his wife Ann and working as a farmer. Their daughter, Elizabeth married James Atkinson Jowett in 1839 and settled in Hodgson Fold. They had two sons - Nathan and John, and two daughters Ann Elizabeth and Mary Ann (sadly dying at seven years old).
In 1861, following the death of his father, James and Elizabeth moved into a newly built mansion, Grove House, situated near to Hodgson Fold. Both the Hodgsons and the Atkinson Jowetts were deeply religious and worshipped at Salem Chapel in Chapel Street and later at the new Congregational Church in Victoria Road, Eccleshill.
James and Elizabeth are buried together in Undercliffe Cemetery, but their two daughters are buried in Chapel Street cemetery. Elizabeth’s family are also buried in Chapel Street Cemetery in the grave adjacent to the Atkinson Jowett grave.
A white marble mural tablet commemorating the two families connected through marriage was originally displayed in the vestibule of the United Reformed Church on Victoria Rd. When the Church was demolished in 2022, Thomas Crompton contractors found it and gave it to the Friends of Chapel Street Cemetery to place by the graves of the two families. The inscription records the family members buried in the two neighbouring graves.
The home of James and Elizabeth, Grove House, was demolished in 1970 to make way for Hanson School.
Location: Section2 N7 and N6