Margaret Anne Smith

Henry Smith was born in 1821 and died in 1914. He became a church warden at some point. An inscription on the family grave in St Paul’s churchyard reads “To the beloved memory of Margaret Anne, wife of Henry Smith, Shipley Hall only daughter of James Browne, Spring Lodge, Baildon,..” From this it would seem that the Smiths lived in Shipley Hall (1734) which stood at the junction of Market Street and Otley Road and later became the headquarters of Windhill Cooperative Society. It was demolished in the 1950s in the development of the town centre and is now the site of the “Sir Norman Rae” (Wetherspoons).

The tablet hides a tragically short marriage, for Henry and Margaret were married on 27th April 1848 at St John the Baptist church, Baildon and she died just over a year later on 13th May 1849 at Shipley Hall, aged 23. She is remembered also in one of the east window panels. Henry later moved to Wakefield, but retained an interest in parish affairs.