Second part of a great weekend as I went to visit my brother in Sheffield. We don’t see nearly enough of each other and it was great to catch up, mainly in the local for a long afternoon of discussion continued with a few more back at the house a little later on and into the small hours.
He too like me, is a collector but mainly of historic action comics, music memorabilia and vinyl. So Sunday morning required plenty of coffee and a good walk to “blow the cobwebs off”. Beautiful day and I saw a chance to knock off one of the things I’d been hoping to do for ages and visit the resting place of William Marples (Jnr) which wasn’t too far away.
Entering the cemetery at the church of Christ Church in Fulwood the task looked daunting as there seemed to be a vast amount of graves all very close together and it appeared a “needle in a haystack” type scenario. With my brother questioning my idea of an ideal Sunday morning activity, we stumbled around for five or ten minutes, contemplating asking the vicar or such but could hear the Sunday service in full flow and didn’t want to interfere.
We were chatting away thinking it may be a job for another day when all of a sudden there it was, straight in front of us with the grave of William’s son Edwin Marples immediately at the side of him! Given the magnitude and ornateness of other graves in the cemetery it was surprising how understated both graves were considering the size, reach and history of the Marples tool business of the time. William must have been a humble man. The graves are plain and bear no testament to the company or what the men had achieved.
William Marples was born 21st March 1809 and died 2nd October 1877. He is buried together with his wife Jane Kent who died later in 1893.
Edwin Henry Marples his son, was born 17th October 1839 and died 17th November 1918. He too is buried with his wife Mary Jane Smith.
Given the amount of Marples tools I possess together with a working knowledge of the company history, it gave we a little warm feeling inside having ticked this one off. As I said to my brother the night before when we were discussing collecting, cataloguing and general Magpie behaviour, “not everyone would understand“!
The Hawley Exhibition next time I’m in Sheffield has to be top of the list.