Words and photos: Mark Stevenson
I was in Hunslet Cemetery the other day taking some pics and next to it are some Almshouses I knew a bit about. I wanted to get some up-to-date pics, but as it had started to chuck it down I decided to wait for another time.
By the afternoon I found myself in Farsley and as it was no drier I went into the church for a look around.
It was while I was in the church I noticed that one of the stain-glassed windows had an inscription on it to a Hannah Elizabeth, wife of Hunslet architect John Edwin Leak.
John Edwin Leak was the man who had designed the Almshouses next to the cemetery in Hunslet.
Hannah is registered as being born in Farsley and, as the window says, her parents were from Stanningley.
Her father George was a Clerk Non-Works, (anyone know what that is?). Also, the window has Brooke spelt with an E when it is spelt Brook, (another spelling mistake?).
Very interesting, thank you Mark. As to the spelling of the surname, I think in the past spelling was very flexible. An ancestor of mine is variously spelt Wainwright or Wainewright throughout his life on official documents.