Mary Frances Shepley Jones

Joan Arbour wrote about Mary Shepley Jones, in about 2004:

My grandmother was a Grande Dame and no mistake, she walked to St Peter's Church every Sunday dressed in a black nipped in-waist jacket and full skirt, which dripped jet beads and sequins, boots and gloves. Not a tall lady, she nevertheless was very regal. She paid for a front pew in the church, and woe betide anyone who mistakenly sat in it.

I don't remember what my own grandfather (Tim Morrisey] did for a living, but my grandmother's second husband was a boiler maker and worked at "The Forge", an iron works at the bottom of Bayley Street. This was the street on which my Grandmother had a Grocer's shop: dinners (hot pies, stew and dumplings and cakes - she was a very good cook) were sold to the workmen, which Gran cooked and served as well as running the shop. I think she was trained in confectionery.

Joe Martin (my step Grandfather) was a man who drank a lot but was reckoned to be a good workman, he was sent by his firm to work on the Titanic. He was very proud of this, and devastated when it sank. My sister tells this tale: (she) went in the shop and found our little Grandma threatening to kill her large husband with a tiny toffee hammer (one she used to break home-made toffee with). She had caught him with his hand in the till: Joe needed 2 1/2d to buy a gill of beer. Because he was a good darts player he was sure to win any following drinks. .

When I first became aware of my grandmother I must have been about 4 years old. We lived in a large house in Quay Street behind Bayley Street. It had four large rooms downstairs, a large hall and a rather grand staircase with a stag's head on the first landing. My grandmother and Joe occupied a room downstairs next to the kitchen and it had a nice fireplace, a table, two fireside chairs on either side of the fire and a three quarter bed. Poor Joe could not go up the stairs so they both ended up sleeping downstairs. (I think) she was brought up in Dukinfield, but I'm not sure of that.

Grandma used to take me on her knee, to read the strip cartoon for me: I think the paper was the Daily Herald.

My Gran had a brother, Sam Jones [Samuel Shepley Jones], who used to visit my mother and listen to my efforts on the piano. He was a very good pianist. It must have been torture for him. He wore a tall shiny hat, spats, a black tightly fitted suit and was very tall (frightened me to death).

Later on in my teens I met his children:
Sam Jones, a diet freak (his wife and son had to adhere to his rules). I now realize that his diet was the forerunner of modern thinking on diet - lots of veg, no meat, little milk, drink plenty of water, no sweets, deserts etc.. He was a very good pianist and a wonderful organist. (They had) one son, Sam, who lived in a pub in Bury. I'm uncertain of what happened in his later years, he took care of himself until he was about 87, did his own shopping etc. He was playing on the organ at that age, Ashton St Mary and St Peter's Stalybridge. The priests of both these churches allowed him the use of the pipe organ, which he loved. He played every week, two or three times a week.
Joseph Jones, an engineer at the Gas Works, he made the gas turbine engine. When he was a baby my Gran said of him (that) he would never be a soldier but would travel all over the world and wear a soldier's uniform. She was fey. During the war he went all over the world servicing engineers working for the government and was given an officer's uniform so that if he was caught he would just be taken prisoner. He became a Director of Acrow or the Gas Place in Dukinfield. He and his family resided in Ashton.
Raymond Jones worked at the same place as Joseph, in the office. He drew a caricature of his boss, the boss saw it, and encouraged Raymond to go to classes for art at Ashton. When Ray was old enough he ran away from home to London and became an Academician. He married a doctor and was an R A artist. During the war he went blind. I'm not sure whether he went blind during the first World War and during the second World War he thought he would again lose his sight and we were told that he committed suicide!!?
They had three sisters, Frances and Jane(?) and Dorothy, (who) worked at Leigh & Ardens (I'm not sure of her name) and one other whose name I can't remember. Perhaps one lady was the mother of the family of McDermots who resided in the large house facing the Ashton Library [or, opposite Ashton Armoury]. This seems to be (the only memory) I have of the McDermots.

My mother had a cousin, Frederick Jones [who lived in Macclesfield]. He lived in Dukinfield and then Abergele (Wales), he was a Painter and Decorater. In Abergele he and Florence his wife kept a boarding house. In Rhos on-sea Fred Jones was a wizard with clocks, all the antique dealers on that coast came to him with their clocks, but he could not speak properly. Fred Jones could hardly read or write, but could read and play music. He married again when he was 72, and we lost touch. They had one son, David, who was also backward at school. He could sketch and draw the most intricate designs and became an electrical engineer . He married and had I think two children - he may still live in Bollington and would be about 75 now.. During the war he was a Bevin Boy. Florence his wife died first, when I was aboout 20 years of age.

[Joan Arbout appears to have given several overlapping accounts of her memories, which I have combined above. AR-J]