She lived on Carlisle Street (which you can see from the picture is now a commercial area of town.)
She also lived on Cornelian Street. We don't have a house number but know her family lived on this street soon after her mother, Sarah Simpkin Grayson, converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Here is a picture of Cornelian Street.
One thing I was hoping most that I could find on our trip to England was the elementary school where my grandmother, Mary Grayson Jones, and her siblings went to school. I couldn't find anything promising online before Kathy and I left for England so I had given up hope. But when we got to Blackburn and put in St. Gabriel's Church into the GPS, there it was! Just a block or so from Cornelian Street!
She attended St. Gabriel's Church of England Elementary School.
The first thing we noticed was the huge "for sale" sign on the outside of St. Gabriel's Church.
I was very excited to see if the door was open so we could have a look inside! This is the place where my grandmother, Mary Grayson, went to church when she was very young. There was also an elementary school held here and she attended school here as well.
Once inside, we were met by two very kind men who thought we were prospective buyers. They had purchased the church and were using it as a warehouse for their company. They are now hoping to sell it and move their company elsewhere. They were kind enough to drop what they were doing and make copies of an old picture of the church when it was still in use as a church and also made us a copy of a history of the church that had been given to them when they bought the place.
Here's what the front part of the chapel looked like when my grandmother, Mary Grayson, would have attended church here with her mother, Sarah Simpkin Grayson, older brother, George, and younger sister, Gertrude.
You can see the same archway and the folding doors which are kept closed now that it is a warehouse. That's Kathy on the left looking at the history of the church which we had just been given.
This is the main part of the church where the pews would have been and where school would have been held.
As we walked around the outside of the church, I imagined my grandma playing at recess with her classmates outside. It really was a unique and meaningful experience to be where my grandmother started her life. I had the thought that she knew where we were that day and was pleased that we were seeking out her roots.
The catch in the story, however, is that as Kathy started reading the history we'd been given as we drove away, it seems that this may NOT have been the church that my grandmother attended. The history is a bit confusing. But the church may have moved to Cornelian Street before my grandmother was old enough to attend school. So, though this may not be the place, I kind of have a gut feeling that it is. Or is that just because I WANT it to be?
