1855 Map showing Mark Staniforth as tenent to the Never Fear Wheel at Ford.

Mark Staniforth was baptised at St. Peter & St Paul's Eckington on July 31st, 1803. His father was John Staniforth, a Sickle Maker, his mother was Elizabeth Fox.

In the will of his father, John Staniforth, written in 1835, Mark is described as being 'Mark Staniforth, Sickle Maker of Bramley Moore in the parish of Eckington'

On the 1841 Census, Mark is still living with his parents, John and Elizabeth, as well as siblings Joseph, Alice, Joshua and Mary.

That same year, Mark married Ann Hasslehurst in Sheffield. The marriage was however short lived, as Ann passes away in 1845.







Mark and Ann appear to have only had two children:

  • John Staniforth born in 1842, he would go onto marry Mary Shephard and live in Dronfield.
  • Thomas Staniforth, who dies unmarried in 1887 in Eckington.

On the 1851 Census Mark Staniforth is listed as a Widower, with his birthplace Troway, Derbyshire (Eckington parish), with his two sons John and Thomas, also from Troway. His occupation at this time is Sickle Maker. There is also a Servant in the household, Mary Wragg.

John Staniforth, son of Mark Staniforth

By the 1861 Census Mark has relocated to his sister Alice's house in Unstone. By this time Alice had married Christopher Rotherham, another Sickle Manufacturer and farmer from Eckington. Also in the household is Granddaughter Ann Helliwell, the daughter of Alice and Chirstopher's daughter Frances Rotherham and her husband Thomas Helliwell.

It is uncertain why Mark was forced to live with his sister and brother-in-law, his son Thomas is residing with his uncle John and his wife Elizabeth Carnelly at the time of the 1861 Census. Mark passes away in 1870 in Dronfield.