Life Along the Lancaster Canal
Robert Stirzaker and Elizabeth Ormand
The story of Robert Stirzaker and Elizabeth Ormand is a story deeply rooted in the Lancashire countryside, the villages around Lancaster and, above all, the waterways that connected them.
For more than fifty years their family moved through places such as Slyne, Claughton, Burton, Ellel, Galgate and Glasson Dock. These were not simply addresses written in census records. Each place had its own character, its own industries and its own part to play in the family’s story.
Robert’s working life followed the changing economy of the area. He began as a farm servant and labourer, became a canal bank ranger, later a lock keeper, and eventually a canal foreman for the railway company. His work meant that the family lived close to the waterways for much of their married life.
Together, Robert and Elizabeth raised eleven children, but three of them died young: Isabella, Joseph and Thomas. By 1911, Elizabeth recorded that eight of their eleven children were still living.
Their story is therefore one of work, movement, family life, industrial change and loss.
Robert Stirzaker – A Life of Work and Water
Robert Stirzaker was born on 11 October 1855 at Cabus, Lancashire, the son of John Stirzaker and Betty Tomlinson. He was baptised at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Garstang on 23 December 1855.
His childhood was spent in the countryside around Cabus and Garstang. In 1861 he was living at a private cottage in Cabus, aged only five.
By the time he was fifteen, Robert was working.
The 1871 census places him at Batty Hill, Cockerham, where he was a farm servant working for William Lupton, a farmer with 168 acres.
This was a very different Lancashire from the industrial towns further east. Cockerham and the surrounding countryside were dominated by farms, fields and rural communities. A young farm servant could expect hard physical work from an early age, with daily life governed by the agricultural seasons.
Robert’s experience as a farm worker would remain relevant to his later life. He would spend much of his working career outdoors, but eventually his workplace would change from fields and farms to the banks, locks and wharves of the canal.
Slyne – Where Robert and Elizabeth Began Their Married Life
By 1881 Robert and Elizabeth were living in Slyne.
Robert was recorded as a labourer, while Elizabeth had grown up in the same general area. Elizabeth was born in Slyne on 9 June 1856, the daughter of Thomas Ormand and Elizabeth Clark.
Elizabeth’s own childhood had been spent at Orman’s Cottage on Main Road, Slyne. At fourteen she was working as a cook in Lancaster, living at 2 New Street in the household of William Watson, a general medical practitioner.
Robert and Elizabeth married on 10 December 1878 at Holy Trinity Church, Bolton-le-Sands.
By 1881 they were living in Slyne as a young married couple.
Slyne was ideally placed between Lancaster and the surrounding countryside. It was a rural village but within easy reach of Lancaster, the canal system and the developing transport network.
This was the beginning of a marriage that would last nearly fifty years.
Claughton – The Family Begins to Grow
By 1883 Robert and Elizabeth had moved to Claughton, near Garstang. Robert was now working as a canal bank ranger, and it was here that several of their children were born.
Their first child, Ellen, had been born in Slyne in 1881. Robert Clark followed in 1883, and then Isabella in February 1885.
Claughton was a small rural community near Garstang, surrounded by farmland. Yet Robert’s occupation shows that the canal had become increasingly important in the family’s working life.
A canal bank ranger had an outdoor and physically demanding job. The canal banks, towpaths and waterway had to be inspected and maintained. Problems with banks, water levels and the condition of the canal could affect the movement of boats and therefore the movement of goods.
For Robert, the canal was becoming a career rather than simply another form of employment.
Isabella – The Little Girl Who Lived for Eleven Weeks
It was in Claughton that Isabella Stirzaker was born on 1 February 1885.
She was baptised at Garstang on 12 April.
But Isabella’s life was heartbreakingly short.
On 17 April 1885, she died at Claughton, aged only eleven weeks.
The cause of death was recorded as: Convulsions – 1 day.
Her father Robert was present at her death and acted as the informant.
She was buried at Garstang on 20 April 1885.
For Robert and Elizabeth, this must have been a devastating experience. Isabella was not simply a name on a later family tree. She was a tiny daughter who had been born only eleven weeks earlier.
Her death also reminds us of the vulnerability of babies in the nineteenth century. Medical knowledge and treatment were very different from today, and illnesses or sudden convulsions could take a child with frightening speed.
Burton – Life Beside the Canal
By 1891 the family had moved to Canal Cottage, Burton, Westmorland.
Robert was recorded as a canal labourer, aged 35, and the household contained eight people.
The location of their home tells us something about Robert’s working life.
This was not a family living somewhere merely because it was convenient. Their home was connected directly with Robert’s employment.
Living at a canal cottage would have brought the family into the everyday world of canal transport.
Children growing up there would have been familiar with boats, towpaths, horses and the movement of cargo. The canal was both workplace and part of the landscape around their home.
The Lancaster Canal itself had been created to connect communities and industries and to provide a reliable transport route for goods. In the wider Lancaster area, canals became increasingly important during the Industrial Revolution.
Ellel – Canal Cottages and a Growing Family
By 1892 Robert and Elizabeth were back in Ellel.
The family would spend several years moving between Ellel and Galgate.
By 1901 they were living at Canal Cottage, Ellel, and there were now eleven people in the household. Robert, aged 45, was recorded as a canal bank ranger.
Imagine the size and activity of that household.
Robert and Elizabeth had nine of their children living with them at this stage, ranging from young children to teenagers.
The older children would increasingly have been expected to help around the home, while the younger children grew up surrounded by brothers and sisters.
The canal would have been a familiar part of their childhood landscape.
Galgate – Canals, Mills and Industry
Galgate became particularly significant to the Stirzaker family.
The village was situated on the River Conder and the Lancaster Canal, just south of Lancaster.
During the nineteenth century it was also an important industrial community.
One of the most important developments was the Galgate Silk Mill.
The mill began life as a water-powered corn mill but was converted to silk spinning in 1792. It became one of the earliest mechanical silk-spinning mills in England.
By the nineteenth century, silk spinning had become an important part of Galgate’s economy.
Coal for the mills could arrive by canal from Glasson Dock, demonstrating how closely the different parts of the local transport and industrial system were connected.
This industrial landscape would have been very familiar to the Stirzaker children.
And one of them became part of it.
Joseph Stirzaker – From Silk Mill to Farm Labourer
Joseph Stirzaker was born on 6 September 1887 at Claughton, but part of his childhood was spent at Burton.
His education provides another useful clue to the family’s movements.
Joseph attended Burton Morewood National School, Burton, Westmorland, with a school record dated 13 October 1890.
He later attended Ellel Mixed School, Ellel, Lancashire, from 23 September 1895 until 1901, having previously attended an infant school.
His education therefore followed the family’s movements from Burton to Ellel.
This is particularly valuable because it gives us something beyond census addresses. It shows Joseph as a child actually experiencing these communities – attending school, learning alongside local children and moving schools when the family moved.
By 1901, however, Joseph was no longer simply a schoolboy.
At thirteen he was recorded as a silk spinner at the Silk Mill in Galgate.
His occupation connects the family directly with Galgate’s industrial history. The silk mills were substantial workplaces, with machinery, water power and later steam power. The Galgate mills developed over the nineteenth century and became an important local source of employment.
Joseph’s working life later changed direction.
By February 1909 he was living around Catterall Lane, Garstang, working as a farm labourer.
But his life was soon to end.
On 28 February 1909, Joseph died at Catterall. He was only 21 years old. His cause of death was: Influenza, Pneumonia (6 days), Cardiac failure.
He was buried at St John the Evangelist Church, Ellel, on 7 March 1909.
Influenza and pneumonia were serious illnesses before the development of modern antibiotics and medical treatment. Joseph’s death at only 21 would have been another terrible loss for Robert and Elizabeth.
He had already experienced several different worlds of work – the silk mill and the farm – but his adult life had barely begun.
Thomas Stirzaker – A Boy Lost to Enteric Fever
Thomas Stirzaker was born on 13 January 1890 at Burton, Westmorland.
Like several of his brothers and sisters, he grew up in canal cottages.
In 1891 he was living at Canal Cottage, Burton, and by 1901 he was at Canal Cottage, Ellel.
Thomas died at Canal Wharf, Galgate, on 5 January 1904. He was only 13 years old. His cause of death was: Enteric fever.
His father Robert was present at his death.
Thomas was buried at St John the Evangelist Church, Ellel, on 7 January 1904.
Enteric fever, usually associated with typhoid fever, was a serious infectious disease linked to contaminated food and water.
For a family living and working so closely around canals, wharves and densely occupied communities, infectious disease was one of the ever-present dangers of the period.
Thomas’s death must have been particularly painful because he was still a child.
He was buried only a few days after Christmas and just six days before his fourteenth birthday.
Three Children Lost
By 1911, Elizabeth’s census return recorded that she and Robert had had eleven children, eight of whom were still living and three had died.
Those three were:
Isabella Stirzaker 1885-1885
Died aged 11 weeks.
Cause of death: Convulsions – 1 day.
Thomas Stirzaker 1890-1904
Died aged 13 years.
Cause of death: Enteric fever.
Joseph Stirzaker 1887-1909
Died aged 21 years.
Cause of death: Influenza, Pneumonia (6 days), Cardiac failure.
The dates show something that a family tree can easily hide.
These were not simply three missing names.
Elizabeth lost a baby daughter, a teenage son and then a young adult son.
Robert was present at the deaths of Isabella and Thomas, and the family would have carried those memories with them for years afterwards.
Glasson Dock – Where Robert Became a Lock Keeper
By 1911, the family had reached Glasson Dock.
Robert was now living at Lock Cottage and working as a lock keeper for the Lancaster Canal Company.
This was a significant stage in his working life.
Glasson Dock had transformed what had originally been a small farming and fishing settlement.
The dock opened in 1787, created because larger ships had difficulty navigating the River Lune to reach Lancaster. The Glasson Branch Canal was constructed between 1823 and 1825, linking the dock with the Lancaster Canal at Galgate.
This created an important transport connection:
Sea → Glasson Dock → Glasson Branch Canal → Galgate → Lancaster Canal → Inland Lancashire
That network brought goods inland and connected the port with the wider region.
For Robert, it provided employment.
For the Stirzaker children, it became home.
Life at Lock Cottage
The address Lock Cottage is particularly evocative.
Robert was not simply a man who happened to live near the canal. He was responsible for working on it.
A lock keeper had to operate and maintain the locks through which boats passed between different water levels. It was a job requiring knowledge of the canal, responsibility and constant attention to the movement of boats.
In 1911 Robert was recorded as a lock keeper for the Lancaster Canal Company.
By 1921, his employer was recorded as the London & North Western Railway, reflecting the changing ownership and administration of the canal system.
The railway had become an increasingly important competitor to canal transport, but the two systems were also closely connected. At Glasson, the railway reached the dock in the 1880s, bringing another means of moving people and goods into the area. The railway connection opened in 1883.
Robert’s career therefore spanned a period of major transport change.
He had begun his working life in agriculture.
He then worked on the canal.
Eventually his canal employment became connected with the railway company.
Glasson Dock – A Working Community
The Glasson Dock landscape around the Stirzakers would have been a fascinating mixture of water, ships, warehouses, canal boats, railway traffic and countryside.
The dock itself was surrounded by the River Lune estuary and marshes. The modern conservation-area description still identifies the contrast between the industrial dock and the surrounding open landscape.
The village had grown from the old farming settlement known as Old Glasson.
By the nineteenth century it had developed into a busy port community, with a church, shipyard, customs facilities and other buildings associated with maritime trade. Christ Church was built in 1840 beside the Glasson Branch Canal.
The Stirzakers were therefore living in a community where farming traditions existed alongside industrial and maritime employment.
That helps explain the variety of occupations found among the family.
James Ormand Stirzaker – A Life at Glasson Dock
The youngest of Robert and Elizabeth’s children was James Ormand Stirzaker, born at Ellel on 24 January 1898.
His school record provides a wonderful little glimpse into the family’s movements.
In 1908, when James left Ellel Mixed School, the reason recorded was: “Gone to Glasson Dock.”
By 1911, the family was living at Lock Cottage, Glasson Dock.
James remained connected with the area throughout his life.
In 1921, aged 23, he was single and recorded as out of work, having previously worked as a sawyer for the North Western Saw Mills Company at Glasson Dock.
By 1939 he was living at Brows Fold, Glasson Dock, aged 41, single, and working as a harbour and dock gateman.
His working life therefore reflected the changing industries of the dock.
He had worked with timber as a sawyer and later worked directly within the harbour and dock environment.
James died in Lancaster in March 1956, aged 58, and was buried at Christ Church, Glasson Dock.
Although we cannot know from the records why James never married, his life appears to have remained closely tied to the Glasson Dock community.
Elizabeth’s Final Years
Elizabeth spent the later years of her life at Lock Cottage, Glasson Dock.
By 1921 she was 65 and recorded simply as carrying out home duties.
After raising eleven children and experiencing the deaths of three of them, her life had entered a quieter stage.
But she was now suffering from serious illness.
Elizabeth died at Royal Lancaster Infirmary on 23 March 1926, aged 69.
Her cause of death was: Carcinoma of the ovary, carcinoma of the rectum and colostomy.
Her memorial describes her as the “dearly loved wife” of Robert Stirzaker of Glasson Dock.
She was buried at St John the Evangelist Church, Ellel, on 27 March 1926.
Her death brought to an end nearly fifty years of marriage.
Robert’s Final Years
After Elizabeth’s death, Robert eventually left Lock Cottage.
By February 1934 he was living at 20 The Crescent, Galgate, where he was described as a canal foreman for the railway company.
He died there on 26 February 1934, aged 78.
His cause of death was: Cerebral thrombosis and arterio sclerosis.
He was buried at St John the Evangelist Church, Ellel, on 1 March 1934.
His memorial remembers him as “late of Glasson Dock”, and records his age as 78. It ends with the words:
“His end was peace.”
Robert’s probate was granted to his son James Ormand Stirzaker, a labourer, with effects of £197 11s.
The Places That Shaped Their Lives
When the Stirzaker family is looked at as a whole, the places on the census records begin to form a journey.
Cabus
Robert’s childhood began here, in the rural countryside around Garstang.
Cockerham
As a teenager Robert worked as a farm servant here, experiencing the agricultural life of nineteenth-century Lancashire.
Slyne
This was Elizabeth’s childhood home and later the place where Robert and Elizabeth began their married life.
Claughton
Here Robert’s occupation changed towards canal work, and several of the children were born.
Burton
The family lived at Canal Cottage, showing how closely Robert’s work was tied to the waterways.
Ellel
Ellel became one of the family’s most important areas. Their children attended the local school, several were baptised and buried at St John the Evangelist Church, and the family lived in canal cottages here.
Galgate
Galgate brought the family into the heart of a changing industrial community. The silk mills, canal wharf and River Conder were all part of the environment around them.
Glasson Dock
This eventually became the family’s most important home. Robert became a lock keeper, the family lived at Lock Cottage, and several of the children found work connected with the dock and harbour.
Galgate – again
Robert eventually returned to Galgate for his final years, dying at 20 The Crescent in 1934.
A Family Living Through a Changing Lancashire
The Stirzaker story takes place during a fascinating period of local history.
When Robert was born in 1855, Lancashire was already being transformed by industrialisation.
By the time he married Elizabeth in 1878, railways were expanding rapidly, canals were still essential for transporting heavy goods, and textile manufacturing provided employment throughout the region.
Galgate’s silk industry was well established. The first silk mill had been created there in 1792, and the industry continued developing throughout the nineteenth century.
At Glasson Dock, meanwhile, the port and canal had created a remarkable transport system connecting the sea with inland Lancashire.
The railway arrived at Glasson in the 1880s, adding another form of transport to an already busy landscape.
Robert’s working life therefore mirrors these changes.
He started with the land.
He moved to the canal.
He became a lock keeper.
And eventually his work became connected with the railway company.
The Children Who Were Lost and Those Who Never Married
Robert and Elizabeth had eleven children:
Ellen, Robert Clark, Isabella, Sarah Ann, Joseph, William, Thomas, Salome Elizabeth, Bella, Hannah Gertrude and James Ormand.
Three died before their parents:
Isabella – 1885, aged 11 weeks
Thomas – 1904, aged 13
Joseph – 1909, aged 21
These losses would have remained part of the family’s story even when later generations knew little about them.
Other children lived into adulthood, but not every branch of the family followed the expected path of marriage and children.
James Ormand Stirzaker remained single in the records supplied and continued to live around Glasson Dock. His life was nevertheless full of work – first as a sawyer and later as a harbour and dock gateman.
This is an important reminder when researching family history.
A person who never married did not necessarily have an unimportant life.
They still worked, contributed to their family, formed relationships within their community and experienced the events of their time.
Remembering the Stirzakers
Perhaps the strongest thread running through this family is water.
Robert’s childhood began among the fields of Cabus and Cockerham.
His working life eventually brought him to the canal.
His family lived in canal cottages.
His children grew up around Galgate’s wharves and mills.
And finally they settled at Glasson Dock, where the canal met the harbour and the River Lune.
For Robert, the canal was a career.
For Elizabeth, it became the setting for much of her married life.
For their children, it was the landscape of childhood.
And for the family historian today, these places provide the clues that bring the family back to life.
The census records give us the addresses.
The occupations tell us how they earned their living.
The churches tell us where they marked important moments.
The death certificates tell us how some of their lives ended.
And the history of the places tells us something about the world they were living in.
Together, they allow us to imagine the Stirzaker family not simply as names on a family tree, but as a real Lancashire family – walking the towpaths, working the fields, entering the mills, living beside the locks and watching boats pass through Glasson Dock.