We don’t know what made Harry Crickmore, a farm worker in Kirby Cane, Norfolk, come to Bradford in the 1870’s. In 1871, aged 19, he was working with his elder brother Charles and their father. Presumably on the farm where his father was bailiff. His younger brother Jarvis was living and working at another farm nearby. His mother and sister were “laundresses”, taking in washing at home.
They sound like a typical agricultural family living in fairly comfortable circumstances. Maybe too comfortable – perhaps young Harry was attracted by the bright lights of the big city!
Whatever the reason, he came to Bradford, where he met and married Catherine Brickley. She was a second-generation Bradfordian, the daughter of Irish immigrants. By 1881, he had a job as a gas stoker which he kept until his untimely death at the age of 37. He left five children, one of whom (my Grandad) he never saw.
Father of Thomas Jarvis and son of Henry and Eliza Crickmore
Born in 1852, baptised Harry Crickmore on 12 February 1854 in Kirby Cane, Norfolk (at the same time as his newborn brother Jarvis.)
Married Catherine Brickley in early 1877
Died in mid-1889 before the birth of his son Thomas Jarvis in the December of that year.