Mary Ingham

MARY Wright Ingham, who turned her love of history into a series of books about her village, has died aged 87.

Her work began after a life- threatening illness forced her to give up her career in nursing and she started researching the parish records of St Helen’s Church, Sandal, near Wakefield, along with a friend Brenda Andrassy.

This eventually led to them publishing the records in 1978 as a short book, Sandal Magna: A Yorkshire Parish and its People.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They continued to research the village records at West Yorkshire Archives which led to two more works, Sandal Magna: Another Look Back, in 1983, and Sandal Magna: Poverty and Prosperity in the 19th Century in 1988.

Mrs Ingham illustrated the books with pictures from a substantial collection going back to 1890 that she gathered over the years, many having been given to her by people who attended lectures that she gave during her research.

In an indirect way, her father also contributed to her research because, as a local dairyman he also knew many people in Sandal and a lot of them helped in giving material.

She also spent a lot of time working on her own family history, and on her father’s.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mrs Ingham had a strong streak of perseverance and despite suffering from ill health most of her adult life she never let it get in her way.

She was born in Altrincham, in Cheshire, the only child of Harry and Lillian Metcalf. Her father was a confectioner and when she was four they moved to Sandal after he bought a business on Busy Corner, Barnsley Road.

She was educated at Sandal Endowed School and Thornes House School. When she left at 15 she went to Manchester Royal Infirmary to train as a nurse before returning to Wakefield to work as a nurse and midwife.

In 1940 during the Second World War the family home on Barnsley Road received a direct hit from a bomb, and was destroyed. At the time her parents were out and she was training in Manchester where they nursed many Germans, but she never held it against them that their home had been destroyed. It was rebuilt eight years later.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mrs Ingham’s main interest was history and antiques and she was a member of Wakefield Historical Society. She was also a member of the Mothers’ Union at Sandal Parish Church, and in Inner Wheel as he husband was a Rotarian.

She married her husband John in 1950, and he died seven years ago. She is survived by her son Richard and grandchildren Katherine, Louise, Dominic and Rory. She was due to become a great grandmother a week after she died.

                    

                  

Related topics: