John Noble (the contributors great-grandfather) did a lot of building in
Rishton. This included many of the terraced houses and apparently the school
of which he was a Governor. He was also something of authority at the
church on which he also did some building work, where there was also a family
pew. The family had a dalmation dog who was always included in group
photographs and which John Noble often walked down into Rishton. He may
possibly have built the ‘old’ police station. They firstly lived in
Harwood Road (numbers 9 and 11 which were originally all one house) and
Noble’s Mason’s Yard was behind them where I remember there were some garages
when I was a child. There are photographs of the Mason’s Yard kept at
the library.
John married Sara(h) Shaw and they had about 11 children but 3 of them
died. The surviving Noble children were:
Albert, Arthur, Edith, Frederick, Marie, Maurice, Minnie and Thomas
Albert Noble married Annie and they had 4 sons: James, John (Jack),
Geoffrey and Dennis. Albert built the houses on The Esplanade.
Arthur and Marie never married or had any children. They were both
schoolteachers and shared a house together at 2 The Esplanade (the house was
called ‘Mayfield’.).
Edith married and also lived on the Esplanade a couple of doors up from
Arthur and Marie. I am not sure if there were any children or not.
Maurice married and had a son called Maurice, but not sure if he had any
brothers or sisters as well. Maurice junior married Marjorie and they
had a son and daughter Peter and Glenys. For a while we lived next door
to one another, as they moved into 13 Station Road.
Couldn’t remember anything at all about Frederick, Minnie and Thomas,
except that I think Minnie was a milliner and had a hat shop but not in
Rishton, possibly somewhere like Accrington.
My uncle, James (known as Jim) Noble married Eileen and they had two
daughters Betty and Joyce. They moved away to Norfolk. I think
only Betty is alive now.
My Uncle John (known as Jack) Noble had no children and did not marry
until much later in life. He was in the RAF then lived at 69 Blackburn
Road. He was very smart, a keen golfer, good dancer and spent a lot of
his time at Rishton Golf Club. If not playing then at its functions.
He eventually married a lady called Mita. Both are now deceased.
My father, Geoffrey Noble, married Doreen Carrodus and they had a daughter
Susan (me!!). We lived for a very short while in Sands Close, then
moved to 11 Station Road. Sadly my father died aged 32 of a very rare
motor neurone disease. My mother remarried a ‘southener’ and we moved
away to Middlesex. My step-father and mother are both deceased but my
half-sister, Lisa, and I live quite near to one another in Banbury,
Oxfordshire. I have two sons, James and Christopher, and she has two
daughters Megan and Sophie.
My uncle, Dennis Noble, married Marian. They had 3 children,
Michael, Lesley and John. Sadly my Auntie Marian also died whilst very
young and shortly after the birth of their third child. The family once
lived in Peter Street but then moved out of Rishton for a time.
However, after my Auntie Marian died, Uncle Dennis and the 3 children moved
back to Rishton to be next door to Grandma (Annie Noble) who lived at 11
Harwood Road. Uncle Dennis still lives at 9 Harwood Road. He
remarried a lady called Christine and had two daughters Kate and Helen.
Michael has no children , Lesley has two sons, Stephen and Christopher, and
also lives in Rishton. John has one son, also named John to preserve
the family tradition of there always being a ‘John’ in the family and is the
last male Noble in this branch of the family who will carry on the family
name. Kate has two daughters, Robyn and Holly and Helen has one son Niall.
Susan White ((nee Noble) via Email)