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Note: Taken from the Widnes Weekly News 6th May 1921
The death took place on Saturday, at the age of 64, of Mr. Charles Parker, who resided in Ditchfield Road, Hough Green. The deceased gentleman had been ailing for some time, but the end came very suddenly.
He was a native of Hough Green and had carried on the business of blacksmith for a number of years. He was an ardent Non-conformist. He contested Ditton Ward last November, but was defeated.
The funeral took place at Farnworth on Tuesday. Previous to the interment a short service was held in the Wesleyan Chapel at Hough Green, at which the Revs J.Stephenson and J.J.Hannah officiated.
The chief mourners included Messrs Harold, Harry and John Parker, sons, Messrs J.Parker, John Parker, S.Parker and A.Parker, brothers. Messrs J.Platt, A.Poulson and Foster, brothers-in-law: Mrs. Rycroft, Messrs W.Littler Brimelow, Freeman, Midwood, Roberts, Tenneson, H.Houghton, A.Poulson jun, W.Bawden, C.Bawden, W.Twiss and Wallace, members of the Masonic Equity Lodge, and a number of friends and acquaintances.
The bearers were:- Messrs G.Johns, G.L.Platt, W.Stead, and J.Taylor. Many beautiful floral tributes were sent.
The funeral arrangements were carried out by Messrs T and F Butler, Lacey Street, Widnes.
OBITUARY of Mr.CHARLES PARKER Taken from The Widnes Free Churchman
A brother of stainless honour and humility, a saint in the hierarchy of the skies.
Mr.Charles Parker has passed away from us. We deeply deplore his loss at this time when steadfast and devoted men are so much needed in the churches. His genial spirit and tireless activity will be much missed at Hough Green Where his energies had found congenial employment from youth upwards.
A powerful, muscular man he had not been accustomed to sickness, had indeeed never been ailing before, and not by a long final illness had public apprehension been prepared for his demise, hence his passing leaves us with a certain sence of vacuity.
So lately was he with us hale and strong, firm as the beaten anvil to the blow, his labours multitudinous a song to God`s high praise, the best he could bestow!. Large was his sacrifice of sacred toil which they who render hunger not nor thirst, deftly emmote each temper did he foil, each grace renew with rapture last and first.
Tried with the clangour of our worldly strife his boundless spitit soared to realms serene; his the ungathered Diadem of Life and apt equipment for the heavenly scene, for richer service which shall never cease in the white splenour of great words of peace.
Mr.Parker died on Saturday, 30th April 1921, Sixty Four years of age, and was buried at Widnes Cemetry on Tuesday, 3rd May. The funeral service, conducted by Rev. W.Stevenson, assisted by Rev. J.M.Hannah, was held at the Hough Green Wesleyan Chapel, the cortage calling there on the way to the place of interment. A large company of mourners assembled in token of sympathy, and their presence testified to the high esteem in which Mr.Parker was held in the district.
Addressing the congregation Mr,Stevenson spoke in appreciation of Mr.Parker`s personal qualities and his long and loyal attachment to the Wesleyan Church at Hough Green. He had filled, from time to time, every office in the Church and had done all things well. Perhaps his most distinguished services had been done in connection with the trust estate of the Church, of whose funds he had been treasurer for nearly twenty years, and in the Sunday School, of which he had been superintendent longer than the oldest inhabitant can remember.
Always a leader in the concerns of the Sunday School and Society no labour was too great or too trivial for his ardent, buyant spirit.
As lately as last November he was a candidate for Municipal honours, contesting the Ditton ward of the Borough of Widnes, but owing to a unfortunate misunderstanding he failed to carry the seat on the council.
As a man he was endowed with much force of character; unusually friendly in disposition, generous, courteous and practical. His interest surveyed a wider field than that which the narrow ambit of his own Chapel presented, he was seldom absent from functions held at theCircuit Chapel, and the quarterly Meeting would not have been properly constuted without his presence. The Free Church Council had no more loyal supporter nor dilligent attendant within its sphere of influence, and here his loss will be greatly regretted. His memorial on earth will be the remembrance of a friendly christian gentleman to whom your presence and your intercourse were one of the great joys of life. He splendidly loved you, and his Church and people, and his Saviour most of all.
My own personal memory carries me a little further:
"I remember, I remember
The house where he was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn."
I knew him when he was a little boy in his father`s house playing about with his sisters, Mrs .Andrew Poulson and Mrs. John Platt, and brothers too numerous to mention. In a family of 15 children he was the middle one. They lived in one of the houses which now belong to the Chapel Trust, the house next door to the Chapel. The building of the Chapel at Hough Green was due largely to the inittative of Mr.Parker`s father. He, together with Messrs Job and Peter Glover, of Cronton, and William Hartland and Thomas Whitby, of Widnes, used to hold open air services on Sunday afternoons and evenings on open space at the west end of the row of houses that stands opposite the Chapel, and when it stormed they had the use of the end house itself. Eventually an interview was obtained with the late Mr. Thomas Hazelhurst, soap manufacturer, of Runcorn, and he built the Chapel and presented it to the circuit in the year 1860.
The surroundings of Mr.Charles Parker`s early life were the kind that makes men.
It will be seen from this that Mr.Charles Parker was brought up in an atmosphere of thorough, well bred efficiency and it is no wonder therefore that he was so thoroughgoing in his work whether in the Church or in the world.
On the 29th May 1882 he married his beautiful bride and lived happily ever after: He would.
He has left behind, two daughters and three sons, one of whom is a local preacher, and the other two continuing their father`s business as smith and engineer at Hough Green; all enthusiastic workers in the Church, following the father`s footsteps.
The family exposition of religion is just, and right, and practical, combining order with piety, method with zeal and loving kindness with all; and this is surely in line with the highest traditions of Methodist practice.
One thinks of Browning`s lines:-
"I spake as I saw, I report as man may of God`s works,
All ` love, but all`s law. Joseph Robinson, J.P. Grove House, Widnes.
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