Tributes have been paid to a hardworking parishioner who ‘wasn’t limited by age’ and devoted herself to her family until she passed away at the age of 104.
Annie Ashworth passed away at her home in Waterfoot from frailty on December 18. The beloved mother-of-one worked as a cook and housekeeper for Kearns Mill’s Glen House, a hostel for Irish Women in Cowpe.
Annie also secured a job at footwear factory JH Hirst in Waterfoot and was Parishioner of St Peter’s Newchurch from the mid 1950s until the late 1990s. Her daughter Margaret said: “She was kind and caring and always wanted people to do well.
“She was very devoted to her granddaughter, Abigail and promoted education to us and she had a strong work ethic. She recited poetry really well and knew the multiplication table backwards.
“She had a vegetarian diet and took vitamins. She never really thought about age and she wasn’t limited by it. To her, age was just a number.”
Annie Ashworth, of Waterfoot, with her granddaughter Abigail
Annie was born to parents Thomas and Annie and raised in County Mayo, Ireland where she worked as a house keeper from the age of 12. She left the family farm to find work in England in the 1950s, travelling by ferry and landing in Liverpool where she then set off to Lincolnshire to meet friends.
Annie worked as a housekeeper in different locations including Lincolnshire and Manchester. She met her late husband Thomas at St Peter’s, Newchurch where they got married in 1958.
Annie loved dancing with Thomas at The Astoria in Rawtenstall and they enjoyed seaside holidays together in the UK and in Ireland. Later, she worked as a housekeeper for the late Parish Priest of St. Peter’s Newchurch, Rev Father Duffy.
Annie Ashworth and her husband Thomas got married at St. Peters Newchurch in 1958
She enjoyed visiting her family in Ireland and she would even travel in her wheelchair on the ferry. The devoted grandmother-of-one liked knitting as well as cooking, especially Irish stew and soda bread.
Annie inherited her love for music from her Irish heritage and family who played musical instruments and she also had a go at playing the piano and accordion. Annie was sister to Jim, Tom, John and Ellen.
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