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This page provides an extended profile of Maria Powell.

She was born in Wombridge - Oakengates, Shropshire in 1874 - the third of nine children. Her father was an iron puddler. By the age of 16 she had left home and was working at Mercer's Farm, south-west of Heywood in Lancashire as a general domestic servant.

Following marriage to Samuel Ogden in 1892 she moved to Canal Street in Hopwood and had the first of four children. Until her death, Samuel's widowed mother Alice also lived with them. Into the new century the family moved to a new home at 17 Alexander Street, Hopwood where she had her final child [Dorothy Alice] and would live the remainder of her life there.

Following the death of Samuel in late 1941 she lived on with her daughter Emily at their home in Hopwood. This period saw the birth of the first of her twelve great-grandchildren - though five of these would be born after her death in early 1958.

The photo shows Maria holding her third great-grandchild surrounded by her daughter Alice Grundy [nee Ogden] and grand-daughter Dorothy Murray [nee Grundy] .

This was a generation who witnessed significant social change and two world wars. Life at home would never have been easy with a large family living in a 2 bedroomed house and an outside toilet. In the late 1920's they were joined by the Grundy family for a few years. She then lost William in early 1934 to a work accident.

Unusually there are a large number of photographs from 1900 onwards - with credit going to Maria and/or Samuel for this valuable record.

She maintained strong links with her family back in Shropshire and elsewhere - so much that her grand children were frequent visitors there - as well as St Bees in Cumberland. She was generally regarded as someone who was a guide and a comfort by members of her family.