Walsden, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
WALSDEN, an ecclesiastical parish, in the parochial chapelry and poor-law union of Todmorden, parish of Rochdale, hundred of Salford, S. division of Lancashire, 5 miles (N. E.) from Rochdale; containing 3383 inhabitants. It lies on the road from Todmorden to Rochdale, and comprises 3398 acres, of which the soil is various, a large part moorland and pasture. The population is chiefly employed in factories, and there are also coal-mines and stone-quarries. The Rochdale canal and the Manchester and Leeds railway pass through. Todmorden and Littleborough are about equidistant from the village, in which it is contemplated to establish a post-office, owing to the increasing importance of the place. The district of Walsden was constituted in July 1845, under the act 6th and 7th Victoria, cap. 37; and in 1848, on the consecration of the church, became a parish conformably with the provisions of that act. The edifice is dedicated to St. Peter, and is in the early English style, having a nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower and spire 150 feet in height. A parochial schoolhouse, with a steep pitched roof, was completed in June 1848. Both buildings stand on the Henshaw estate, the property of John Crossley, of Scaitcliffe, Esq., M.A., who kindly presented the sites. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Crown and the Bishop of Manchester, alternately; income, £150.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 444-449. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51372 Date accessed: 03 August 2010.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
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Census records
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Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Lancashire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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