Padiham, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapel History
Padiham was created a parochial chapelry by 1573 from, and lying within the boundaries of Whalley Ancient Parish.

Other places in the parish include: Hapton, Simonstone, Higham with West Close Booth, and Higham.

The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley.

Here is an 1848 historical perspective of Padiham by the topographer, Samuel A. Lewis:

"PADIHAM, a township with a chapel, in the parish of Whalley, union of Burnley, Higher division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire, 3 miles west by north of Burnley. The parochial chapelry of Padiham comprises the townships or places of Padiham, Dunnockshaw, Hapton, Heyhouses, Higham, Read, Simonstone, and Westclose Booth. The chapel, dedicated to St. Leonard, was partly rebuilt in 1776. At Heyhouses is another chapel within the parish, built in 1841.

There are places of worship for Wesleyans, Unitarians, and Baptists."

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.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Online Records
 Church of England 

Padiham chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Whalley to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Padiham and comprising the whole ancient parish of Whalley to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the WHALLEY ST MARY PARISH page.

Poor Law Unions
Burnley Poor Law Union,Lancashire

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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain