Ribchester, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Guide to Ribchester, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records. View a "List of Chapelries in the Parish of Ribchester"

Parish History
RIBCHESTER St Wilfrid, a parish, in the union of Preston, partly in the hundred of Amounderness, and partly in the Lower division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire containing the chapelry of Longridge, and the townships of Alston, Dilworth, Dutton, and Hothersall, 6 miles north by northwest of Blackburn. At Longridge is a separate incumbency (chapel of ease) that was established by the year 1760. There are a place of worship for Independents, and two chapels for Roman Catholics, the latter at Dutton, was built about a century ago.

St Wilfrid's dates from the 13th century, built on a site close to that of a Roman fort, Bremetennacum. A chapel and porch were added in the 14th century. A tower was added to the west in the late 15th century. In the 16th century, the roofs were removed in order to increase the height of the chancel walls and new windows were added to the aisle wall. Major repairs to the building took place in 1685–6 and 1711. A west gallery was added in 1736. The church underwent restoration in 1881 that included the rebuilding of the north wall of the chancel.

In November 1966, it was designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage. The Grade I listing is for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important". St Wilfrid's is an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn, the Archdeaconry of Lancaster and the Deanery of Preston.

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

Online Records

 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index
 * 1603 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index and images

Ribchester St. Wilfrid parish registers and those registers of all of its smaller chapelries lying within its boundaries have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following websites and ranges of years:

Original Records
The Lancashire Record Office at Bow Lane, Preston PR2 1RE, holds the original parish registers in its vast collections. Contact their website for contact information.

The Family History Library has microfilmed the parish registers and Bishop's transcripts of Ribchester St. Wilfrid parish for the years 1598-1900. These films are available for ordering/circulating and researching at any one of its satellite FamilySearch Centers worldwide.

Non Conformist Records

 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions
Preston 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