Ardwick St Thomas, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
ARDWICK, a township, forming two ecclesiastical districts, in the parish and borough of Manchester, union of Chorlton, hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 1 mile (S. E. by E.) from Manchester; containing 9906 inhabitants. This is a wealthy suburb of Manchester, comprising 496 acres, and chiefly inhabited by merchants of that town. For ecclesiastical purposes the township is divided into two districts, the Manchester and Birmingham railway being the line of separation: this railway is here joined by the Manchester and Sheffield line. The railway called the Ardwick Junction is a third line connected with the township, measuring 1¾ mile in length, and reaching from Ardwick to the Ashton branch of the Manchester and Leeds railway. The living of St. Thomas' is a perpetual curacy; net income, £294; patrons, the Dean and Canons of Manchester. The church has been twice enlarged during the present incumbency, viz. in 1831 and 1836, at a cost in both instances of £2000, the building being lengthened at each end, and a tower erected in a campanile form: the interior is neat, and the altar ornamented by an original picture, by Bassano, of the Presentation in the Temple, the gift of William Townend, Esq., late of Ardwick. The living of St. Silas' is also a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Five Trustees. The church was built in 1841, at a cost of £4564; it is in the Norman style, with a tower and spire. The Wesleyans and Independents have places of worship; and there is a public cemetery of eight acres, opened in 1838, at a cost of £18,000. In both districts are excellent schools.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 66-69. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50758 Date accessed: 25 June 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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http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Chorlton 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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