Taxal, Cheshire Genealogy

Guide to Taxal, Cheshire family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
TAXALL (St. James), is a parish, in the union and hundred of Macclesfield, North division of the county of Chester; containing, with the township of Yeardsley with Whaley, it is 4 miles W from Chapel-en-le-Frith. The church, with the exception of the tower, was taken down and rebuilt on a larger scale in 1825. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

St James Taxal is an ancient parish on the Cheshire /Derbyshire border and includes Whaley Bridge, Yeardsley and Whaley. Although historically part of Cheshire as will be seen the hamlet is now part of Derbyshire.

The church stands on a slope above the River Goyt, in the hamlet of Taxal, which is within the Peak District National Park, approximately one mile from Whaley Bridge. There has been a church at Taxal since the 12th century. The first recorded rector was in 1287. Part of the tower is very old and possibly 12th century. The church itself has been enlarged and restored mostly in the 17th and 19th centuries. The township of Yeardsley-cum-Whaley, Cheshire, was part of the ancient parish of Taxal. The township adopted the Local Government Act 1858 and formed a local board to govern the town. Under the Local Government Act 1894 this became Yeardsley-cum-Whaley Urban District. On the Derbyshire side of the River Goyt, the parish of Fernilee was included in Chapel en le Frith Rural District.

In 1974 the Local Government Act 1972 came into force, abolishing all urban and rural districts in England and Wales, and replacing them with non-metropolitan districts. Whaley Bridge became part of the district of High Peak, with a successor parish formed for the area of the urban district.

Church records
Taxal parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies

Non-Conformist Records:

Here is a list of parish registers on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two excellent Internet sites with birth, marriage and death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

 * Macclesfield (1837–1937)
 * Cheshire East

Poor Law Unions

 * Macclesfield Poor Law Union

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

See also England Cheshire Probate Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

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

Websites
Taxal on GENUKI