Melling, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

See A List of Chapelries in Melling Parish



Parish History
Melling St Wilfrid (formerly St Peter) near Hornby is an Ancient Parish in the county of Lancashire.

Other places in the parish include: Botton, Melling with Wrayton, Wrayton, Wennington, and Roeburndale. It should not be confused with Melling (near Liverpool), Lancashire in the same county.

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 by the topographer Samuel A. Lewis on this parish:

"MELLING (St. Peter), a parish, in the hundred of Lonsdale south of the Sands, N. division of the county of Lancaster; containing, with the two chapelries of Arkholme with Cawood, and Hornby, and the townships of Farleton, Roeburndale, Wennington, and Wray with Botton, 2039 inhabitants, of whom 195 are in the township of Melling with Wrayton, 11 miles (N. by E.) from Lancaster. In the Conqueror's survey, Mellinge, Hornebi, and Wennigetun, are placed in Yorkshire, as constituting one manor, in which Vlf, whose name is perpetuated in that of Wolfa Crag, had nine and a half carucates of land. The earliest record in which the parish is subsequently mentioned, is the charter of Roger de Poictou, who gave the church of Melling to his newly-founded priory of Lancaster. The parish is bounded on the south-east by the Yorkshire portion of the forest of Bowland, and is ten miles in length, and five in breadth, comprising 14,591 acres. It is watered by several rivers, the principal of which is the Lune, which, sometimes swelling into high floods, commits great damage by overflowing the flat holmes or low grounds adjacent to its banks. That portion of the parish to the west of this river is marked by fertile eminences, till, approaching Burton-in-Kendal, it runs into high, arid, limestone ridges. The portion stretching from the Greta river to the Wenning, is varied; on the north the country gradually declines to the river, and on the south it is enlivened by verdant heights. From the Wenning to the source of the Hindburn and Roeburn rivulets, the country is mountainous, and strikingly contrasts with the rich and variegated valleys of the Wenning and the Lune. Three-fourths of the cultivated land are in pasture; the grain upon the arable portion consists chiefly of oats. The township of Melling is beautifully situated on the Lune, and has an area of 1035 acres: there is a small freestone-quarry. The road from Lancaster to Kirkby-Lonsdale passes through. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £7. 1. 10½., and in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £113, with a house; impropriator, Pudsey Dawson, Esq. There are 31½ acres of glebe in Melling. The church is a large ancient structure, of rather heavy proportions, consisting of a nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower; the tower is massive, and the arches in its sides are unusually large: the interior of the edifice was restored and beautified in 1760. At Arkholme, Hornby, and Wray, are separate incumbencies. A school has an endowment of £12 per annum, and several small bequests are appropriated to the poor."

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 283-287. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51142 Date accessed: 20 July 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.

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/

Church records
Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
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http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

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

Web sites
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