Bedford Leigh, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Bedford Leigh St Thomas was created as a chapelry from, and lying within the parish of Leigh St Mary's by 1841. It was replaced by the present church in 1909. The church is built of Accrington red brick with Runcorn red sandstone facings, it was designed by J. S. Crowther.

"BEDFORD, a district chapelry, in the parish and union ofLeigh, hundred of West Derby, S. division of the county of Lancaster, ½ a mile East by Southeast of Leigh. The church, dedicated to St. Thomas, was erected in 1840. There are places of worship for Wesleyans and Roman Catholics."

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

Poor Law Unions
Leigh, Lancashire Poor Law Union

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
Reference