West Allen, Northumberland Genealogy

Guide to West Allen, Northumberland ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
ALLENDALE, (also known as West Allen) a market-town and parish, in the union of Hexham, S. division of Tindale ward and of Northumberland, 7 miles (S.) from Haydon-Bridge, 9¾ miles (S. W. by W.) from Hexham. Within the parish also are four chapels. Allendale Parish includes Allendale, St. Peter's, the chapel at Nine-Banks, the chapel at the Carr Shield, or West Allen High chapel, built in 1822 and that of Allenheads. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends and Wesleyans.

Additional information:

West Allen is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Northumberland, created in 1826 from chapelry in Allendale Ecclesiastical Parish and includes: High West Allen and Low West Allen.

Allen High West alias for Carrshield. The ancient parish of Allendale, Northumberland originally served the village of Carrshields.

In 1764 a chapel to Allendale church was built at Ninebanks. Three years later in 1767 the chapelry was created a parish. Carr Shields formed part of this new parish. In 1822 a chapelry of Ninebanks was built at Carr Shields for the use of the leadmining families that populated the area. Mrs. Diana Beaumont, the lady of the manor, provided the funding for the building.

When the new chapel was opened in 1822 the existing chapel building was converted into a schoolhouse. In November 1877 a Board School was established in the village. This school closed in July 1968 with only five pupils.

There is a strong history of religious non-conformity in the Allendale valley. There were no Methodist chapels at Carr Shields but there were several in West Allen township. There were Wesleyan Chapels at Limestone Brea (built in 1824); Hesleywell (built in 1827); High House (built in 1829); Shield Ridge (built in 1854) and Mohope (built in 1858). There were also Primitive Methodist chapels at Corryhill (built 1844) and Whitley Shield (built 1857). Allen Low West alias for Ninebanks Refer to Ninebanks parish.

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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
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Northumberland ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Northumberland ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Poor Law Unions
Hexham Poor Law Union, Northumberland

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Northumberland 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
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Websites
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