Croston, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

See a List of Chapelries in Croston Parish



Parish History
Croston is a village and civil parish in Lancashire, England between Chorley and Southport and is next to the River Yarrow. St. Michael's and All Angels' Church is at the centre of the village.

Croston St Michael and All Angels is an Ancient Parish in the county of Lancashire.Other places in the parish include: Ulnes Walton.

Croston began in the 7th century when St. Aidan arrived at the riverside settlements. In the absence of a church, a cross erected as a place of worship. Croston gets its name from 'cross' derived from the Irish and the Scandinavian word 'tun' which means town (cross-town). It is unique as there are no other Crostons in the UK.

Centuries ago the parish of Croston was far larger than it is today[citation needed]. It included Chorley, Much Hoole, Rufford, Bretherton, Mawdesley, Tarleton, Hesketh Bank, Bispham, Walmer Bridge and Ulnes Walton. A charter granted by Edward I in 1283 permitted an annual medieval fair and market to be held on the village green. Ancient maps also depict a castle which is believed to have been of a wooden construction because there is no evidence of a stone structure.

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.

"CROSTON (St. Michael), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the unions of Chorley and Wigan, hundred of Leyland, N. division of the county of Lancaster; containing, with the townships of Bispham, Bretherton, Mawdesley, and Ulnes-Walton, 3939 inhabitants, of whom 1456 are in the township of Croston, 6½ miles (W.) from Chorley. In the third year of King John, 1201, Nicholas Pincerna, or Butler, is recorded as rendering "an account of 100s. in the town of Croston, for three parts of the year," probably the chief rent of his possessions; and at a very early date several other considerable families held lands here, among whom were the Fittons, Heskeths, and Ashtons. In a recent year the manor became the property, in moieties, of the Traffords, and of Thomas Norris, Esq., the latter by purchase of the Hesketh moiety about 1825. Croston anciently formed one of the most extensive and valuable benefices in the county; and for many ages the limits of the parish remained unaltered; but, at various periods since, it has been divided, by authority of parliament, into six independent parishes, viz.: Croston; Hoole, separated in 1642; Chorley, and Rufford, detached in 1793; and Tarleton, and Hesketh with Becconsall, detached in 1821. The length of the parish is about eight miles, and its breadth four; the township of Croston comprises 2273 acres. The river Douglas forms the western boundary of the parish, discharging its stream into the estuary of the Ribble at Hesketh Bank, on the north; the Yarrow bounds the village of Croston on the south and southwest, and is joined by the Lostock half a mile below it. From the point of confluence of the Douglas and the Yarrow to the estuary of the Ribble, these waters are sometimes known by the name of the Asland, and are navigable, though they are not navigated. The market has fallen into disuse; but there is a cattle-fair on the Monday before Shrove-Tuesday. The living consists of a rectory and a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £31. 11. 10½.; patron, the Rev. Robert Mosley Master. The tithes have been commuted for £250; and the glebe contains 232 acres, with a glebe-house. The church stands upon the margin of the river Yarrow, and consists of a nave, aisles, chancel, and two chapels, with a strong tower, castellated, and adorned with pinnacles; the chancel, the roof of which is arched, is divided from the nave by a tall screen of ornamented oak: the font has the date 1663. This edifice was restored in 1743, at an expense of £1834, defrayed by a brief. At Bretherton and Mawdesley are separate incumbencies. The Rev. James Hiet, in 1660, built a school in the churchyard (rebuilt in 1827), and endowed it with £400; and a school of industry was established in 1802, to which Elizabeth Master in 1809 bequeathed £200."

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 733-737. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50907 Date accessed: 29 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.

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
Chorley 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
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
Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.