Morecambe Holy Trinity, Lancashire Genealogy

Return to the Lancashire Parishes page.

History
Poulton Holy Trinity was created a chapel of ease in 1745 from Lancaster St Mary, Lancashire Ancient Parish.

Other places in the parish include: Bare, Torrisholme, and Poulton Barre and Torrisholme.

Poulton and Poulton le Sands are synonymous with what developed as Morecambe.

The original church was built as a chapel of ease of St Mary's, Lancaster in 1745 on land bequeathed for the purpose in the will of Francis Bowes, the village blacksmith, who died in 1742. It was rebuilt in 1840–41 to a design by the Lancaster architect Edmund Sharpe. The church cost £1288 (£90,000 as of 2010)[1] to build, and Queen Victoria made a personal contribution to this. A south aisle was added in 1866; and Austin and Paley, (successors of Sharpe), designed the chancel which was added in 1897. A Lady Chapel was created in the southeast of the church in 1966. In 1995 the church was re-ordered to celebrate 250 years since the foundation of the church.

Other later churches in Morecambe within the Diocese of Blackburn include:

Morecambe St Barnabas, Lancashire, Bare, St Christopher,Lancashire, Church of the Ascension, Torrisholme, Lancashire,Morecambe St Martin of Tours,Lancashire

Here is an 1870 historical view of Poulton-le-Sands chapelry by John M. Wilson:

"POULTON-LE-SANDS, a sea-port village, a town-ship, and a chapelry, in Lancaster parish, Lancashire. The village is conjoint with Morecambe village; stands on a bight of Morecambe bay, at the terminus of a railway from Lancaster, 3¼ miles W N W of Lancaster; is a sub-port to Lancaster, and a sea-bathing place; shares in the facilities of Morecambe post-office and railway station; and has, conjointly with that village, gas-works, water-works, two good hotels, many excellent lodging-houses, good sea-bathing appliances, a fine promenade, and a four-gun battery. The township contains also the villages of Bare and Torrisholme. Acres, 1,641. Real property, £7,951. Pop. in 1851, 1,301; in 1861, 2,236. Houses, 433. The chapelry is nearly conterminate with the township, and was constituted in 1860. Pop. in 1861, 2,228. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £180.* Patron, the Vicar of Lancaster. The church is a neat building, with a tower. There are an Independent chapel, with a good spire; a Wesleyan chapel, erected in 1855; a Primitive Methodist chapel; and an endowed school, with £31 a year."

John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870)

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 Free BMD. 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
Caton Gilbert Union,Lancashire

Lancaster Poor Law Union,Lancashire from 1869

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.

http://www.mpc.care4free.net/History/history.htm Parish website history and images of the church

http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-391815-parish-church-of-the-holy-trinity-moreca British listed buildings