Langho, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
BILLINGTON-LANGHO, a township and district chapelry, in the parish, union, and Lower division of the hundred, of Blackburn, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 5½ miles (N. N. E.) from Blackburn; containing 988 inhabitants. In the reign of Stephen the manor was held by a family of the same name. A moiety of it was subsequently possessed by the abbey of Whalley, the other moiety being held by the Hodlestons; and in the reign of Philip and Mary, Sir Thomas Holcroft, the great dealer in abbey lands, died seised of the manor, which afterwards became the property of the Ashtons. Langho is supposed to have been the scene of a battle that occurred between Wada, a Saxon duke, one of the murderers of Ethelred, and Ardulph, King of Northumbria, in the year 798, when the former was defeated, and his army put to flight. The chapelry is bounded on the north and east by the river Calder, and in other parts by the Ribble; and comprises about 1800 acres. The surface is hilly, and the scenery very interesting: the soil is cold and wet, and in some places are pits of marl, sunk to a great depth; also quarries of stone, principally used in draining. The inhabitants are partly employed in hand-loom weaving. The Blackburn and Clitheroe railway passes through. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Blackburn; net income, £120. The chapel is seated in the hamlet of Langho, and is called Langho chapel; it is an ancient structure: in the south wall of the chancel is a piscina of elegant design; and inserted in the east wall is a font of a single stone, beautifully enriched with tracery. There is a Roman Catholic chapel. An asylum for insane patients was for some time conducted by the late Dr. Chew, and is now conducted by Dr. Hindle with every attention to the comfort and benefit of the inmates. A school for the instruction of the poor is supported by an endowment, and two schoolrooms have been built.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 241-244. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50799 Date accessed: 01 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.

Church records
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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.

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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
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Web sites
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