Whalley, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

For a list of all the churches in Whalley Parish, see "A Comprehensive List of Whalley Chapelries".



'''Part of this parish is in Yorkshire. See also Whalley, Yorkshire.'''

Parish History
Whalley St Mary is an Ancient Parish, mostly in the county of Lancashire and partly in Yorkshire.

Other places in the parish include: Wheatley Booth, Twiston, Wheatley Carr Booth, Wheatley Lane, Wiswell, Wolfendenen-in-Newchurch, Worston, Wycoller, Barley, Barley with Wheatley Booth, Blacko, Booth Rough-lee, Booth Laund Old, Bowland, Bowland Forest Low, Coldcoats, Constable, Crawshaw Booth, Dunnockshaw, Dunnockshaw Close, Elfenden, Entwistle, Foulridge, Gambleside, Great Mearley, Hapton, Henthorn, Higham with West Close Booth, Higher Booths, Laund Booth, Little Bowland and Leagram, Little Mearley, Little Mitton, Henthorn and Coldcoats, Love Clough, Lower Booths, Mearley, Monkride and Barnside, Monkroyd and Barnside, Oakenheadwood, Old Accrington, Oswaldtwistle, Read, Standen and Standen Hey, Tunstead, and Wheatley Carr.

The chapelries of the Ancient parish are scattered; see England Jurisdictions 1851

The parish church of St Mary and All Saints dates to 628 in the period when St. Paulinus was said to have preached at Whalley. The church has a large number of notable misericords - eighteen 15th century and four Victorian, the former known to have originated at Whalley Abbey. The church-yard has three Anglo-Scandinavian crosses.

Here is an 1848 historical perspective on Whalley Parish by the topographer, Samuel A. Lewis:

"WHALLEY St Mary, a parish, chiefly in the Higher and Lower divisions of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire, but extends partly into the wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewcross, West Riding of Yorkshire, 4 miles south by west from Clitheroe (Yorks). In 1848, the breadth of the parish, from the northern boundary of the parliamentary borough of Clitheroe to the southern boundary of the hundred in the Forest of Rossendale, within its limits, is fifteen miles 3 and its length, from the western boundary in the township of Oswaldtwistle to the eastern boundary, where the counties of Lancaster and York are separated by the division line at Wolfstones in Trawden Forest, is eighteen miles. The Yorkshire portion consists of the township of Low Bowland-Forest, and is three miles in length from north to south, and in breadth from west to east two and a half miles. The parish comprises the parliamentary borough of Clitheroe, which includes the townships of Chatburn, Downham, Mearley, Little Mitton, Pendleton, Twiston, Whalley, Wiswell, and Worston; the parochial chapelry of Altham, including Clayton-le-Moors, and New and Old Accrington; the parochial chapelry of Burnley, which includes the market-town of Burnley, and the townships of Briercliffe cum Extwistle, Cliviger, Habergham-Eaves, Ightenhill-Park, New Laund Booth with Filley-Close and Reedley-Hallows, and Worsthorn with Hurstwood, the parochial chapelry of Church, including Huncoat, Oswaldtwistle, and Yate cum Pickup-Bank, the parochial chapelry of Colne, including the market town of Colne, and the townships of Barrowfield, Foulridge, Great and Little Marsden, and Trawden; the parochial chapelry of Haslingden, including Henheads, and Higher and Lower Booth, the parochial chapelry of Newchurch-in-Pendle-Forest, including Barley-cum-Wheatley, Goldshaw-Booth, Old Laund Booth, Rough-Lee Booth, and Wheatley-Carr, the parochial chapelry of New-church-in-Rossendale-Forest, including part of the consolidated chapelry of Bacup, and the hamlets of Deadwin-CIough and Wolfenden; and the parochial chapelry of Padiham, which includes the townships of Dunnockshaw, Hapton, Higham Booth with Hey-Houses, Read, and Simonstone. In the parish is also the township of Little Bowland with Leagram, separated by the Hodder from Yorkshire, to which county part of it was anciently considered to belong.

There are nearly 40 churches and chapels in different parts of the parish, erected by private individuals, by subscription, and various grants from Royal Bounty and Her Majesty's Commissioners.

The dissenters' places of worship are also numerous.

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

Online Records
Whalley St Mary and All Saints parish registers and those registers of all of its smaller chapelries lying within its boundaries have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

Original Records
The Lancashire Record Office at Bow Lane, Preston PR2 1RE, holds the original parish registers in its vast collections. Contact their website for contact information.

The Family History Library has microfilmed the parish registers and Bishop's transcripts of Whalley parish for the years 1538-1900. These films are available for ordering/circulating and researching at any one of its satellite FamilySearch Centers worldwide.

Poor Law Unions
Clitheroe 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