Shaw Holy Trinity, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
CROMPTON [or Shaw Holy Trinity], a township with a district chapel of ease, in the borough, parochial chapelry, and union of Oldham, in the parish of Prestwich St Mary, Lancashire, hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 3 miles north by east of Oldham containing the villages of Shaw, High Compton, and Cowlishaw. Shaw, which lies on the east side of the village of Crompton, has a parochial chapel built at least by the year 1704. The former edifice was of great antiquity, and was twice enlarged and re-edified during the last century; the present structure was built in the latter part of it. In 1845 a separate district chapel was formed, called East Crompton; and a church, dedicated to St. James, was built in 1847. Shaw and Crompton has three Church of England ecclesiastic parishes: Shaw, St Mary, High Crompton,Lancashire, and East Crompton, Lancashire. Here are various places of worship for dissenters.

The township of Crompton was originally within the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham in the Diocese of Lichfield, until 1541, when, owing to the English Reformation, this diocese was divided and Crompton became part of the Diocese of Chester. This in turn was divided in 1847, when the present Diocese of Manchester was created.

The exact date of the establishment of a place of worship in Crompton is uncertain. Although Shaw Chapel is certain to have been in existence since the early 16th century, it has been put that "Shaw Chapel is even more ancient than Oldham Old Church", as evidenced by the ancient toponymy of the area. Shaw Chapel was anciently known as St Patrick's Chapel-on-the-Moor, and during the reign of James I of England, "it was situate in the midst of the common called Shaw Moor, not a single habitation being near it". It is thought to have been constructed following an increase in wealth produced by the localisation of the woollen trade during a very bleak period, although, in 1552 it was noted that it had no endowment, and its ornaments were in poor condition. It was rebuilt in 1739 and enlarged in 1798, and rebuilt again in 1870. It is now known as the Church of Holy Trinity.

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 Records
 Church of England 

Shaw chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Prestwich to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Shaw and comprising the whole ancient parish of Prestwich to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the PRESTWICH PARISH page.

Parish registers for Shaw, 1704-1837 Shaw is a chapelry in the parish of Prestwich.

Bishop's transcripts for Shaw, 1752-1854 Microreproduction of original manuscripts housed at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Holy Trinity Church is in the Chapelry of Shaw, township of Crompton, and parish of Prestwich. It was originally in the parish of Oldham. Lancashire Record Office: DRM/2/250a-252

Poor Law Unions
Oldham Poor Law Union

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
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53008 British History online Crompton