Goosnargh, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Goosnargh is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Lancashire, created in 1721 and lying within the boundaries of Kirkham Ancient Parish. Other places in the parish include: Inglewhite, Whittingham, and Newsham.

Goosnargh (pronounced /ˈɡuːznə/, Gooze-Ner) is a village and civil parish on the north side of Preston, Lancashire, England. The village lies between Broughton and Longridge, and mostly lies in the civil parish of Whittingham, although the ancient centre lies in the civil parish of Goosnargh.

Only one side of one road in Goosnargh village lies within Goosnargh parish; almost all of the village lies within adjacent Whittingham parish. This may explain why the village is sometimes referred to as “Goosnargh and Whittingham”, as if there were two villages. Some road signs on entering the village display “Goosnargh and Whittingham”.

The name, meaning "Gosan's or Gusan's hill pasture", derives from (an Old Irish personal name) and erg (Norse for "hill pasture"). The name appeared in the Domesday Book as "Gusansarghe" but by 1212 had changed to "Gosenargh", closer to today's pronunciation. However, one reference suggested "Gusansarghe" was from Norse gudhsins hörgi (related to hörgr), meaning "at the idol's (god's) temple."

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.

GOOSNARGH, a township, and an ecclesiastical parish [chapelry], in the parish of Kirkham, union of Preston, hundred of Amounderness, N. division of Lancashire, 6¾ miles north by northeast of Preston; the township containing, with Newsham hamlet. The parish, which was formed in 1846, consists of the lower end of Goosnargh, the hamlet of Newsham, and township of Whittingham and the market town of Inglewhite. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, was built during the reign of Henry VIII.

The Independents and Roman Catholics (about 1750) have chapels built here. An hospital for decayed gentry was founded, in 1735.

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/

Online Records
 Church of England 

Goosnargh chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Kirkham 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 Goosnargh and comprising the whole ancient parish of Kirkham to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the KIRKHAM ST MICHAEL PARISH page.

links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Poor Law Unions
Preston 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