Barrowford, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Barrowford St Thomas was an Ecclesiastical Parish in the Whalley deanery of the Diocese of Manchester county of Lancashire, created in 1845 from Whalley, Lancashire Ancient Parish. The ruins of the 1845 church are still visible with it's graveyard. The Church was destroyed by fire in 1964



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.

The modern church of St Thomas Wheatley Lane Road replaced the older church.

BARROWFORD, a township, in the parochial chapelry of Colne, parish of Whalley, union of Burnley, Higher division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 2½ miles (W.) from Colne; containing 2630 inhabitants. This place in the reign of Henry VII. constituted two vaccaries, called Over and Nether Barrowford. It is a large township at the junction of several streams flowing into the Colne water; and comprises 1342 acres. The spinning and manufacture of cotton prevail extensively. Carr Hall was the property of Richard Towneley in 1760, and afterwards of Col. Clayton; Park Hill was long the seat of the Banisters. A district church has been erected, dedicated to St. Thomas; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of Hulme's Trustees, and the incumbent has a net income of £150. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 158-161. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50781 Date accessed: 25 June 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.

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
Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Burnley 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

Web sites
Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.