Northfield, Worcestershire Genealogy

Guide to Northfield, Worcestershire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
NORTHFIELD (St. Lawrence), a parish, in the union of King's-Norton, Upper division of the hundred of Halfshire, E. division of Worcestershire, 6 miles (S. W. by S.) from Birmingham. There are two places of worship for Wesleyans. Bartley Green and Woodgate are parishes of Northfield. Northfield is not a town, it is a subburb of Birmingham, England, United Kingdom. Halesowen is another parishof Northfield.

Additional information:

Gazetteer / Directory Entries NORTHFIELD, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of HALFSHIRE, county of WORCESTER, 6 miles (S. W. by S.) from Birmingham, containing 1567 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, with the curacy of Cofton-Hacket, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester, rated in the king's books at £14. 15. 24.1 and in the patronage of the Rev. John Thomas Fenwick. The church, dedicated to St. Lawrence, is partly in the early English, and partly in the decorated, style, with a Norman door. The small river Rea, also the Birmingham and Worcester, and the Netherton canals, run through the parish, in which there are quarries of freestone. Here are some remains of Weoley castle, formerly belonging to the Jervoise family. A charity school is supported with the income arising from a bequest of £150 by William Worth, and another of £100, in 1779, by the Rev. Mr. Soley. [Lewis 1831]

NORTHFIELD is a parish, in the Western division of the county of Worcester, hundred of Upper Halfshire, King's Norton union, Birmingham county court district, diocese and archdeaconry of Worcester, and rural deanery of Droitwich, 6 miles south - west- by-south from Birmingham, and 2 west from King's Norton station. ' The small river Rea, and the Birmingham and Bristol Railway, and the Birmingham and Worcester and the Netherton Canals run through the parish, in which are quarries of freestone. The church of St. Michael is partly in the Early English and partly in the Decorated style, and has nave, aisle and chancel, w square embattled tower containing 6 bells, with a Norman door: there are eight stained glass windows; one was erected in 1838 by the widow and daughters of the late John Johnstone, M.D., who died in 1836 and seven of these within the last twenty years : subjects, St. Michael and All Angels, The Ascension, the Resurrection, Christ Turning the Water into Wine, The Raising of Lazarus The Transfiguration: the subject of the east window in the aisle is the Epiphany; it was erected to the memory of the late Major General Sir William Clarke, Bart. The register dates from the year 1560. The living is a rectory. including Cofton Hackett, rated in parish register at £1,170 per annum, with residence, in the gift of the Fenwick family and held by the Rev. Henry Clarke, M.A., of Trinity College, Dublin. There is a Chapel of ease at Bartley Green, likewise named St. Michael’s. A charity school is supported with the income from the bequest of £433 6s. 8d. by the late Mr. Lloyd, and another of £100, in 1770. by the Rev. Mr. Soley. The Primitive Methodists have a Chapel at Woodgate. Most of the people are employed in nail making. The principal landowners are Rev. F. J. Clarke, Mr. M. Grove, Miss Ryland, Mr. A. S. Evans, Mr. H. Atkins, Mr. W. Greenway, and Mr. W. H. Dawes. The soil is loam ; subsoil, clay and sand. The chief crops are wheat, oats, and barley. The parish is, for local purposes, divided into the Yields of Selly, with 452 inhabitants, 2 miles north-east, Hay, 563 Shendley, 569 and Bartley, 617. The population in 1861 was 3,130, and the area is 5,880 acres.

Information from the Brimingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry

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
Northfield parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the The Hive (where the Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service is located).

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Worcestershire 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