Silverdale, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Silverdale St John was created a chapel of ease by 1679 from, and lying within the boundaries of Warton (near Lancaster), Lancashire Ancient Parish.

The Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865) regularly holidayed in Silverdale and is said to have written some of her works in Lindeth Tower in the village; the Gaskell Memorial Hall in the centre of the village is named after her. The English poet Gordon Bottomley (1874–1948) lived in Silverdale in later life.

The parish church of St John is a Grade 2* listed building, built in 1885-86. The Methodist church was also built in the 19th century. Silverdale is within the Anglican Diocese of Blackburn, the Catholic Diocese of Lancaster and the Lancaster Methodist Circuit.

"SILVERDALE, a[n ancient] chapel, in the parish of Warton, union of Lancaster, hundred of Lonsdale south of the Sands, N. division of Lancashire, 3¾ miles (N. W.) from Yealand-Conyers; containing 252 inhabitants. This chapelry, which is beautifully situated on Morecambe bay, comprises 1087 acres, of a good soil, with a limestone substratum. It commands views of the Lake mountains, of the district of Furness, of Fleetwood, and the coast towards Liverpool. There are evident indications of copper, and mines have been wrought in the immediate neighbourhood, though not with much success. Challan Hall, with 150 acres of land around it, is the property of Thomas Rodick, Esq.; and Hill House and the adjacent land belong to Thomas Inman, Esq. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Warton; net income, £80. The chapel, erected in 1679, was rebuilt in 1829, and contains 320 sittings, of which 140 are free. On the common was formerly a large rocking-stone, 37 feet in circumference and 10 feet in height; "but," observes Mr. King, "this has been thrown off its equipoise, and moves no longer."

Adapted from: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 107-110. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51278 Date accessed: 21 July 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
http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Lancaster 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.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53292 British History online