Walton le Dale, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Walton le Dale St Leonard was a chapel of ease from ancient times, created by 1609 from and lying within the boundaries of Blackburn St Mary, Lancashire Ancient Parish. Other places in the parish include: Higher Walton and Cuerdale.

The Romans built a working fort at the junction of the River Darwen and River Ribble at Walton-le-Dale. This fort was named Belisama.

The church of St Leonard, situated on an eminence to the east of the town, was originally erected in the 11th century. The earliest portions of the present building are the Perpendicular chancel and tower, the nave having been rebuilt in 1798, while the transepts were erected in 1816.

There are a number of interesting old brasses and monuments.

Cotton-spinning is carried on, and there are market gardens in the vicinity. Roman remains have been found here, and there was perhaps a roadside post on the site.

The manor of Walton was granted by Henry de Lacy c.1130 to Robert Banastre. It afterwards passed by marriage as the Manor of Walton le Dale to the Langtons and later to the Hoghtons of Hoghton who held the manor as mesne lord.

The Lord of the Manor in 1601 was Robert Pilkington of Rivington who also held the Manor of Rivington. On the death of Robert Pilkington the manor was held of an overlord, Thomas Langton Knt. The manor of Walton le Dale is mentioned in the Inquisition Post Mortem of Robert Pilkington 12 March 1610 as passing to Richard Hutton, Thomas Tydesley and Katherine Pilkngton who were seized of the reversion of the manor by Roberts will on his death in 1605.

Walton was the principal scene of the Battle of Preston, fought on 17 August 1648 between Cromwell and the Duke of Hamilton.

In 1701 the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Derwentwater and other Jacobites incorporated the town by the style of the mayor and corporation of the ancient borough of Walton.

In 1715, during the second Battle of Preston, the bridge over the River Ribble was successfully defended against the Jacobites by Parson Wood and his parishioners of Chowbent.

Close to Walton-le-Dale on the River Ribble in 1840 at Cuerdale workmen found the Cuerdale Hoard, the largest Viking treasure discovered in Western Europe.

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.

WALTON-LE-DALE, a township and chapelry, in the parish, and Lower division of the hundred, of Blackburn, union of Preston, N. division of Lancashire, 2 miles southeast of Preston. The eminence on which the chapel is built. The chapel, dedicated to St. Leonard" and was built by the year 1609.

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 

Walton le Dale chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Blackburn 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 Walton le Dale and comprising the whole ancient parish of Blackburn to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the BLACKBURN ST MARY PARISH page.

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