Birkenhead, Cheshire Genealogy

England Cheshire Cheshire Parishes  Birkenhead

Parish History
BIRKENHEAD, a seaport town, a township, and seven chapelries, in the district of Wirrall, Cheshire. The town stands on the Mersey, opposite Liverpool, about a mile by water W of Liverpool, and 14¾ by railway NNW of Chester. The place was anciently called Bircheved, Birkete, Birket-wood, and Birkenhedde; and took its name from being engirt by forest. Birkenhead is well aligned and well built; and it had the singular advantage of being all planned before the building operations for it were well begun. Wilson, John Marius, [ http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/entry_page.jsp?text_id=866290 Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales] 1870-72, adapted 2 February 2013

Birkenhead [St Mary] was created as an ancient parish from a chapelry of the ancient parish of Bidston, Cheshire in 1738. Subsequent creation of other churches in the parish can be seen by the parish record collections of the succession of church building to serve the rapid expansion of the parish and it's industy.

Birkenhead Priory is in Priory Street, Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. It is the oldest standing building on Merseyside. The remains of the priory are a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It was founded about 1150 by Hamon de Masci, 3rd Baron of Dunham Massey for the Benedictine Order.

The Priory was visited twice by Edward I due to its strategic importance being close to the borders of Wales, and also the Irish Sea.

In 1318 the monks from Birkenhead Priory were granted ferry rights by Edward II. This allowed them to build a house in what is now Water Street to store their corn. The house was also used by travellers for shelter if the weather was too bad for the ferry to cross the River Mersey.

The Priory's chapter house is consecrated as an Anglican church, and is still used for services. There is a chapel dedicated to the training ship HMS Conway. There is also a museum detailing the history of the site. The chapter house is a listed building and contains items of Norman architecture. In 2005 the chapter house was restored.

St Mary's Tower was originally part of Birkenhead's first parish church, opened in 1821 in the grounds of the priory. It is a Grade II listed building.

Redevelopment of the area from 1925 resulted in a large amount of residential housing within the parish being cleared to make way for the construction of the first Mersey Tunnel. An expansion of the Number 5 dry dock at the adjacent Cammell Laird shipyard in the 1960s resulted in the church losing a significant portion of its graveyard. Subsequent redevelopment of the approach roads to the Mersey Tunnel effectively cut off the church from most of what remained of its parish, further dwindling the congregation. St. Mary's Church closed in 1974 and was partly demolished a year later, for reasons of safety. Only the former church tower and parts of the outer walls were retained in site. The tower has since been refurbished and is dedicated to those who died on HMS Thetis.

The churchyard contains the burial vault of the Laird family, which includes John Laird (1805–74), Birkenhead's first Member of Parliament and co-founder of the adjacent Cammell Laird shipbuilding company.

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.

Registration Districts

 *  Wirral (1837–61)
 * Birkenhead (1861–1998)
 * Wirral (post 1998)

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Church Records
Birkenhead parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials have been indexed by the following groups:

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

Bishop's Transcripts are online in Family Search Historical Records (formerly Record Search)

St. Oswald Bidston. The ancient parish church for Birkenhead. Birkenhead St Mary

Birkenhead Holy Trinity

Birkenhead St Anne

Birkenhead St James


 * Birkenhead, St. John the Evangelist (C of E), Grange Road. A separate parish from 1859; closed in 1971. Registers of Baptisms 1859–1971 and Marriages 1859–1968 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead, St. Paul (C of E), Argyle Street. Built in 1864 as a chapel to St John, becoming a separate parish in 1922; closed in 1948. Registers of Baptisms 1863–1948 and Marriages 1864–1948 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead, St. Peter (C of E), Cathcart Street. Built in 1867 as a chapel to Holy Trinity, becoming a parish church the following year. Registers of Baptisms 1867–1991 and Marriages 1868–1991 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Claughton, Christ Church (C of E). Serving part of Birkenhead from 1876.


 * Birkenhead All Saints


 * Birkenhead, St. Matthew (C of E), Park Road East. Built in 1882 in Claughton Road as a chapel to Holy Trinity; rebuilt in 1889 on Park Road East, becoming a separate parish in 1914; closed in 1970. Registers of Baptisms 1889–1969 and Marriages 1914–1969 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead, St. Bede (C of E), Built in 1888 in Park Road West as a chapel to Claughton, Christ Church, becoming a chapel to Birkenhead All Saints in 1911. Closed in 1941 after air-raid damage, and replaced by a new building in Upton Road in 1960 which has been attached to St James since the closure of All Saints in 1971. Registers of Baptisms 1888–1907 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead, St. Mark (C of E), Devonshire Road. Built in 1891 as a chapel to St John, becoming a separate parish in 1922; closed in 1991. Registers of Baptisms 1894–1991 and Marriages 1895–1990 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead Priory, Christ the King (C of E). Church Street. Opened in 1974 to replace St. Mary's as the parish church. Registers of Baptisms and Marriages are still at the church (no burials here).


 * Birkenhead St Winifred's

Non-Conformist Churches

 * Birkenhead, St. Werburgh (Roman Catholic), Grange Road. Founded 1834.
 * Birkenhead, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and St. Edward the Confessor (Roman Catholic), Cavendish Street. Founded 1854.
 * Birkenhead, St. Laurence (Roman Catholic), Beckwith Street. Founded 1864.
 * Birkenhead, St. Joseph (Roman Catholic), North Road. Founded 1900.
 * Birkenhead, Holy Cross (Roman Catholic), Hoylake Road. Founded 1928.
 * Birkenhead, Baptist Union Chapel. Built in 1839 in Hamilton Terrace, rebuilt in 1852 in Price Street, rebuilt in 1889.
 * Birkenhead, Baptist Union Chapel, Grange Road. Built in 1858.
 * Birkenhead, Baptist Union Chapel, Laird Street. Founded 1902.
 * Birkenhead, Baptist Union Chapel, Alvanley Place.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist (Brunswick) Chapel, Price Street. Built in 1830, closed in 1960. Registers of baptisms 1839–1958 and marriages 1867–1954 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist Chapel (Primitive), Grange Road. Founded 1855, Built in 1870, closed in 1958. Registers of baptisms 1886–1958 and marriages 1916–58 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist (Palm Grove) Chapel (Wesleyan), Talbot Lane/Lorne Road. Founded 1858, Built in 1871, closed in 1978. Registers of baptisms 1858–87 and marriages 1875–1977 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist Chapel (Free), Claughton Road. Founded 1864, Built in 1881, closed in 1938. Registers of baptisms 1864–1938 and marriages 1927–38 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan), Laird Street. Built in 1864, destroyed by bombing in 1941. Registers of baptisms 1874–1941 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan), Grange Road. Built in 1872.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan), Hind Street. Built in 1873 (replacing a building in Blackpool Street), closed in 1966. Registers of baptisms 1873–1965 and marriages 1965–66 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan), Lowe Street. Built in 1878, closed in 1958. Registers of baptisms 1879–1957 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist Chapel (Primitive), Beckwith Street.
 * Birkenhead, Methodist (Mount Tabor) Chapel (Primitive), Holt Road. Built in 1879, closed in 1966. Registers of baptisms 1895–1945 and marriages 1916–64 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Birkenhead, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Conway Street. Built in 1840.
 * Birkenhead, Presbyterian Church (Welsh), Parkfield. Founded 1837.
 * Birkenhead, Presbyterian Church, Regent Place. Built in 1848, closed in 1976.
 * Birkenhead, Presbyterian (Hamilton Memorial) Church, Upton Road. Founded 1868, Built in 1922.
 * Birkenhead, Presbyterian Church (Welsh), Laird Street. Founded 1905.
 * Birkenhead, Presbyterian Church (Welsh), Woodchurch Road. Founded 1906.
 * Birkenhead, Unitarian Chapel, Clive Road. Founded 1851 in Charing Cross, moved to Bessborough Road in 1903. The present building was opened in 1959. Registers of baptisms 1888–1921 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Birkenhead, United Reformed Church (Indpendent/Congregational). Built in 1856 in Oxton Road, rebuilt in 1923 in Balls Road.
 * Birkenhead, Welsh Independent Church, Clifton Road. Built in 1844, rebuilt in 1881. Registers 1842–1854 are in the National Library of Wales.
 * Birkenhead, Welsh Independent Church, Vittoria Street. Founded 1886.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Cheshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Poor Law Unions

 * Wirral Poor Law Union, Cheshire (1836–61)
 * Birkenhead Poor Law Union, Cheshire (1861–1930).

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