Tatham Fells, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Tatham Fells, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: chapelry register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Chapelry History
Tatham Fells was created a chapel of ease in 1737 from, and lying within the boundaries of Tatham Ancient Parish; and situated in Lowgill. A large part of the parish of Tatham is an upland area, known as Tatham Fells, which includes the largest settlement in Tatham, Lowgill; its highest point, at Ward's Stone; and the Great Stone of Fourstones, known locally as "The Big Stone".

Lowgill is a hamlet within the Forest of Bowland.

The Forest of Bowland is a sparsely inhabited Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with sheep farming and steep narrow unclassified roads passing between settlements and isolated farms.

The present church was built in the 1880's; the site of the altar of the previous chapelry is marked in the churchyard by a stone cross.

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.

"TATHAM-FELL, a chapelry, with Lowgill village, in Tatham parish, Lancashire; 2½ miles S by W of High Bentham r. station, and 5 ESE of Hornby. Post town, Wray, under Lancaster. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £125. Patron, the Rector of Tatham. The church was built in 1745. There is a parochial school."

rom: John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870)



A Vision of Britain through Time includes a large library of local statistics for administrative units. For the best overall sense of how the area containing Tatham Fells has changed, please see our redistricted information for the modern district of Lancaster. More detailed statistical data are available under Units and statistics, which includes both administrative units covering Tatham Fells and units named after it.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
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 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

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
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Chapelry is a church or churches built in a large ecclesiastical parish to help the members attend worship services closer to their homes.

Online Parish Records Table

Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Lancashire ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Lancashire ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
 * OnLine Parish Clerks - Lancashire - OnLine Parish Clerks project for Lancashire

Non-Conformist Churches (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions
Caton Gilbert 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