Bedford Leigh, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Bedford Leigh St Thomas was created as a chapelry from, and lying within the parish of Leigh St Mary's by 1841. It was replaced by the present church in 1909. The church is built of Accrington red brick with Runcorn red sandstone facings, it was designed by J. S. Crowther.

"BEDFORD, a district chapelry, in the parish and union ofLeigh, hundred of West Derby, S. division of the county of Lancaster, ½ a mile East by Southeast of Leigh. The church, dedicated to St. Thomas, was erected in 1840. There are places of worship for Wesleyans and Roman Catholics."

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
Bedford chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Leigh 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 Bedford and comprising the whole ancient parish of Leigh to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the LEIGH PARISH page.

Poor Law Unions
Leigh, Lancashire Poor Law Union

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