Tunstall Christ Church, Staffordshire Genealogy

England Staffordshire



Parish History
Tunstall Christ Church is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Staffordshire, created in 1837 from Wolstanton, Staffordshire Ancient Parish.

TUNSTALL, a considerable modern town, and a district parish consisting of the townships of Oldcott, Tunstall, and Ranscliff, in the parish of Wolstanton, union of Wolstanton and Burslem, N. division of the hundred of Pirehill and of the county of Stafford, 4 miles (N. by E.) from Newcastle; containing 9240 inhabitants. In the township of Tunstall, which forms the northern extremity of the parliamentary borough of Stoke, are 6978 inhabitants. This place is seated on the declivity of a considerable eminence, about one mile north-by-east of Burslem, and has risen during the present century from the rank of a small village to that of a respectable town. The population in the year 1811 was only 1677. In 1816 a market-place was set out, and a town-hall, a neat building of brick, erected in the centre; and in 1840 an act was passed establishing a market, and vesting the profits in a body corporate as trustees for the original subscribers. In 1847 an act for paving, lighting, watching, and otherwise improving the town, and for regulating the market, was also obtained: the market is held on Monday and Saturday. The manufacture of china and earthenware is extensively carried on, there being in the vicinity nearly twenty potteries; and the population is likewise employed in collieries, ironstone-mines, and brick and tile works, the last producing articles of superior hardness and quality, in great demand in Lancashire and the northern parts. Goods are forwarded by the Grand Trunk canal, which has its summit level near the west side of the town, and is conducted into Cheshire in two collateral tunnels under Harecastle Hill, within half a mile north-west of the town: these tunnels are 2880 yards in length. The township of Tunstall comprises only 795 acres, but the manor, of which Ralph Sneyd, Esq., of Keele Hall, is lord, comprehends also twelve contiguous townships, including Burslem. The church, dedicated to Christ, was erected in 1831, on a site given by Mr. Sneyd, at a cost of £4000, of which £3000 were a grant from the Parliamentary Commissioners, and £1000 were raised by subscription; it is in the early English style, with a tower and spire, and contains 1000 sittings. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of Mr. Sneyd, and incumbency of the Rev. S. Newall: a parsonagehouse has been built by subscription, aided by £400 from the late Col. Sneyd. There are places of worship for Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists (both large foundations, with school-houses attached), and Methodists of the New Connexion; also a Barker meeting-house. Excellent national schools were built in 1838.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 398-401. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51356 Date accessed: 03 April 2011.

Subsequent mission churches of Tunstall St Aidan and Tunstall St Chad were formed from the parish (see below)

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.

See Staffordshire BMD

Church records
Tunstall Christ Church was formed in 1837 from part of Wolstanton, Staffordshire

Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1832-1959 Mar 1838-1978 Bur 1832-1929 Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts Bap 1832-1868 Mar none Bur 1832-1868 Bap/Bur missing 1838, 1840-1842, 1846-1852, 1854

Tunstall St Aidan former Mission Church to Tunstall Christ Church now closed

Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1914-1965 Mar none Bur none It is advisable to search the Tunstall Christ Church baptismal register for earlier years Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts No holdings

Tunstall St Chad former Mission Church to Tunstall Christ Church now closed

Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1905-1975 Mar 1927-1976 Bur no burial ground Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts No holdings

Contributor: 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

Poor Law Unions
Wolstanton and Burslem Poor Law Union, Staffordshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire 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
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.