Aldingham, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

See a List of Chapelries in Aldingham Parish.



Parish History
Aldingham St Cuthbert is an Ancient Parish in the county of Lancashire. Part of the Diocese of Chester until 1847 when it passed to the Diocese of Carlisle as part of the Furness deanery. Other places in the parish include: Gleaston, Birkrig Common, and Leece.

At the centre of the present village, now on the shores of the Bay, is St Cuthbert's Church. An inscription in Durham Cathedral gives the names of several places in the area, including Aldingham, where the body of Saint Cuthbert rested when the Saxons were fleeing from the Danes. It is known that during his life, Cuthbert held lands around Cartmel, on the neighbouring peninsula across the Leven Estuary, although it is not known if those possessions extended this far west.

The building dates from the mid 12th century, with extensions being made to the chancel in the 13th century, the addition of the tower in 1350 and extensive restoration taking place in the 19th century and again in 1932. In the eastern wall of the chancel is a hole about 5 inches (130 mm) by 3 inches (76 mm) that goes right through the wall: it is believed this would once have been a place for local lepers to view the church services without having to enter the building.

"ALDINGHAM (St. Cuthbert), a parish, in the union of Ulverston, hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 5¾ miles (S.) from Ulverston; containing 907 inhabitants. Immediately after the Conquest, Aldingham was granted to Michael Flandrensis or le Fleming, sometimes called de Furness, who is supposed to have accompanied William I. to England. The parish is situated on the western shore of Morecambe bay, which has encroached so much upon the lands that the church, said to have been formerly in the centre of the parish, is now within the reach of a high tide. The soil is a friable loam and marl, constantly melting down; and the sea threatens greater ravages: the present area is about 7500 acres, whereof two-thirds are arable. The population is principally engaged in the cultivation of the land, and several neat farm-houses have recently been erected by the Earl of Burlington. Limestone is quarried, and there are numerous limekilns. The Tarn beck flows from Urswick beck, southward, to Gleaston, in the parish, where it receives the name of the Gleaston beck; it falls into the bay near the small hamlet of Roosebeck. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £39. 19. 2., and in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £1093. The church is supposed to have been founded by Michael le Fleming: the present edifice is a low, long, and narrow structure, with whitened walls, and chipstones of red stone; the tower, supported by buttresses and surmounted by pinnacles, is strong and bulky. The churchyard is protected from the sea by an artificial rampart of stone, which appears to be of some antiquity. In the village of Gleaston are the mouldering ruins of a castle which, according to tradition, was built by the lords of Aldingham immediately after the sea had swept away the lower part of the parish; the date is uncertain. The ruins consist of two towers, nearly perfect, on the west side, and there are traces of towers on the east; the interior is now a browsy pasture, of uneven surface, covered in many places with masses of fallen stone. From a promontory on the coast, which was once surrounded by a moat, and is supposed to have been an exploratory station during the incursions of the Picts and Scots, is an extensive prospect over the counties of Westmorland and York."

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 31-34. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50749 Date accessed: 25 June 2010.

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.

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Church records
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

Census records
http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Ulverston 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

Web sites
Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.

http://www.explorelowfurness.co.uk/stcuthbert.htm For detailed history of the church

http://www.carlislediocese.org.uk/churches/deaneries/furness/7030.html Diocese of Carlisle website